Wednesday, May 27, 2020

Amazon writes the news

The third filter in Chomsky and Herman's Propaganda Model of the Media is the idea that the media relies on a limited range of sources. In most cases, the sources in question are the very subjects that we would hope the media would do independent reporting on such as the government and large corporations. The outcome of this practice is that these sources then get to shape how they are covered in the media and can control the narrative around themselves.

One major way that these companies do this is by delivering content directly to TV stations with the expectation that the TV station will use the provided video and script to create a segment for their program. A perfect example of this is described in a recent article on The Verge about Amazon using this practice.  

The article includes a screenshot of the script Amazon sent out:

Image

As well as a video of 11 different news stations reading from that script:


Together, these demonstrate that this practice, described and criticized by Chomsky and Herman, is alive and well in the age of COVID-19.

h/t to the AV Club

Tuesday, May 19, 2020

What's wrong with this picture

In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Georgia Department of Public Health released the following chart:



They key thing to note are the dates along the bottom.

h/t to Tom Sullivan at Digby's Hullabaloo