Media | Praxis

Clinton PAC: Fox News Anchor Has Conflict of Interest as Presidential Debate Moderator

Media Matters founder David Brock is demanding that the Commission on Presidential Debates remove Fox News anchor Chris Wallace as moderator of the final presidential debate in October. Brock, a staunch ally of Hillary Clinton who also founded pro-Clinton Super PACs Correct the Record and American Bridge 21st Century, argues that Wallace has a conflict of interest because of his relationship to former Fox News CEO Roger Ailes. Former Fox News Chairman and CEO Roger Ailes is reportedly informally advising Donald Trump and helping him…

The Inside Story of Arianna Huffington’s Departure from HuffPo

In 2005, Arianna Huffington launched the Huffington Post. As it became a huge success, Huffington, who had little experience in technology or journalism, saw her own brand grow in tandem. But life on the Internet can be cruel. And in a few short years, the site was experiencing a Digital Age version of a midlife crisis. It was reaching 26 million unique visitors per month, an astonishing number, but in the Internet business, sites either grow or shrink. And to grow, the Huffington Post needed more…

Dictionary Authors Want to Fleech You Into Saving Obscure Slang Words

As a writer, one of the best things about the English language is its speakers love of borrowing words from other languages. If English speakers don’t have a word for something, we’re happy to borrow some one else’s. Perhaps a more unique characteristic of English is the enormous number of unofficial slang words spoken throughout the vast areas in which English is a native language. Many of these words — such as Appalachia’s whistle pig for groundhog — are basically unknown to English speakers outside of particular…

Roger Ailes Was Undone by the Women He Disregarded

It took 15 days to end the mighty 20-year reign of Roger Ailes at Fox News, one of the most storied runs in media and political history. Ailes built not just a conservative cable news channel but something like a fourth branch of government; a propaganda arm for the GOP; an organization that determined Republican presidential candidates, sold wars, and decided the issues of the day for 2 million viewers. That the place turned out to be rife with grotesque abuses of power has left…

Emails Show Newsmax Publisher Getting State Department Help After Big Clinton Foundation Donation

Newly released emails show that a Clinton Foundation adviser asked one of Hillary Clinton’s top State Department aides to provide “‘air’ support” for a Clinton Foundation donor who sought to set up a meeting with the U.S. ambassador to Panama to help with a legal dispute. Emails released on Thursday by Judicial Watch show that Clinton Foundation adviser Doug Band forwarded an email to Hillary Clinton deputy chief of staff Huma Abedin from Christopher Ruddy, the CEO of Newsmax, a conservative online publication. Despite his ideological bent,…

Roger Ailes Had Fox News Employees Compile 400-page Dossier on Journalist

Two full years before New York magazine reporter Gabriel Sherman published a book about Roger Ailes, a book-length memo about him made the rounds inside Fox News. It has all the markings of “opposition research” about a political enemy — which is precisely how Ailes viewed Sherman. The memo, obtained by CNNMoney from two anonymous sources, is a stunning display of Ailes’ campaign-like strategies. It includes, among other things, property records, voter registration information, and a note that the researchers could find no criminal record…

How Fox News Harms Conservatives

It’s hard to overstate the power of Fox News for those seeking a career in the conservative movement. I’ve seen the most accomplished of lawyers suddenly become “somebody” only after they regularly appear on Fox. I’ve seen young activists leave senators or representatives languishing alone in rooms as they flood over to Fox personalities, seeking selfies. Fox has become the prime gatekeeper of conservative fame, the source of conservative book deals, and the ticket into the true pantheon of conservative influence. It’s killing the conservative…

2016 Exposed the Rot Inside Conservative Media

In the 1990s, the conservative press was not very hostile to politicians on the right. In its formative era, the conservative-media movement mostly played friendly with Republicans. It instead spent its energy zeroing in on President Bill Clinton. Perhaps the peak came with the Monica Lewinsky scandal, during which the conservative media relentlessly hammered the president. For the most part, Republicans and the conservative media existed symbiotically. Republicans used their newfound apparatus as a vehicle to drive home their message to supporters. Simultaneously, the conservative…

The New York Times Discovers Media Bias, Elsewhere

The New York Times considered it news the other day that Sean Hannity gives advice to Donald Trump, whom he has publicly and repeatedly endorsed. The tut-tutting tone of the piece, coming from a newspaper as baldly biased as the Times, is comic. […] It is a newspaper of, by, and for liberals, yet the author of the column, Jim Rutenberg, acts like he is speaking from Olympian heights of neutrality. He writes: “Mr. Hannity told me his support for Mr. Trump makes him ‘more…

Google to Penalize Websites Using Popovers

Starting next year, Google could begin sending less traffic to mobile websites if they make use of interstitials—the pop-ups that can take up users’ screens, often with advertising. The change is a blow for some online publishers and website operators who rely on interstitials to generate advertising revenue as users enter their websites via Google searches. In a post published Tuesday on the Google Webmasters blog, Google product manager Doantam Phan wrote, “Pages that show intrusive interstitials provide a poorer experience to users than other…

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