A BIG LOSS FOR BIG TECH: Tech Providers’ Arbitration Clauses Don’t Block Lawsuit Over Government-Inspired Censorship. “Defendants [who are involved with the Stanford Internet Observatory and other similar organizations] are alleged to have worked closely and/or collaborated with state and federal government officials to urge, pressure, and coerce social media platforms to monitor and censor disfavored speakers and content.”
Archive for 2023
November 17, 2023
LOL, HE SHOULD HAVE BEEN GONE LONG AGO: Anheuser-Busch’s chief US marketing officer steps down as sales continue to plunge in the wake of Dylan Mulvaney and Bud Light fiasco: World’s biggest brewer reports 13.5% slump in revenue in the third quarter.
Contempt for your customers is a bad look.
EVERYTHING IS GOING SWIMMINGLY: Deaths from measles surged 43% to 136,000 last year.
REMEMBER WHEN DEMOCRATS CALLED RON DESANTIS A NAZI FOR WANTING TO BAN IT? “What is happening at TikTok is it is creating the biggest antisemitic movement since the Nazis.”
THIS TIME THEY COME IN PEACE: Why One of Japan’s Newest Carriers Is Headed to America in 2024.
TEACH WOMEN NOT TO RAPE! (CONT’D): Idaho teacher arrested for rape of teen cops found driving her car because she was too ‘drunk to drive.’
SET UP TO FAIL: Dumb and dumber: NY rethinks Regents exams. “In short, rather than try to improve students’ mastery of reading, writing, math, science and social studies, educators want to make it easier for those who can’t pass the exams to get a diploma.”
AT AMAZON, Early Black Friday Deals. #CommissionEarned
CONSIDERING THE PREVIOUS VALUE OF THE BRAND, THAT WAS MONEY EFFECTIVELY SPENT: Oof! Bud Light Paid Dylan Mulvaney Six Figures to Destroy Its Brand.
SAD BUT TRUE: Dan Aykroyd on ‘The Blues Brothers’ – ‘You’d Never Make It Today.’
“To me, that was an important movie,” Carolla said of the film, nothing its unique blend of genres and comedian flourishes. “This concept must have been bizarre to explain to a studio.”
“You’d Never Make It Today,” Aykroyd said. “They would say, ‘Excuse me? What, Catholic? What, wrecking so many cars and practically no CGI?’ … They wouldn’t do it.”
The film’s Catholic themes may seem incongruous given the violence and the brothers’ irreverent tone, but they claimed they were on “a mission from God” to save the Catholic orphanage they once called home.
The Vatican’s official newspaper L’Osservatore Romano later dubbed “The Blues Brothers” as a worthy film for Catholics the world over.
And an even better one for music fans. I was 11 at the time the movie came out, and it made me realize that “old” stars like James Brown and Aretha Franklin deserved… respect.
REMEMBERING WES PRUDEN: My assignment this morning is to give a talk on journalism ethics to a class of aspiring young reporters and editors. In preparing, I was reminded of a lecture given in 2002 at the Heritage Foundation by my newsroom mentor, Wes Pruden, who was then the Washington Times’ editor.
He told this story in his lecture about a small town Arkansas politician talking about his young son. As it happened, this politician disliked journalists intensely:
“He’s a wonderful little boy. His mother and I love him more than we love life itself. We have such big dreams for him. If it turns out, in the fullness and passage of time, that that little fella has above average intelligence, and we certainly think he does, we hope to make a preacher of him, to send him out to preach the Gospel, to lead sinners to God.
“And if it turns out that he has just average intelligence, well, that’s all right, too, and we’ll just send him to law school. God has His uses for all of us, even for lawyers.
“But if it turns out that that little boy just doesn’t have a lick of sense, God will give us the grace to live with that, too. We’ll just send him downtown to be the editor of the morning newspaper.”
It’s a lecture worth recalling today.
THIS IS CNN: CNN Goes Full ‘Enemy of the People’ Reporting on the Arrest Made in the Death of Paul Kessler. “This is a story that, predictably, the mainstream media tried to ignore and send down the memory hole.”
HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: ‘Heavy petting’: Princeton prof makes case for bestiality.
IT IS UNWISE TO DISPLEASE COMRADE PUTIN: Former Russian Commander Who Criticized Putin Found Dead in Mysterious Circumstances. “Lieutenant General Vladimir Sviridov, 68, and his wife Tatyana, 72, had been dead for around a week before their bodies were found on Nov. 15.”
KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: Who Had ‘American Youth bin Laden Fetish’ on Their Bingo Cards? “The cocktail parties in commie Academia must be positively abuzz with triumph these past few weeks.”
DON SURBER: To get me to vote Republican, tell me what they stand for. “While Democrats did all this, Republicans sat on their hands crying tax cuts. Democrats are the irresistible force while Republicans are the quite movable object.”
BLUE CITY BLUES: Oakland pro sports dead at 63 as A’s abandon East Bay, ending era of titles and fun. “This unprecedented triple exodus leaves fans crestfallen and angry. Oakland pro sports lived an eventful, exhilarating life, winning 10 championships — four each by the Warriors and A’s, two by the Raiders — and 11 if you include Rick Barry and the Oaks capturing the American Basketball Association title in 1969.”
I wonder if and when the Golden State Warriors will pick up and head east — and what new name they’ll use.
I REMEMBER WHEN I WAS TOLD THAT WE SHOULD PUNCH NAZIS: For The Media, Trump Is Hitler But Hamas Isn’t.
#JOURNALISM: Stuart Brotman: Soundbite-happy media gets ‘genocide’ wrong. “Israel’s ‘genocide’ is seeping into the popular lexicon once again — courtesy of Ruffalo and dozens of media outlets that are all too willing to quote those making this assertion. The effect it may have on those who accept this description at face value reflects little understanding that this term has a distinct meaning that can be examined objectively.”
Plus: “There is no current basis under international law to validate the claim that Israel’s response to the Oct.er 7 attack is ‘genocide.’ Rather, if genocide has occurred here, international law indicates that it should be attributed instead to Hamas.”
WELL, GOOD: Trump gag order in NY fraud case temporarily lifted by appeals court. “The order follows an emergency lawsuit filed by Trump’s legal team Wednesday against Judge Arthur Engoron, whose enforcement of the gag orders they claim ‘casts serious doubt’ on his ability to serve as an “impartial finder of fact” overseeing Trump’s case.”
ABOUT TIME: Milwaukee Paper Discovers ‘Gun Death’ Lie.