Is This The Real Beginning Of The End Of The Little Blue Bird?

Remember
MySpaceVille


From the horse's mouth so to speak:

NPR will no longer post fresh content to its 52 official Twitter feeds, becoming the first major news organization to go silent on the social media platform. In explaining its decision, NPR cited Twitter's decision to first label the network "state-affiliated media," the same term it uses for propaganda outlets in Russia, China and other autocratic countries.

The decision by Twitter last week took the public radio network off guard. When queried by NPR tech reporter Bobby Allyn, Twitter owner Elon Musk asked how NPR functioned. Musk allowed that he might have gotten it wrong.

Twitter then revised its label on NPR's account to "government-funded media." The news organization says that is inaccurate and misleading, given that NPR is a private, nonprofit company with editorial independence. It receives less than 1 percent of its $300 million annual budget from the federally funded Corporation for Public Broadcasting...

{snip}

...NPR is instituting a "two-week grace period" so the staff who run the Twitter accounts can revise their social-media strategies...

If there's one thing that the short history of the interwebz has taught us, it's that digital things that you don't actually need to do digital things can disappear very quickly when folks find out that one of those digital things is no longer useful.

Now,  I don't know about you but the main reason I still check in over at Twitter somewhat regularly is to get the early jump on what's happening news wise before that same said news is later published/broadcast in its final herded form by traditional news outlets.

And a whole lot of that early news wiseyness comes from the folks who work for those traditional news outlets.

So.

If traditional news outlets start to pull their people from the platform?

Well...


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And it's not just NPR that Mr. Musk has upset. The same issue has the BBC steaming. As for the New York Times?...Earlier this month Musk pulled the Gray Lady's checkmark and called it propaganda.


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Can Someone Please Tell Me...

WillTheConsNowFormBCCity?

Purple'NTealVille


Can someone please tell me what soccer league, exactly, the newly fangled 'BC United' team plays in?

Because I checked the Canadian Premier(s) League, and I can't find them there.

Nor do I see them in the semi-pro Canadian Soccer League.

Heckfire, I can't even find them in the U11-12, Division 3, Eight-A-Side-League.

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And What About The Government-Funded Sewers?

TwoPeasInAFauxOutrage

PodVille


First, the following, from a man who self-identifies as 'one who tells lies for a living', about Mr. Musk's recent labelling of NPR as state-affiliated media:

..."By calling National Public Radio what it is, Elon Musk has used English as it was intended to be used in order to tell the truth. Of course NPR is state media. Have you listened to it? It has all the hallmarks -- repetitive dishonesty, authoritarian politics, unwavering devotion to the party in charge. Of course, that could describe virtually all media in this country. The difference is the state actually pays for NPR. "...

T. Carlson

on 'T. Carlson Tonight', April 6, 2023

Second, the following, from a man who would like to be our next prime minister, about the CBC:

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So...

What's next when it comes to the labelling and the shaming?

Denouncing state-funded sewers for carrying waste that originates in government-built washrooms?

Trashing state-funded highways for moving the government's mail?

Defunding state-funded hospitals for paying nurses who trained at government-funded post-secondary institutions?

Decrying state-funded libraries for helping folks who are receiving socialist disability supports?

Demanding the recall of any and all elected officials who cash government-funded paycheques?

Sheesh.

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The double-plus-ungood irony in Mr. Carlson's baseless smears regarding NPR?...First, thanks to the  the 'Corporation for Public Broadcasting', which is mandated to raise a significant chunk of its budget from the private sector, and its own aggressive fundraising, NPR receives less than 1% government funding...Second, Mr. Carlson's father, Richard, became the CEO of said Corporation after he first served a stint as Ronald Reagan's director of the state-sponsored Voice of America.

Tip o' the Toque to reader Tim W. for the heads-up.


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Evidence? We Don't Need No Stinking Evidence!

Badges
TreasureVille


Well, well, well...

It turns out that the Algorithm of the Twits downgrades posts that contain links.

Fellow single shingle blogger Mike the Mad Biologist explains:

...Admittedly, Elongated Muskrat just tweets whatever daffy shite pops into his head, so he’s not big on the whole notion of evidence, but people should be aware that tweets with supporting evidence–and supporting evidence is what links are–get dinged by the algorithm...

In other words, evidence-free claims are more likely to go viral than the opposite.

Imagine that!

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Personally, I am of the opinion that any site/app that uses algorithms to push content at users should be considered a publisher not a platform...Put another way, such pushers...errrrr...publishers should be responsible for any and everything posted on their sites that can be wurlitzered by the algorithms they control...


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I Have The Right To Take Stuff.

SomeThingsYouDoForMoney

EighteenMillionReasonsVille


The former president of the United States sat down for a recent interview with a former Adelphi University student not named Chuck D  and had this to say about certain documents he has either known or coveted:

Hannity: I've known you for decades...I can't imagine you ever saying, 'Bring me some of the boxes that we brought back from the White House. I'd like to look at them.'...Did you ever do that?"

Trump: "I would have the right to do that...There's nothing wrong with it.

Hannity: "But I know you, I don't think you would do it."

Trump: "I don't have a lot of time, but...I would have the right to do that...I would do that...Remember this...This is the, the 'Presidential Records Act'...I have the right to take stuff...Do you know, I think they paid Richard Nixon eighteen million dollars for what he had."

In other words, it's always about the money where a certain former president of the United States is concerned.

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Unlike Chuck D, the good Mr. Sean Hannity never graduated from Adelphi University, a commuter school in Long Island New York, not to mention the other two post-secondary institutions he attended.

Ear worm buried in the sub-header machinery?....This.


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Here's To You Mr. Robinson.

MostOfAllYou'veGotTo
PlayItForTheKidsVille


Legendary Lotuslandian rock and roll DJ Red Robinson has passed away:

“With deep sadness and broken hearts, we bring the news that our beloved Dad, Red Robinson, passed this morning at 8:15am after a brief illness. We’re so glad we got to spend his final moments with him, and having his brother Bill there made it extra special.

Most people knew our Dad as a rock’n’roll DJ, a TV personality, an ad agency owner, a spokesperson, or through his philanthropic work. He was larger-than-life in a lot of ways, but to us he was a devoted father and grandfather, a loving husband to our late mom Carole, and a loyal friend to everybody.

Red’s departure leaves a huge hole in our lives, as well as the lives of everybody he touched in the worlds of radio, TV, music and entertainment. An event celebrating his amazing life will be announced soon, and we invite you to share your memories on Red’s Facebook, Twitter or Instagram pages.

Luckily, Mr. Robinson and Company worked diligently the last few years to get all kinds of his archived material up into the Digisphere at places like the social media sites listed above as well as on the Tubez and down at the audio clip-powered Podsville Station.

Below is a short history of Robinson's career, narrated by the man in himself, in which explains that he first got on the air at the age of 16 after he called into Al Jordan's 'Themes For Teens' show on CJOR in 1953 and did a Jimmy Stewart impression:




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