Tag: media

CBS News Radio (1927-2026)

Another casualty of technology + social justice: CBS News Radio ceases broadcasting tonight.

CBS News Radio, which provides news programming to an estimated 700 stations spanning the United States, will sign off the air Friday night after nearly a century of broadcasting. The storied service, launched in September 1927, was home to broadcast legends Edward R. Murrow, Robert Trout, Douglas Edwards, Charles Osgood, Dan Rather and many other familiar and trusted voices over its decades in operation.

“It’s been around for a long time. Really, an American institution is what we’re losing here,” said Steve Kathan, the longtime anchor of the CBS World News Roundup.

“CBS Radio should be remembered for becoming a national institution very important to the development of news other than newspapers,” Rather recently told “CBS Sunday Morning.” “It, for many, many years, was a part, and I would argue not a small part, of what held the country together.”

The decision to shutter the radio news service was announced in March, with the company citing “challenging economic realities.”

Once you cease to be useful to the Black Rider, you will be thrown from the high horse. And if CBS News Radio was a part of holding the country together, it was doing so for the benefit of the ruling elite. Obviously that same elite now has other instruments capable of fulfilling the same function.

DISCUSS ON SG

The Real Reason

Ben Shapiro is observably over. But the media can’t admit the real reason his audience “has abandoned him”.

There was a time, not very long ago, when Ben Shapiro could reasonably call himself the king of all conservative media.

His company, the Daily Wire, dominated social-media feeds and podcast apps; in the run-up to the 2020 election, it was ranked as Facebook’s top English-language publisher for three straight months. Virality seemed to be the Daily Wire’s birthright: Scathing news items on Nancy Pelosi’s salon visits during the pandemic racked up millions more views than the websites of Fox News, CNN, and the New York Times. Shapiro himself was ubiquitous, a right-wing star who had risen to fame before Donald Trump and seamlessly adapted to the MAGA takeover of the Republican Party. He was a digital battering ram against the Democrats and the progressive left. He seemed guaranteed, like Fox itself, for an indefinite run at the top of the media heap.

That’s all over now. The Daily Wire is instituting significant layoffs. Its YouTube channel’s subscriber base is starting to shrink, and its website has emerged as one of the great traffic losers in conservative media. There are Daily Wire YouTube videos that now, after a few days online, have less than 10,000 views, a catastrophically small number for a channel with more than 3 million subscribers. The top comments all mock the low view counts.

If a variety of poor business decisions can be blamed, in part, for the Daily Wire’s fall from grace — ill-fated investments in feature films, an epic fantasy series, and peculiar merchandise — the greater story is the collapse of Shapiro’s constituency, especially among the young media consumers who once fueled the Daily Wire’s runaway growth.

His audience didn’t abandon him. It never existed in the first place. All the numbers were fake from the start, with the exception of the times he was handed existing audiences, such as those who were accustomed to listening to Michael Savage’s radio show.

Money can be used to fake a lot of things, but the moment it stops flowing, the charade becomes apparent. The way his history of Never-Trump is artfully ignored is particularly amusing.

DISCUSS ON SG

Owen on Tucker

Tucker Carlson interviewed Owen Benjamin, nominally about his book, but mostly about the most cancelled man in comedy himself.

Owen Benjamin was probably the smartest, wisest person in Hollywood so of course he got canceled harder than anyone in the history of the entertainment business. That’s when he found the secret to happiness. A classically trained pianist turned comedian, Owen Benjamin weaves sharp-witted satire with deep dives into the complexities of the human condition. His unique blend of musical talent and unfiltered storytelling invites listeners to laugh through the chaos from his farm in North Idaho. His new book, “How to Slay a Wizard,” offers an instruction manual on how to not fall for the current spells that confuse the world. Ladle.tv for his podcast and comedy specials.

TUCKER: This is an organized effort against you. This is not organic. Who was organizing it? Do you know?

OWEN: I mean I have some theories…

TUCKER: But you don’t actually know for sure?

OWEN: I know the motivations. Every time I think I know for sure it switches a little. So now I try to not it’s not because I’m like worried to, I can’t really figure it out. It’s almost like a swarm.

TUCKER: Yes.

OWEN: It’s like a behavior where they’re signaling. That sounds even crazier, but

TUCKER: No, I’ve seen it.

OWEN: It’s like a It’s like a like a a behavior like a fractal.

TUCKER: Yes.

OWEN: And there’s no one really in charge, right?

TUCKER: It’s like a conspiracy of like-minded temperament.

OWEN: Cuz like from my background, I’m like, “Who did this to me?”

TUCKER: Yes.

OWEN: There’s no one there because who would really do that? It’s like a collective evil.

Big Bear even did me the favor of mentioning my book during the interview.

OWEN: A lot of people, they’re like I might be lying but I’m not wrong!

TUCKER: Right.

OWEN: Cuz they’re like, oh, no, it turns out that was all wrong, but I was still right because it’s me. Like I saw that in physics because I had a physics podcast at Calltech with my buddy who’s a nuclear physicist and dark matter. I couldn’t stop laughing when I realized it. So, they have these gravitational equations and when it wasn’t matching anything, they said, “Oh, there’s dark matter.” And I’m like, “What’s that?” They’re like, “95% of the universe you can’t see or measure and it’s like most of the gravity.” And I’m like, “How do you know it exists?” They’re like, “Swear to God.” They’re like, “Cuz if not, we’d be wrong!” And I’m like, “So, you can’t measure it?” They’re like, “No, that dark matter, but it’s there.” I’m like, “How do you know?” They’re like, “Cuz if not, then this is wrong.” Like Vox Day who published that book. He published a book breaking down how the math of evolution is so bad because he’s like one of those super geniuses. Vox is great guy, and it’s so bad, the actual math of it, just read the book Probability Zero. It’s like how long would it take for things to permeate, like a mutation, to permeate through the actual population. And when you see how completely ridiculous it is, I think they have trauma where they’re like, “Well, it can’t be that! I put a square on my head and brag to everyone and my life is a lie!”

You can also watch the video on YouTube. It’s doing numbers.

DISCUSS ON SG

The Manufactured

I’ve long pointed out how many of the “successful”, particularly those in the media, are the beneficiaries of manufactured success. Consider how the “mystery” of Banksy was known to the BBC for years before the “unknown” graffiti artist was exposed.

A former BBC reporter who claims he caught Banksy painting a mural in New York confessed that the corporation helped keep the artist’s identity a secret. Nick Bryant the BBC’s former New York correspondent said he saw a man coming out of a coffee shop near a newly completed mural in 2018.

The corporation’s cameraman filmed the encounter as the frazzled artist made his escape.

But when Mr Bryant called his bosses in London to tell them about his world exclusive the response was far from expected.

‘Minutes later, a phone call came through from London,’ Mr Bryant said. ‘A senior colleague told me that his daughter had accompanied him to work that day, and thought it was wrong to unveil. We should not be the news organisation, she reckoned, to tell kids there was no Father Christmas.’

Except Father Christmas wasn’t profiting by selling his art for millions because he was famous around the world for being unknown… And it wasn’t a senior colleague’s daughter who gave the order to prevent the journalist from exposing the artist’s identity, it was more likely someone higher up the Clown World chain.

DISCUSS ON SG

It was Never Real

The Littlest Chickenhawk has been a manufactured creature since the beginning, when he was being pushed as a “musical prodigy” at the age of 12 back in 1996.

Larry King introduced him by informing the crowd that Shapiro wanted to be the first Orthodox Rabbi to sit on the Supreme Court of the United States. He also wanted to play his violin at Carnegie Hall.

Of course, he couldn’t cut it as a violinist, a lawyer, or a rabbi, so he was repurposed as a “whip-smart” political commentator, spitting out AIPAC talking points while being handed everything from syndicated columns and book deals to Michael Savage’s radio show despite the fact that he was never even among the ten most popular columnists on WND back in the day. On average, he was number 14.

The tragedy of Ben Shapiro is that he knows he’s a fraud. He realized it even before he went to college, when he began to understand that he didn’t have the ability to think for himself or enough talent to accomplish anything on his own. This is why so many celebrities and “successful” people have Imposter Syndrome: they are imposters whose success is fake and manufactured. Once the funding required to maintain their pretend popularity dries up, their audience disappears because it never really existed in the first place.

DISCUSS ON SG

The Dirty Patriots

Robert Kraft may never enter the Pro Football Hall of Fame despite his undeniable accomplishments as an owner thanks to his intrinsically sketchy behavior.

Robert Kraft, the owner of the New England Patriots, tried to stop the New York Post from publishing shocking photos of head coach Mike Vrabel and The Athletic reporter Dianna Russini, according to multiple sources.

“Robert Kraft intervened and had his honchos pressure The Post before they published and tried to kill the story,” a source exclusively tells In Touch. “The Post gave Vrabel a longer time to respond than what is considered industry norms, and Kraft took advantage of that extended timeframe to put pressure on the reporter and the newspaper. A notorious crisis strategist made the call but was unsuccessful in neutering the story.”

The New York Post published an article reported by Oli Coleman and titled, “New England Patriots’ Mike Vrabel and top NY Times NFL reporter Dianna Russini hold hands and hug at luxury hotel,” on Tuesday, April 7, alongside damning photos of the two at a luxury resort in Sedona, Arizona.

It’s always something with the Patriots. Even when, as in this case, the problem preceded Vrabel becoming their head coach. While it’s not surprising that Kraft would want to kill the story, it is a little surprising that he would be so naive as to think that he might be able to do so.

It tends to raise the question of what other stories these wicked elites are successfully suppressing.

DISCUSS ON SG

They’re Trying to Tell You

“We need to be sad about Trump. This is not funny. This is not good. But he’s gone. And that’s it… Sadly, the Trump we all knew and loved no longer exists.”
—Alex Jones

For whatever reason, the mainstream and conservative media figures can’t tell you what they know. I don’t know why, perhaps they fear for their “credibility” or perhaps they simply aren’t permitted to tell the truth and still keep their lofty, well-paid positions. Regardless, it’s obvious they all know that Short, Fat, Wall of Text Trump isn’t President Donald Trump. They know he isn’t and they’re trying to tell you that.

It’s not a metaphor when they keep asking “how can the Donald Trump who once said X be the same Donald Trump who now says Y?”

DISCUSS ON SG

The 4-Day War

I remembered the US-Iran war was only supposed to last four days when it first kicked off, but it’s become very hard to find any references to those statements now that the war is approaching its third week.

The United States government had told Turkey through official channels that the war on Iran would only take four days, Asli Aydintasbas, a Washington-based Turkey expert, said during an interview on Sunday.

“Turkey and some of its allies were told, through official channels, that this operation would take days and be completed in four days,” Aydintasbas, a fellow at the Brookings Institution, said in an interview with the Serbestiyet news site. “You cannot tell a Nato ally that you have made a four-day plan and then extend the operation to 14 days. In a sense, this was also a betrayal of the regional countries.”

This is why I barely pay any attention to the mainstream media anymore. Not only are you not informed correctly, you’re constantly being gaslit about what the media itself said the day before.

DISCUSS ON SG

How Bad is the War Going?

It’s going so bad that the FCC is threatening to institute Israel-style military censorship:

Brendan Carr, chairman of the FCC, has threatened to revoke broadcasters’ licenses over their coverage of the war, accusing several media outlets of “running hoaxes and news distortions.” This comes after President Trump bashed the NYT, WSJ, and other mainstream media outlets for their “intentionally misleading” broadcasting, accusing them of wanting to see America “lose the war.”

Which is amusing in light of how nothing Short Fat Trump says is even remotely true. The idea that Iran is “seeking a deal” but he’s just too strong to accept their terms is openly laughable given how Iran’s spokesman has made it perfectly clear that there is absolutely no point talking to enemies who literally bomb you in the middle of negotiations. Especially when those enemies are crowing about how the war is already over…

I don’t know why any country would negotiate with any Clown World-ruled country. They never abide by any agreements, so there is no point in even pretending to talk to them. Which, of course, drives the wizards mad, because one way to neutralize their word games is to simply not listen to them.

DISCUSS ON SG

Phase Two Begins

  • Tehran has decided to stop attacking targets in neighboring states, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said in a televised speech. Pezeshkian also apologized to the countries of the region and expressed the Islamic Republic’s respect for their sovereignty.
  • Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Tehran is not seeking a ceasefire and sees no reason to negotiate with the US, arguing that previous talks had been interrupted by attacks.
  • The Gulf State ambassadors have appealed to Russia to pressure Iran into a ceasefire, but Russia has pointed out that Iran was attacked by Israel and the USA and has a right to defend itself.
  • All of the social media companies except Tik Tok have banned videos and pictures of Iranian strikes.

Translation: Tehran has accomplished its phase one objective of disrupting the global economy and degrading the US military bases in the region and is now ready to concentrate its attacks on Israel and US military assets. So expect more heat and more over-the-top rhetoric in the coming week, not less.

DISCUSS ON SG