Tag: media

The End of Sports Illustrated

You would have thought that a business that relied upon sports, plus an occasional splash of beautiful women in bikinis, would be bullet-proof. And you’d be wrong:

Much of the staff of Sports Illustrated, and possibly all remaining writers and editors, received layoff notices Friday, which essentially could spell the end of a publication that for decades was the gold standard of sports journalism.

The union of the staff tweeted Friday that it would continue to fight for the publication of the magazine but that its future is now in the hands of the magazine’s owner, Authentic Brands Group.

ABG has owned the magazine since 2019 and sold the publishing rights to a company called the Arena Group. The Arena Group missed a recent payment for those publishing rights, prompting ABG to pull the publishing license and putting the future of Sports Illustrated in jeopardy.

“As a result of this license revocation, we will be laying off staff that work on the SI brand,” the note to staff read, adding that some employees would be terminated immediately, while others would work through the end of a 90-day notice period.

Sports Illustrated lays off most of its staff, threatening iconic brand’s future, WASHINGTON POST, 19 January 2024

Those sounds you hear in the distance are Fox executives celebrating their prescient purchase of Outkick the Coverage.

This is why we will never sell off any of our core projects. As we’ve seen with Football Outsiders and now Sports Illustrated, there is no faster way to ensure a debt-related implosion short of taking the entire payroll to Vegas and betting it on black.

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The Irrelevant Media

The mainstream media is still operating under the illusion that it can control the Narrative.

MSNBC and CNN refused to air former President Donald Trump’s Republican Iowa caucus victory speech Monday evening, while airing fellow candidates’ speeches.

To say that they don’t have any grasp whatsoever on the current situation would be an understatement. And their justification for ignoring the winner’s words while broadcasting the speeches of those candidates who have not only been rejected, but overwhelmingly rejected, by the voters is downright risible.

There is a cost to us as a news organization, knowingly broadcasting untrue things as a fundamental truth of our business and who we are and so his remarks tonight will not air here live.

I’m not saying that Trump tells the truth. I’m certainly not at all thrilled about him in the aftermath of his abject failures with regards to the vaxx, the Deep State, and the integrity of the 2020 election. But the implication that he is the first politician to ever say anything that is an untrue thing is astonishing and accomplishes absolutely nothing except add yet another strike to the credibility of the ABCNNBCBS cabal.

Donald Trump isn’t the only one whose words are being edited out by the literally satanic media:

NBC Sports reposted its post-game interview with Texans quarterback C.J. Stroud on social media following the team’s playoff victory against the Browns on Saturday. But NBC suspiciously edited the video, omitting what Stroud would consider the most principled line in his response: His mention of Jesus Christ.

Here’s the line NBC removed, Stroud’s very first line: “First and foremost, I just want to give all glory and praise to my Lord, Jesus Christ.”

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Awards are Gay and Literally Fake

ESPN was caught winning more than 30 Emmy Awards for individuals who are imaginary employees of the Disney network:

In March 2023, Shelley Smith, who worked 26 years as an on-air reporter for ESPN, received a call from Stephanie Druley, then the network’s head of studio and event production. Druley said she wanted to talk about something “serious” that needed to stay between the two of them, Smith recalled. She then told Smith that Smith needed to return two sports Emmy statuettes that she had been given more than a decade earlier.

That request was one of many ESPN made of some of its biggest stars last year after the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (NATAS), the organization that administers the Emmys, uncovered a scheme that the network used to acquire more than 30 of the coveted statuettes for on-air talent ineligible to receive them. Since at least 2010, ESPN inserted fake names in Emmy entries, then took the awards won by some of those imaginary individuals, had them re-engraved and gave them to on-air personalities… The fraud was discovered by NATAS, which prompted an investigation by that organization and later by ESPN.

Sadly, it turns out that the legendary, award-winning broadcasters Kirk Henry, Lee Clark, and Dirk Howard don’t even exist.

Now, I’m fairly notorious for my indifference to awards. I’ve understood that most of them are nothing but popularity contests or marketing tools since my junior year of high school. And that’s not sour grapes or anything; I declined my high school’s attempt to invent a fake award when the soccer team coach wrongly felt I’d been robbed when the MVP award went to the spiritual leader of our undefeated team instead of to the leading scorer.

But a lot of people take them seriously even though they prove absolutely nothing about excellence or quality. And even if you weren’t convinced of that by the Sad/Rabid Puppies campaigns, or the fact that Mark Clifton and Frank Riley won the 1955 Hugo Award for their unforgettable novel They’d Rather Be Right over some little book written by an English professor called The Lord of the Rings, I should hope that ESPN winning 30 Emmies for people who don’t even exist would suffice.

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The Lad Protests WAY Too Much

This was the talentless and confirmed ticket taker Jimmy Kimmel’s response to Aaron Rodgers’s one-liner about Kimmel being worried about the Epstein client list coming out.

“Did you hear this story about me and Aaron Rodgers, the former quarterback for the Packers? All right, so, what happened is he’s a Jets quarterback now. He went on a show on ESPN, The Pat McAfee Show, and out of the blue insinuated that I was nervous because the Jeffrey Epstein list was coming out. He said I was hoping it wouldn’t, and that he was going to pop a bottle of something to celebrate when he did. And then it did come out and of course my name wasn’t on it and isn’t on it and won’t ever be on — I don’t know Jeffrey Epstein, I’ve never met Jeffrey Epstein, I’m not on the list, I wasn’t on a plane or an island or anything ever and I suggested that if Aaron wanted to make false and very damaging statements like that that we should do it in court so he could share his proof with like a judge. Because, you know, when you hear a guy who won a Super Bowl and did all the State Farm commercials say something like this, a lot of people believe it.

“And I know this because I hear from these people often. My wife hears from them. My kids hear from them. My poor mailman hears from these people. And now we’re hearing from lots more of them, thanks to Aaron Rodgers, who I guess believes one of two things. Either he actually believes my name was gonna be on Epstein’s list, which is insane. Or the more likely scenario is he doesn’t actually believe that, he just said it because he’s mad at me for making fun of his top knot and his lies about being vaccinated. He’s particularly upset I think because I made fun of the fact that he floated this wacko idea that the UFO sightings that were in the news in February were being reported to distract us from the Epstein list. That was Aaron’s theory that he said, and I mocked [him].”

“So he saw that and maybe to retaliate, he decided to insinuate that I am a pedophile. This is how these nuts do it now. You don’t like Trump, you’re a pedophile. It’s their go-to move, and it shows you how much they actually care about pedophilia.

“But here’s the thing, I spent years doing sports. I’ve seen guys like him before. Aaron Rodgers has a very high opinion of himself. Because he had success on a football field, he believes himself to be an extraordinary being. He genuinely thinks that because God gave him the ability to throw a ball, he’s smarter than everybody else. The idea that his brain is just average is unfathomable to him. We learned during COVID somehow he knows more about science than scientists.

“A guy who went to community college, then got into Cal on a football scholarship, and didn’t graduate. Someone who never spent a minute studying the human body is an expert in the field of immunology. He just put on a magic helmet and that ‘G’ made him a genius. Aaron got two As on his report card. They were both in the word Aaron, OK? And can you imagine that this hamster-brained man knows what the government is up to because he’s a quarterback doing research on YouTube and listening to podcasts?

“I looked it up. This is actually a thing. It’s called the Dunning-Kruger effect. The Dunning-Kruger is a cognitive bias in which people with limited competence in a particular domain overestimate their abilities. In other words, Aaron Rodgers is too arrogant to know how ignorant he is. They let him host Jeopardy! for two weeks. Now he knows everything.

“And by the way, I’m not one of those people that thinks athletes and members of the sports media should stick to talking about sports. I think Aaron Rodgers has the right to express any opinion he wants. But saying someone is a pedophile isn’t an opinion nor is it trash talk, sorry Pat McAfee.

“And as far as the ‘well, you say things about people all the time’ argument goes, yes, I do. It’s not the same. It’s not even close to the same. We don’t make up lies. In fact, we have a team of people who work very hard to work to sift through facts and reputable sources before I make a joke, and that’s an important distinction. A joke about someone. Even when that someone is Donald Trump. Even a person who lies from the minute he wakes up until the minute he’s smearing orange makeup on his My Pillow at night, even he deserves that consideration. And we give it to him, because the truth still matters.

“And when I do get something wrong, which happens on rare occasions, you know what I do? I apologize for it. Which is what Aaron Rodgers should do. Which is what a decent person would do. But I bet he won’t. If he does, you know what I’ll do, I’ll accept his apology and move on. But he probably won’t do that.”

I note that it was the conspiracy theorist Rodgers, not the mainstream mouthpiece Kimmel, who was correct about the vaxx. Kimmel has also repeatedly lied about Donald Trump; his claim to have “a team of people who work very hard to work to sift through facts and reputable sources” simply underlines how full of falsehood and nonsense he is. The observable reality is that Kimmel is just another no-talent Narrative cheerleader who says what he is told to say, and it is logical to conclude that he has paid some price in exchange for being given the massively privileged position that he holds.

I don’t know what that price was. I doubt that Rodgers does either. But you don’t reach a certain level of success on your own without becoming aware of people who are reaching, and exceeding, that level of success without any genuine accomplishments or talent of their own to explain it.

And perhaps more importantly, you don’t assemble your speechwriters and collectively produce a wall of text to rebut a false non-accusation if you have a clear conscience, no matter what people didn’t actually accuse you of doing. I’d have been more inclined to believe Kimmel entirely innocent of any satanic shenanigans if he’d simply made a crack about evidence derived from ayahuasca visions being inadmissible in court and left it at that.

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Connected Somehow

NFL players are hammering Jimmy Kimmel over the Epstein Client List. He may not be on the actual list, but he’s almost certainly a ticket taker who is connected to some truly awful people.

Jimmy Kimmel claims Aaron Rodgers is a “tin foil hatter” for wanting to know the names on the Jeffrey Epstein client list.

DAVID BAKHTIARI: Tell me you’re on the Jeffrey Epstein client list, without telling me you’re on the Jeffrey Epstein client list….

AARON RODGERS: “That’s supposed to be coming out soon. A lot of people — including Jimmy Kimmel — are really hoping that doesn’t come out.”

JIMMY KIMMEL: Dear Aasshole: for the record, I’ve not met, flown with, visited, or had any contact whatsoever with Epstein, nor will you find my name on any “list” other than the clearly-phony nonsense that soft-brained wackos like yourself can’t seem to distinguish from reality. Your reckless words put my family in danger. Keep it up and we will debate the facts further in court. @AaronRodgers12

JIMMY KIMMEL THREATENS LEGAL ACTION, Outkick the Coverage, 2 January 2024

Well, that’s not at all suspicious, is it? Spoken like a truly innocent man, is it not? I don’t know that I’ve ever read a flat-out denial that raised so many more questions than it answered.

Longtime NFL players at the level of Bakhtiari and Rodgers, and well-connected former players who are now in the media like Pat McAfee, are all well-acquainted with celebrities like Kimmel. They also know a lot about who is, and who is not, a ticket taker. It should not be a surprise that many of them, perhaps most of them, whose success is derived from intrinsic talent and hard work, should openly despise those whose “success” is handed to them by nothing more than their willingness to do terrible things and serve Satan.

Kimmel has long been a mystery to NFL fans. His career was hugely elevated through the NFL pregame shows as some sort of “comedian” despite the fact that he was nothing more than Adam Carolla’s sidekick, he wasn’t funny, and he didn’t know anything about football. It was really jarring at the time, as if some twenty-something loser was selected at random and inflicted upon NFL fans for no reason that anyone could understand. And since then, he’s become one of the richest and most famous talking heads in Hollywood.

His hypersensitive public reaction to Rodgers tends to suggest that he is not at all happy about the Epstein Client List coming out, perhaps because a large number of his personal connections are going to be on it even though he himself is not. It’s pretty clear that a lot of NFL players know something about Kimmel, and it is something that they consider to be despicable.

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China Connects the Dots

It’s fascinating to see the Chinese media is now openly discussing the sort of connections that tend to get one rapidly cancelled as a “conspiracy theorist” and even an “antisemite” in the West:

“A just cause enjoys abundant support, while an unjust cause finds little support.” No one feels this snippet of wisdom more deeply than the US now. A spokesman for Spain’s defense ministry told AFP on Sunday that the country will not participate in the so-called Operation Prosperity Guardian, a US-led maritime task force in the Red Sea that aims to protect the passage of Israeli-owned and Israel-bound merchant vessels.

Obviously, the US’ European allies are no longer willing to foot the bill of the US’ selfishness. Operation Prosperity Guardian organized by the US has a strong political overtone, that is, safeguarding Israel’s national interests. Israel’s actions in Gaza have aroused the anger of the international community. More than 20,000 Palestinians have reportedly been killed, more than 50,000 injured, and much of Gaza has been destroyed. Some European countries have begun to diverge from the US on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. The objective of the US creating the Red Sea alliance, on the one hand, is testing whether its allies share the same beliefs with it on this issue. On the other hand, Washington is levering multilateral diplomatic actions to cover up its unilateral support of Israel.

US allies always support the US and share its stance, but that does not mean they will unlimitedly support the frenzied positions taken by the US on all issues, especially when the US position is contrary to their own interests…

Song Zhongping, a Chinese military expert, believes that no matter it is the Iraq war, the Afghan war, or the current Russia-Ukraine or Palestinian-Israeli conflict, the US’ performance has made it lose its credibility and leadership. US allies see clearly that the US only causes trouble, but it is not willing to bear the consequences. Instead, it lets its allies clean up the mess. The appeal of the US has declined, as the US that is used to being echoed is now being rejected. This is a true manifestation of “A just cause enjoys abundant support, while an unjust cause finds little support.”

Cracks in Red Sea alliance underline US-Europe division, GLOBAL TIMES, 25 December 2023

The fact that China is openly connecting the dots for the benefit of the global public is highlighted by the way Clown World’s media is actively attempting to hide the nature of the Yemeni-Israeli conflict and the fact that the Yemenis are only attacking Israeli-owned ships attempting to transit the Red Sea.

This operation is now coming apart in recriminations because commercial vessel owners in France, Spain, and Italy have accepted that if they negotiate Israel-boycott deals directly with the Houthis, they can continue to operate through the Red Sea. They resent the commercial competition from Russia and China which are operating oil tankers and dry-cargo carriers without hindrance or threat.

The obviousness of the targeting by the Houthis, and of Houthi deal-making by the Russians and Chinese, are being concealed, however, in the US and UK maritime industry media and the mainstream press.

In the most recent strike, the Israeli oil tanker Chem Pluto was hit on Saturday, December 23, by a drone about 1,600 kilometres east of the Yemen coast; about 200 kilometres west of the Indian coast. Initial media reporting claimed the vessel was “affiliated” to Israel but emphasized that it was owned by a Japanese entity and managed by a Dutch one… The allies knew at once that the Chem Pluto had been targeted because it was Israeli-owned. However, the Pentagon, the Voice of America, and UK propaganda continue to pretend that the Houthi targeting is not tied to the Israel Defence Forces’ operations in Gaza, and carefully restricted to Israeli and allied targets.

As with the current economic and military situations, the Western media’s attempts to construct and maintain false narratives, and to limit the influence of alternative medias that do not respect the narrative, is being systematically undermined by Clown World’s inability to influence the Chinese and Russian medias.

It’s very interesting to see how long it will take US politicians, narrative police, and corporate interests to come to term with the fact that the USA is no longer a monopolar power and that the markets of the West are no longer the most sizable, most advanced, or the most profitable.

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Clown World is ALWAYS Fake

This is why you will seldom see me reacting to a CURRENT NEWS story anymore. Some of the reported items are legit, some of them are accurate in part, and a substantial percentage of them are little more than public theatre performed for the benefit of the masses, as Lara Logan observes:

Rep. Clay Higgins tells reporter that he has SEEN VIDEO EVIDENCE of POLICE walking into rooms, and then RE-EMERGING, dressed as TRUMP SUPPORTERS and CONSTRUCTION WORKERS. Also, GROUPS of what appear to be TRUMP SUPPORTERS roaming the HALLS OF THE CAPITAL well before the BREACH!

This doesn’t surprise me in the slightest. Everything in January 2020 was orchestrated and stage-managed. Very little of it was organic or real. While we don’t know what the actual truth is, we can be 100-percent confident that the official version is substantially, if not entirely, false.

“Conspiracy Theory” is just another name for what actually happened.

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Taleb Admits the Obvious

One of the things I admire about NN Taleb is his ability, unlike most intellectuals, to openly and unashamedly admit that he was wrong about something. That’s one of the reasons I take him seriously even on those rare occasions when I think he has gotten it wrong.

I concede that @DavidSacks is correct about the relative strength of the parties in the Ukraine war, and I was WRONG. Russia is not as weak as it seemed; it has staying power. This means a settlement is the likely outcome.

And by “likely outcome” he means “the rational outcome”. But since NATO is, by most perspectives, an intrinsically irrational party, I wouldn’t place too much confidence in that. After all, what is the point in Russia signing a third Minsk agreement with parties who have repeatedly proven to be agreement-incapable?

Still, it’s good to see the more intelligent elements of the mainstream perspective beginning to understand that Russia was always going to win its war against NATO in Ukraine.

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The Pulse of Fandom

Now that Bounding Into Comics has collapsed into convergence, a new champion arises from the ashes: FANDOM PULSE! The editor-in-chief, Jon del Arroz, puts out a call for writers and other volunteers.

Fandom Pulse is looking for writers! We’re building a pop culture site that’s explicitly right wing to fight the culture war against the fake news of CBR, Bleeding Cool, IGN, and others. The key is going to be content, and we need writers to help us get to the point where we have enough to compete. If you can write clear, consistent work on pop culture at about 500 words an article, please let me know. We’d love to have you. Send an email to fandompulse@gmail.com

It’s certainly off to an interesting start.

Snyder told Entertainment Weekly that he got the idea for Rebel Moon as a student in the late ‘80s. Creating a one-line pitch, he settled on “a ragtag team of warriors from different backgrounds assembled to fight for a common cause — but piloting spaceships and wielding laser guns instead of World War II bombers.”

His wife Deborah Snyder further reinforces the notion that Rebel Moon is totally original when she told EW that “Mostly everything right now is based on a book or based on a game. It’s a remake, or it’s a sequel,” and added, “There are very few times you get the opportunity to do something that’s wholly original.”

Now, the overall story of Snyder’s film has little to do with the book Rebel Moon, which is essentially a 90’s military SF take on Heinlein’s The Moon is a Harsh Mistress. I haven’t given the movie a moment’s thought; I just assumed Snyder thought, correctly, that it was a cool SF title. However, based on the description, it’s pretty clear that both the title and the core conflict of the movie were, at the very least, somewhat influenced by the novel written by The Original Cyberpunk and me. Which is fine, of course. It would be bizarre and hypocritical to insist it is not fitting that a work so clearly derivative of an earlier work should subsequently serve as the source of another derivative itself.

The lady would appear to be protesting both unnecessarily and just a little too much. After all, if it’s a farming colony planet that is rebelling, why is the film named Rebel Moon?

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