Rachel Maddow and Mark Zuckerberg separated at birth? Plus a not-so-sly Fox and cowardly Mad Men.

Rachel

Rachel's Evil Twin

NEW YORK (Cranky News Service):- The New York Crank’s crack investigative news team, (consisting of me, when I have the time for it) have determined that Rachel Maddow has an evil twin, who is none other than Mark Zuckerberg.

“Using the most finely-honed facial recognition software available,  which is to say our own eyes, we have compared Zuckerberg and Maddow numerous times and have reached the inescapable conclusion that the two must be twins,” the Crank team reported.

However, the Crank investigative team rejects the rumor that Maddow, a good-humored progressive commentator on MSNBC by night, undergoes a chemically-induced Jekyll-and-Hyde transformation after her show and emerges each morning as the supposedly-naive-but-truly-evil Zuckerberg — undermining confidence in the news by permitting Donald Trump and others to propagate falsehoods about people and current events on Facebook.

“Maddow has a genuine sense of humor, even about grave matters,” the Crank investigative team reported. “Zuckerberg, on the other hand, wouldn’t know a joke if it bit off his funnybone.”

In fact, the Crank team said, if Zuckerberg were called out for not laughing, ever, he would probably insincerely stare straight ahead and say, “We’ll just have to try harder to recognize jokes and laugh at them next time.”

The quick sly fox 

jumps over Photoshop

and snares itself

The following is lifted from Variety, the show business news organ:

Fox News has removed a digitally altered photo that claimed to be from protests in Seattle when it was actually a combination of pictures from different cities. 

On Friday, Fox News posted a photo of a man holding a rifle in front of a store with broken windows. Another picture showed a burning car and store with a person running down the street with the caption “Crazy Town.” It was featured alongside an article about protests in Seattle, but the photo was actually from St. Paul, Minn., taken on May 30, according to The New York Times, CNN and The Seattle Times Fox News removed the photos after several inquiries by The Seattle Times, which called the incident “a clear violation of ethical standards for news organizations.”

A clear ethical violation? By Fox? What an unexpected surprise! I am shocked, shocked!

Mad men to news media:

"Let's you be brave."

Never underestimate the cowardice of some of the people who make advertising decisions for a living. 

Turns out that some advertisers don’t want their brands appearing in a medium that reports on Black Lives Matter protests because, umm, well you know. Those people.

But if the explanation for why you can’t sell detergent or stock market guidance in a space where BLM gets mentioned is a bit fuzzy, the mechanism for only advertising on news about happy people with happy problems is razor sharp, so watch your fingers.

The trade paper Advertising Age reports:

Content that contains a blocked keyword is automatically excluded from programmatic buys, which means publishers lose out on ad revenue, forcing them to choose between coverage of important events or coverage that pays the bills. 

The lists also perpetuate stereotypes—that content relevant to black people is controversial—and algorithms propagate words from list to list, compounding the problem. 

Most news media try to cover the news anyway. That’s brave.

But the wonderful makers of America’s many fine products? Not so brave.

Winners of the October 2019 Crank Awards: given on highly sporadic occasions, during perilous times, to people who do or say something that’s either good, or bad, for whatever messes we’re all in at the moment

Best retro photograph of some advertising  guys pretending to rob a
Seattle bank (circa 1966)

Best putdown of Rudolph Giuliani by a newspaper columnist goes to Carl Hiaasen of the Miami Herald for this: “By his own actions, Giuliani has made himself the most visible stooge in the Donald Trump impeachment comedy. Rudy’s worse than a loose cannon. He’s a meandering cluster bomb.”

The Sneaky-Creepy Political Thuggery Award given only to the incredibly rich guy who most ham-handedly tries to interfere in an election: This time it goes to Mark Zuckerberg. The Zuck evidently managed to get his lips close enough to Pete Buttigieg’s ear, via an intermediary, to whisper sweet nothings about potential campaign hires. This act helped insert into the Buttigieg power structure two people likely to help prevent any harm to the Facebook Misinformation Empire, should Buttigieg somehow manage to become president.

The Cheap Piker Guhzillionaire Award. I almost surprised myself by not giving it to Donald Trump, despite his now-abandoned attempt to locate the G7 conference at one of his own failing resorts “at cost.” "At cost" means whatever you want it to mean. In a failing resort, it means, at the very least, some cash flow instead of no cash flow. The offer later got revised to “free” after it became clear to Trump he couldn’t get away with it. I'm guessing Trump figured that if he couldn't win the game he'd at least inflate the lie.
     However, after lengthy and agonized consideration, the Cheap Piker Guhzillionaire Award Committee, which consists of myself, has given the prize to Jeff Bezos. Bezos gets the award for offering Amazon users a $10 coupon to allow him to track those customers all around the web and sell the information for millions to the likes of McDonald’s GM, Danone, and Staples. And if you'll sell your tracking rights to Bezos for a $10 coupon, I'll give you three bucks for your house.

The WTF?! Award to Hillary Clinton, for claiming to be outing Tulsi Gabbard as a “Russian Asset.” Gimme a break! What Gabbard is, quite clearly, is a second-string presidential wannabe, who served honorably in the military but who had zero chance of winning the nomination. She still has no chance, but thanks to Hillary, she now might prove to be the kind of wedge issue that will help to divide Democrats and grease the skids for a second Trump term. And Hillary herself isn’t quite denying that she might — well, maybe, sorta, perhaps — throw her own hat back into the ring. Because she hasn’t done enough damage to the Democratic party. Yet.

The award for best and most grisly human self-immolation in front of the press and news cameras so far this year:

That’s all for today, folks. Come back for more in the near future — assuming there is a near future.

Norwegian editor sticks it to Mark Zuckerberg

The Norwegian journal is called Aftenposten. The editor is Espen Egil Hansen. His article takes Mark Zuckerberg to task because Facebook tried to censor a world-famous war photograph, and finally knocked Hansen off Facebook for insisting the picture should remain.

At the end of his article, Hansen writes, "International media outlets: You may use our photos of Espen Egil Hansen and Aftenposten’s publications for this story. You may also use video material in your coverage."

I'm not sure whether this blog qualifies as an International media outlet, so I'll simply refer you here. Go, read, and try to keep your mind from exploding at the small mindedness of Facebook's management.

Oh, and this is the photograph, a classic of photo journalism illustrating in the most human terms I've ever seen the horror of war.

UPDATE: The Boston Globe is now reporting that Facebook has relented and decided to allow the horrifying picture of children fleeing a napalm attack  to remain on Facebook after all.

How kind of Facebook.

Cross posted at No More Mister Nice Blog

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