26 December 2020 #MAGAanalysis #Overturn
Underneath The News, Beneath The Blackout Blanket
I thought to call today's mediation, "The Death Of The News Cycle," but couldn't. It may be ill. One day it may die. But it's power remains vast, and we're going to discuss that first.
More from Pasquale "Pat" Scopelliti
More from News
.@louiscasiano from @FoxNews reached out to ask if we are actually planning on contaminating the hotel rooms of Proud Boys with bedbugs. The short answer is no, we don't even know if that's possible. But here's our full response.
That post was clearly satire. We have no idea how one would actually go about the activity that was suggested.
What is not satire are the numerous death threats that were sent to us by Trump supporters in the lead up to the November election.
Here are a few tweets depicting detailed and credible death threats that you didn’t ask for comment on:
https://t.co/UiI12M0Aey.
https://t.co/PPe75XWImX
https://t.co/4Ia8659wK8
https://t.co/n5ov6R8Gyh
Each of those tweets includes the email address of the sender. We wish you luck in reaching out to them for comment.
Further, the hate crimes committed by the Proud Boys during their last visit to DC were not satire. A marauding band of drunk white nationalists stormed through our city, tearing down and burning religious symbols declaring respect for Black lives.

That post was clearly satire. We have no idea how one would actually go about the activity that was suggested.
What is not satire are the numerous death threats that were sent to us by Trump supporters in the lead up to the November election.
Here are a few tweets depicting detailed and credible death threats that you didn’t ask for comment on:
https://t.co/UiI12M0Aey.
https://t.co/PPe75XWImX
https://t.co/4Ia8659wK8
https://t.co/n5ov6R8Gyh
Yup. They have no interest in public safety. Inspector Glover is doing everything he can to support @realDonaldTrump's coup. @MayorBowser get your cops in line. pic.twitter.com/VAAu58v7N5
— ShutDownDC (@ShutDown_DC) November 15, 2020
Each of those tweets includes the email address of the sender. We wish you luck in reaching out to them for comment.
Further, the hate crimes committed by the Proud Boys during their last visit to DC were not satire. A marauding band of drunk white nationalists stormed through our city, tearing down and burning religious symbols declaring respect for Black lives.
As someone who's spent, conservatively, thousands of hours reporting on and thinking about Seth Rich, Fox News, and conspiracy theories, the timing of the settlement highlighted in @benyt's new column doesn't infuriate me as much as the substance of it 1/x
What's infuriating is the absence of any contrition, apology, or remediation by Fox, especially @seanhannity.
As I've reported, Hannity arguably did more than anyone else to amplify the baseless, discredited, and cruel conspiracy theories about Seth. 2/x
.@seanhannity hyped it on multiple nights on his Fox show, on his radio show, and on Twitter. We're talking about a combined potential audience here of ~tens of millions of people.~
Imagine one of the loudest voices in TV saying the following about your dead brother or dead son:
Even after https://t.co/jg1xOw4YqF retracted its original story about Seth and WikiLeaks, Hannity kept hammering away.
“All you in the liberal media,” he said on his radio show, “I am not https://t.co/YVoDTvSQbr or https://t.co/jg1xOw4YqF. I retracted nothing.” 4/x
Only when Aaron, Seth's brother, pleaded with Hannity and one of his producers, Porter Berry, did Hannity back down.
Even then, he didn't retract or apologize.
Instead he said: “Out of respect for the family’s wishes, for now, I am not discussing this matter at this time.” 5/x
What's infuriating is the absence of any contrition, apology, or remediation by Fox, especially @seanhannity.
As I've reported, Hannity arguably did more than anyone else to amplify the baseless, discredited, and cruel conspiracy theories about Seth. 2/x
.@seanhannity hyped it on multiple nights on his Fox show, on his radio show, and on Twitter. We're talking about a combined potential audience here of ~tens of millions of people.~
Imagine one of the loudest voices in TV saying the following about your dead brother or dead son:

Even after https://t.co/jg1xOw4YqF retracted its original story about Seth and WikiLeaks, Hannity kept hammering away.
“All you in the liberal media,” he said on his radio show, “I am not https://t.co/YVoDTvSQbr or https://t.co/jg1xOw4YqF. I retracted nothing.” 4/x

Only when Aaron, Seth's brother, pleaded with Hannity and one of his producers, Porter Berry, did Hannity back down.
Even then, he didn't retract or apologize.
Instead he said: “Out of respect for the family’s wishes, for now, I am not discussing this matter at this time.” 5/x
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I just finished Eric Adler's The Battle of the Classics, and wanted to say something about Joel Christiansen's review linked below. I am not sure what motivates the review (I speculate a bit below), but it gives a very misleading impression of the book. 1/x
The meat of the criticism is that the history Adler gives is insufficiently critical. Adler describes a few figures who had a great influence on how the modern US university was formed. It's certainly critical: it focuses on the social Darwinism of these figures. 2/x
Other insinuations and suggestions in the review seem wildly off the mark, distorted, or inappropriate-- for example, that the book is clickbaity (it is scholarly) or conservative (hardly) or connected to the events at the Capitol (give me a break). 3/x
The core question: in what sense is classics inherently racist? Classics is old. On Adler's account, it begins in ancient Rome and is revived in the Renaissance. Slavery (Christiansen's primary concern) is also very old. Let's say classics is an education for slaveowners. 4/x
It's worth remembering that literacy itself is elite throughout most of this history. Literacy is, then, also the education of slaveowners. We can honor oral and musical traditions without denying that literacy is, generally, good. 5/x
As someone\u2019s who\u2019s read the book, this review strikes me as tremendously unfair. It mostly faults Adler for not writing the book the reviewer wishes he had! https://t.co/pqpt5Ziivj
— Teresa M. Bejan (@tmbejan) January 12, 2021
The meat of the criticism is that the history Adler gives is insufficiently critical. Adler describes a few figures who had a great influence on how the modern US university was formed. It's certainly critical: it focuses on the social Darwinism of these figures. 2/x
Other insinuations and suggestions in the review seem wildly off the mark, distorted, or inappropriate-- for example, that the book is clickbaity (it is scholarly) or conservative (hardly) or connected to the events at the Capitol (give me a break). 3/x
The core question: in what sense is classics inherently racist? Classics is old. On Adler's account, it begins in ancient Rome and is revived in the Renaissance. Slavery (Christiansen's primary concern) is also very old. Let's say classics is an education for slaveowners. 4/x
It's worth remembering that literacy itself is elite throughout most of this history. Literacy is, then, also the education of slaveowners. We can honor oral and musical traditions without denying that literacy is, generally, good. 5/x