THURSDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2023
Resembles the revised Fox News: We weren't familiar with Ken Bensinger's work until this very morning.
This morning, he authors a fascinating, though depressing, front-page report in the New York Times. We've already quoted the headline which appears in today's print editions.
Online, the dual headlines say this:
Inside the Troll Army Waging Trump’s Online Campaign
A team of meme-makers has been flooding social media with pro-Trump posts riddled with sexist and racist tropes. Donald Trump is cheering them on.
In a nutshell, the so-called "democratization of media" is here, and Journalist Bensinger has it! All in all, he's writing about a bunch of dopes who do their political work online.
In this case, they're working on behalf of former president Donald J. Trump. To our ear, what this "troll army" is doing sounds a bit like the largely reinvented (and largely undiscussed) new, devolved version of Fox:
BENSINGER (12/14/23): Mr. Heestand doesn’t work for Mr. Trump, but he belongs to a small circle of video meme-makers who have effectively served as a shadow online ad agency for his presidential campaign. Led by a little-known podcaster and life coach, this meme team has spent much of the year flooding social media with content that lionizes the former president, promotes his White House bid and brutally denigrates his opponents.
Much of the group, which refers to itself as Trump’s Online War Machine, operates anonymously, adopting the cartoonish aesthetic and unrelenting cruelty of internet trolls.
Cheered on by Mr. Trump, the group traffics freely in misinformation, artificial intelligence and digital forgeries known as deepfakes. Its memes are riddled with racist stereotypes, demeaning tropes about L.G.B.T.Q. people and broad scatological humor.
Their most vulgar invectives are often aimed at women, particularly those seen as enemies of Mr. Trump. In one video, the former United Nations ambassador Nikki Haley’s face is pasted on the body of a nearly naked woman, who kicks a man with the face of Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida in the groin. Another depicts Casey DeSantis, the governor’s wife, as a porn star. Women with ties to Mr. DeSantis are often shown with red knees, suggesting they have performed a sex act.
Assuming the accuracy of Bensinger's reporting, this is now part of the American discourse, all thanks to the new technologies which have helped create the "democratization of media."
We recommend the entire report. We were specifically reminded of the new and devolved Fox News by the reference to this troll army's fondness for "broad scatological humor." Bensinger's reference to a "cartoonish aesthetic" also rang a faint bell.
We've seen no one comment on the unmistakable drift of the new and devolved Fox News. We hope to report on this topic in greater length at some point, but for today, we'll simply say this:
In the current Fox News Channel lineup, only Laura Ingraham (7 p.m.) and Sean Hannity (9 p.m.) are continuing with recognizable forms of classic prime time partisan "cable news." Elsewhere, the Fox primetime lineup is increasingly dominated by thoroughly dumbbell tabloid offerings (Jesse Watters, 8 p.m.) and lots of lowbrow humor.
The red tribe perspective is always present, but it's the lowbrow humor and the dumbbell tabloid aesthetic which are now driving the train.
In the realm of lowbrow humor, we start by citing Gutfeld!, the channel's 10 p.m. offering. Serra High School's own Greg Gutfeld is also the driving force on The Five (5 p.m.), where he often seems to be cast in the role of the least pleasant dog in the world.
There is less and less straight-ahead "opinion journalism" on this red tribe channel. Even Ingraham spends most nights chuckling with Raymond Arroyo, her oddball EWTN sidekick, before her hour is done.
On balance, the channel is irretrievably dumb, but this comes in a new type of packaging. Increasingly, the channel features a "cartoonish aesthetic" and varieties of "scatological humor" in place of traditional rants.
This reinvented channel is very dumb—but it's dumb in a way which is largely new and devolved. We'll offer examples in the future.
The channel's newer shows are remarkably tabloid and dumb. As a matter of basic anthropology, ratings remain quite strong.
Bye bye…Mr. Heestand…troll meme-maker…
ReplyDelete
ReplyDelete"but it's dumb in a way which is largely new and devolved"
Well, if you feel nostalgic, you can always pony up 72 bucks and watch Tucker Carlson in those horrible democratized media.
One can get the same thing from a drunk at the end of the bar for free.
DeleteTwenty bucks says Tucker will blame Bidenomics, when no one wastes their $72.
Emperor Caesar Augustus is a greater historical figure than Jesus Christ. I am Corby.
ReplyDeleteWhy is Somerby watching this stuff? Liberals don’t. It is crude, sexist, racist and “devolved” because that is what the red tribe likes to watch. They are crude, racist, sexist, devolved (or never evolved) people. They behave like the memes they watch. That’s why we can’t have nice things.
ReplyDeleteIs Somerby a child? This isn’t happening because of democracy but because the norms that restrain all of us were removed by Trump, permitting his followers to let it all hang out in unpleasant ways.
Liberals find it sad — conservatives find it funny. That isn’t babel. It is Trump’s fault for letting cretins track mud into the house.
This is America sister. Norms are for poor people we don't allow in. Adventure is for the free people.
Deleteanon 5:27, here TDH is leveling his critical gaze at Fox - and you fault him for that! You ask, is TDH a "child?" I might ask are you an idiot?
DeleteReal liberals hate Fox without ever watching it. They get guidance from above.
DeleteI am Corby.
12:36, 5:27 is critical of Somerby’s overall themes, not a specific attack on Fox News.
DeleteThe notion that Hannity and Ingram can be devolved from seems like a stretch, but I’ll keep an open mind.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous trolls that traffic freely in misinformation? Sounds like Corby with all her Roy Moore bullshit.
ReplyDeleteNo-one who traffics in Roy Moore baloney is a true Corby.
Deletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3WhDE-O6lc
DeleteRoy Moore likes ‘em young, Somerby said ‘hey, nothing wrong with that, I like ‘em young too’.
DeleteIt became problematic when Roy dipped down into the minors.
Claudine Gay and Sally Kornbluth have not resigned. I am Korbi.
ReplyDeleteWell, we all knew the non-Jewish white chick wasn’t going to make it.
DeletePenn is a private institution, but it gets some public funding. Or it used to.
Deletehttps://6abc.com/amp/university-of-pennsylvania-school-veterinary-medicine-funding-penn-vet/14186922/
Bob, if you are gonna make it a habit of targeting Fox, why don't you summon up some of your stand up instincts and make it funny. We're missing Jon Stewart here.
ReplyDeleteFox is probably still the most watched cable news outlet, Bob’s mission was once to monitor national political reporting. That people in the comment section are shocking he’s looking at Fox and think his only purpose here is to bash liberals really illustrates how his work devolved over time in a big way.
ReplyDeleteSomerby is saying the red tribe’s “troll” tactics are dumb, yet in reality it’s highly effective in motivating their voters, and it does not offend the sensibilities of anyone to the degree that they would switch from the red to the blue tribe.
ReplyDeleteIn reality, what’s dumb are Somerby’s notions, on pretty much anything and everything.