• As dissed on Fox NewS •

Shooting the Messenger

online reporting by INDependent journalist Dean Sterling Jones

Category: Media and Advertising

  • Mumbai Cyber Police Shut Down Gay Modi Photoshop

    BuzzFeed deletes homoerotic photoshop of Indian prime minister following legal threats from Mumbai police, highlighting gay rights issues, censorship in India The doctored image, which depicts Indian PM Narendra Modi embracing his right-hand man Rajnath Singh on an idyllic beach, is one of 18 related images included in a January 4, 2016 BuzzFeed listicle by…

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  • The Takedown Conspiracy

    Articles by WashPost, Techdirt about fake takedown requests targeted by anonymous defamation takedown request Last year, a Washington Post investigation by First Amendment expert Eugene Volokh (of the Volokh Conspiracy, now published at Reason.com) exposed how some people were using forged court orders to force Google to delist links. Via “Apparent forged court order for…

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  • HuffPost’s Blogger Platform: A Brief History of Fake News

    The HuffPost’s discontinued blogger platform was used to publish politically motivated fake news articles and unvetted opinion pieces. Here are a few of the most notable examples. Last week, the HuffPost announced it was ending its contributor platform, which permitted anyone with a keyboard and an Internet connection to self-publish articles on the HuffPost website. The…

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  • HuffPost Ends Unpaid Blogger Platform

    HuffPost ends its platform for unpaid bloggers after “puff piece” about Donald Trump’s criminal ex-business partner Last month, I blogged about the HuffPost’s retraction of a paid article published via its contributor platform that was intended to burnish the reputation of former Trump advisor Felix Sater. Via “Who Paid for the HuffPost Puff Piece on Trump’s Felonious Friend?” by…

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  • Amy Alkon Sees Rude People

    Amazon deletes bogus one-star reviews after “cycle mob” targets author Amy Alkon Amy Alkon (aka The Advice Goddess) is a California-based syndicated advice columnist and author of science-based books I See Rude People (2009) and Good Manners for Nice People Who Sometimes Say “F*ck” (2014), which humorously catalogue – with Seinfeldian detail – the most common, least…

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  • InfoWarrior$

    Fiverr accounts are charging up to $135 to publish sponsored content on conspiracy website Planet InfoWars Alex Jones (source) Last month, I blogged about the HuffPost’s retraction of a sponsored article it appears was part of a coordinated PR campaign to burnish the reputation of former Trump advisor Felix Sater. The author, an Indian content marketer…

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  • HuffPost Deletes Pay-to-Play Puff Piece on Former Trump Business Partner

    HuffPost deletes sponsored news story about controversial “Russia-gate” figure/former Donald Trump business partner Felix Sater Last week, I blogged about a coordinated PR campaign seemingly intended to burnish the reputation of controversial Russian-American real estate investor Felix Sater, who collaborated with Trump on a number of high-profile development projects. Now it emerges that U.S. news…

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  • NBT Films: Debunked Again

    Techdirt reports my post about debunked YouTuber’s copyright complaint against fact-checking website Snopes source Via “Snopes Debunks Fake YouTube Video; Video’s Creator Responds With A Bogus DMCA Notice” by Tim Cushing, Techdirt, December 6, 2017: from the pressing-the-shut-up-button dept Nothing But the Truth Films (NBT) has a credibility problem. Oh, the irony, I would normally…

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  • Sekulow Gets Blindsided

    Trump-affiliated lawyer Jordan Sekulow’s rambling on-air response to news that former Trump adviser Michael Flynn had been charged with lying to the FBI Amid the American carnage of yesterday’s news that former national security adviser Michael Flynn has pleaded guilty to making false statements to the FBI, you might have missed this gem via Trump-affiliated lawyer…

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  • Faux News about Fox News?

    Did Fox bury news that former Trump adviser Michael Flynn pleaded guilty to making false statements to the FBI? In October, I helped debunk the claim that Fox News failed to report the recent indictment of former Trump campaign aide Paul Manafort in favour of a story about cheeseburger emojis. Now comes the claim that Fox…

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