As far as I can tell the original source of this is… puck.news, which I have never heard of before, and is apparently some kind of snooty, recently started, New York based … ‘high society’ oriented, long form journalism style website that seems to be trying to basically be the New York Times editorial section, but better.
Heres the actual source that claims that Don Lemon said he now watches Ben Shapiro.
Here is the relevant part, buried amidst a gigantic list of basically advertisements for various products with apparently celebrity endorsements for all of them, from, you know, a startup ‘journalism’ outfit that seemingly no one has ever heard of before.
Since leaving corporate media I cut the cord. I have an extensive, eclectic streaming palate now: Fellow Travelers on Showtime; PBD Podcast (it’s very conservative); The Ben Shapiro Show (I want to hear his take on Israel); Pivot (of course); Piers Morgan Uncensored (very real, authentic conversations you don’t get in corporate media); Pod Save America (obvi); The Daily (every single day); Smartless (the best); The Adam Friedland Show (smart, irreverent, funny; download the Chet Hanks episode for evidence). –Don Lemon, journalist
Ok, so then, within a matter of days, this gets heavily editorialized and ran with by the NYPost, a bunch of local Fox affiliates, and a slew of other right wing grifter/rage generation outlets.
And now here it is on BlueSky, which is basically a twitter knock off clone founded via basically a grifter who is really good at appealing to technically incompetent people (they lied and misrepresented their technical abilities/structure and what makes them stand out in ways that are ludicrous and obvious to those who know tech) and also via focusing on essentially mastering appeals to those easily swayed by inclusive language, and the current mass trend of woke scolding.
Basically, this all stinks to high heaven and seems to be a perfect example of the internet doing the internet thing, starting with a dubious source and then the story grows and morphs to suit the needs of whatever particular audience needs to hear to propogate it further.
Even if there is actual truth to the fundamental claims, I fail to see how a basically centrist journalist who has been in the industry for years and now says he is interested in expanding his media diet … how does that make him a grifter?
He would be a grifter if he /intentionally and knowingly promoted false stories and misleading narratives, for thr aim of making money/.
If he starts /doing that/ then yes he would be a grifter… but he isnt. He seems to have retired.
I think the “grifter” comment comes from—if this quote is to be believed, which I appreciate your due diligence on—the man turning to the well-worn path of a person of color finding profitability and open arms as a conservative-come-lately.
Again, the whole quote changes the context, because Pod Save America is establishment liberal as it comes, but if he were to go from the consistent state of righteous indignation over conservatism/trumpism on air for CNN to proudly hawking Ben Shapiro’s show, it would’ve suggested his well dried up in the liberal market, so he switched to milking the conservatives for cash.
Again, I don’t think the whole quote (if even that is to be fully believed) lends itself to this, but to just take the worst item in the list and turn it into a blurb about how Don Lemmon “bashes liberal media, praises Ben Shapiro after CNN ousting” is very much an internet news thing to do. It gets clicks. Engagement. Anger. And it’s very much a liberal/conservative thing to do. “My team rules, anyone not falling in line is dead to me” etc.
I agree with you, I get that the story as it has evolved now would place Lemon into that basically ‘sold out my principles to make more money’ narrative…
…but the problem is that /even if the Lemon quote is real/, it still does not actually, factually back up that narrative!
See this is why I got thrown out from being a copy editor at my University newspaper almost two decades ago now, I actually valued journalistic integrity and the truth over being misleading.
The actual quote is that he is interested in hearing Shapiro’s views on a subject.
That, to a former person working in the field of journalism, could very possibly simply indicates he wants to understand Shapiro’s presentation style, or his market demo and how they get appealed to.
Without any actual evidence he is planning on like becoming a fucking featured guest on Shapiro’s show, or getting his own show under Shapiro’s media company or something, I see no way you can be actually valid in claiming Lemon is now on the grifter path.
It plays into the narrative disingenuously.
Which is why its perfect to suspect some bullshit is going on.
If there is /any/ actual evidence Lemon is actually planning on becoming a grifter… you would run with that instead!
At least if you actually cared about not being journalistically irresponsible.
Oi vei, now I am back in that dingy unused classroom arguing with my former editor again, fuck.
Oh I’m fully with you. I was just explaining where the “grifter” labeling was coming from. The true issue, as you pointed out, is journalistic ethics in the splicing of one example of media he is consuming out to splash across a misleading headline. For the sole purpose of exactly what is happening, actually: people sharing the headline to create controversy where there really isn’t any. It’s gross and so, so damaging.
But so is the state of political discourse these days. This is the depth at which all discussion takes place these days. Headline, anger, share, repeat. We are so fucked.
As I have said to others on lemmy, I am /tired/ and think I am just going to make a video game before I die, because I have a lot of relevant experience from tech jobs and hobbies, and more important /I would enjoy making it/.
I have literally no hope at all the world in general will get better for the average person, climate change will fuck us all and /maybe if i am lucky/ in 10 years I can end up in a modest cabin or apartment somewhere in a northern US state or in Canada and /hopefully/ be able to afford food water and electricity as the oceans acidify, farmland dies and has to be newly founded further north, wars intensify, governments fascistify, crime gets worse, and everywhere that is even kind of liveable gets more and more flooded by climate refugees.
As far as I can tell the original source of this is… puck.news, which I have never heard of before, and is apparently some kind of snooty, recently started, New York based … ‘high society’ oriented, long form journalism style website that seems to be trying to basically be the New York Times editorial section, but better.
Heres the actual source that claims that Don Lemon said he now watches Ben Shapiro.
https://puck.news/pucks-3rd-annual-guide-to-mirth-and-merriment/
Dec 11, 2023.
Here is the relevant part, buried amidst a gigantic list of basically advertisements for various products with apparently celebrity endorsements for all of them, from, you know, a startup ‘journalism’ outfit that seemingly no one has ever heard of before.
Ok, so then, within a matter of days, this gets heavily editorialized and ran with by the NYPost, a bunch of local Fox affiliates, and a slew of other right wing grifter/rage generation outlets.
And now here it is on BlueSky, which is basically a twitter knock off clone founded via basically a grifter who is really good at appealing to technically incompetent people (they lied and misrepresented their technical abilities/structure and what makes them stand out in ways that are ludicrous and obvious to those who know tech) and also via focusing on essentially mastering appeals to those easily swayed by inclusive language, and the current mass trend of woke scolding.
Basically, this all stinks to high heaven and seems to be a perfect example of the internet doing the internet thing, starting with a dubious source and then the story grows and morphs to suit the needs of whatever particular audience needs to hear to propogate it further.
Even if there is actual truth to the fundamental claims, I fail to see how a basically centrist journalist who has been in the industry for years and now says he is interested in expanding his media diet … how does that make him a grifter?
He would be a grifter if he /intentionally and knowingly promoted false stories and misleading narratives, for thr aim of making money/.
If he starts /doing that/ then yes he would be a grifter… but he isnt. He seems to have retired.
I think the “grifter” comment comes from—if this quote is to be believed, which I appreciate your due diligence on—the man turning to the well-worn path of a person of color finding profitability and open arms as a conservative-come-lately.
Again, the whole quote changes the context, because Pod Save America is establishment liberal as it comes, but if he were to go from the consistent state of righteous indignation over conservatism/trumpism on air for CNN to proudly hawking Ben Shapiro’s show, it would’ve suggested his well dried up in the liberal market, so he switched to milking the conservatives for cash.
Again, I don’t think the whole quote (if even that is to be fully believed) lends itself to this, but to just take the worst item in the list and turn it into a blurb about how Don Lemmon “bashes liberal media, praises Ben Shapiro after CNN ousting” is very much an internet news thing to do. It gets clicks. Engagement. Anger. And it’s very much a liberal/conservative thing to do. “My team rules, anyone not falling in line is dead to me” etc.
I agree with you, I get that the story as it has evolved now would place Lemon into that basically ‘sold out my principles to make more money’ narrative…
…but the problem is that /even if the Lemon quote is real/, it still does not actually, factually back up that narrative!
See this is why I got thrown out from being a copy editor at my University newspaper almost two decades ago now, I actually valued journalistic integrity and the truth over being misleading.
The actual quote is that he is interested in hearing Shapiro’s views on a subject.
That, to a former person working in the field of journalism, could very possibly simply indicates he wants to understand Shapiro’s presentation style, or his market demo and how they get appealed to.
Without any actual evidence he is planning on like becoming a fucking featured guest on Shapiro’s show, or getting his own show under Shapiro’s media company or something, I see no way you can be actually valid in claiming Lemon is now on the grifter path.
It plays into the narrative disingenuously.
Which is why its perfect to suspect some bullshit is going on.
If there is /any/ actual evidence Lemon is actually planning on becoming a grifter… you would run with that instead!
At least if you actually cared about not being journalistically irresponsible.
Oi vei, now I am back in that dingy unused classroom arguing with my former editor again, fuck.
Oh I’m fully with you. I was just explaining where the “grifter” labeling was coming from. The true issue, as you pointed out, is journalistic ethics in the splicing of one example of media he is consuming out to splash across a misleading headline. For the sole purpose of exactly what is happening, actually: people sharing the headline to create controversy where there really isn’t any. It’s gross and so, so damaging.
But so is the state of political discourse these days. This is the depth at which all discussion takes place these days. Headline, anger, share, repeat. We are so fucked.
Yeeep.
As I have said to others on lemmy, I am /tired/ and think I am just going to make a video game before I die, because I have a lot of relevant experience from tech jobs and hobbies, and more important /I would enjoy making it/.
I have literally no hope at all the world in general will get better for the average person, climate change will fuck us all and /maybe if i am lucky/ in 10 years I can end up in a modest cabin or apartment somewhere in a northern US state or in Canada and /hopefully/ be able to afford food water and electricity as the oceans acidify, farmland dies and has to be newly founded further north, wars intensify, governments fascistify, crime gets worse, and everywhere that is even kind of liveable gets more and more flooded by climate refugees.
Wheee!
I really appreciate you back-engineering that. Thank you.
Same. I love reading “This is bullshit, here’s why, you’re welcome” posts. I really appreciate the work that goes into them.
As you can see in my other comment, as a former copy editor for albeit just a University paper, I took that job apparently too seriously.
This triggered my bullshit detector, and yep, turned out to most likely be a stinker of a story.