April 13, 2018

The Rise of the Crisis Actor Conspiracy Movement

In 'The Rise of the Crisis Actor Conspiracy Movement,’ Vice talks to crisis actor conspiracy theorists and the victims they attack. At 19:04 is one of the more disturbing, infuriating scenes.

Not long after the shooting, bloggers and conspiracy theorists baselessly accused survivors of the shooting of being paid actors who were working on behalf of the government and gun control groups to create a fictional event that would allow the government to take guns from the American people.

These crisis actor theories, once reserved to radical fringes of the internet, spread rapidly.
. . .
Just a week after the Parkland shooting, a video accusing one of the survivors of being a paid actor was the #1 trending video on Youtube.

More at Vice: https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/qvxxew/rise-of-the-crisis-actor-conspiracy-theory

April 7, 2018

Sinclair boycott begins!

I would LOVE for this boycott to catch fire and spread!

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/sinclair-backlash-political-candidates-amy-schumer_us_5ac78395e4b09d0a1192ffcd

Amy Schumer has apparently canceled a scheduled interview on a local news station owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group after critics decried the company for forcing its anchors to read a script casting doubt on media integrity, BuzzFeed reported Thursday.
...
She is joined by a handful of Democratic candidates who have so far pledged not to advertise on Sinclair-owned networks: Maryland gubernatorial candidate Krish Vignarajah, Kentucky congressional candidate Amy McGrath, Maryland congressional candidate David Trone, North Carolina congressional candidate Ken Romley and New York congressional candidate Gareth Rhodes.

“We’ve decided not to support a corporate media giant that bullies its employees into reading propaganda,” Romley said in a statement. McGrath said she felt that Sinclair’s script “eerily mimics the propaganda efforts” of “authoritarian regimes.”
...

April 6, 2018

Russian spy reluctantly and belatedly imposes sanctions against Russian oligarch.

After giving them time to protect their assets and financially insulate themselves from US sanctions, Trump imposes sanctions against Russian oligarchs.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-administration-imposes-sweeping-new-sanctions-on-russian-elite/2018/04/06/97df2782-398e-11e8-b57c-9445cc4dfa5e_story.html