All the president’s shitty men
Let’s talk about journalism and that recent Reader cover story
There I was, basking in the warm glow of Big Screen (aka the TV, as opposed to Tiny Screen, aka my phone, which I often have out while watching Big Screen [no limits on screen in this household, baby!!]), and questioning my purpose in life. I don’t say this to milk sympathy; ruminating on my directionlessness has become a fun—nay, imperative—activity during the pandemic, and usually results in some next-level self-reflection right about the time I hit play on the second movie of the night.
In this case, it was All The President’s Men, the masterful paranoid thriller about Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, the reporters from The Washington Post who brought down Nixon. It’s a great film. Highly recommended if you haven’t seen it, even if it’s basically just journalist porn. I mean, sure, Woodward later went on to screw us all over with the knowledge that Trump knew about COVID’s deadliness, and withheld that information for months in order to make it a gotchamoment in his recently-released book, but let thee who hath not downplayed the greatest health crisis of our generation for financial gain cast the first stone, I say.
But watching two journalists exhaustively investigate, dutifully crack the case, and “follow the money,” sparked something in me. Eureeka, I thought, tomorrow I’m going to wake up and do some real journalist-ing. I chugged the last of my nth glass of wine. Yep, tomorrow I’m gonna do it.
And then the gods of journalism dropped a story right onto my lap.
The USPS had unveiled the design of their new mail trucks!
Jk it was this embarrassing Reader cover story:
Readers of this newsletter—and most sane people—should already know that the Reader is shit, so I won’t spend a lot of time explaining why it’s shit, just that it’s published by an anti-abortion, homophobic nut job and pretty much reads as if someone made a weekly publication for rich white people who think the daily newspaper is too threatening. And yes, I have friends who’ve written for it, and even have had a cover story there myself, but I also once accepted a free chicken-cheese bake from a gas station because the employee “was going to throw it out anyway,” so yeah, we’ve all done things in the past we’re not proud of.
So, no, the Reader is not a pillar of journalistic fortitude—and honestly I kinda forgot they were still printing during the pandemic—but it’s been a while since the the lifestyle rag went full-on Fox News batshit, and that’s exactly what writer Eric Bartl’s cover story “Local antifascists turn fascist” does.
To list out every instance in Bartl’s story that was egregiously misrepresentative, slanted or outright propagandist would be to basically copy and paste the entire article—a pedantic and empty effort that will likely mean nothing to a white, hateful and beer-bloated audience. No doubt it would get me labeled as “divisive” by right-wingers.
Like, I could point out that the the only people profiled in the stories have ties to QAnon and white supremacist group Defend East County (DEC), that latter of which got removed from Facebook last October for being a hate group.
Or that web version of the story links to a video that shows antifa “attacking [a] group without provocation” without mentioning that one of the victims is Bob Garland who, as uncovered by internet sleuths SDAgainstFash, is a member of American Guard, an extremist group “with connections to anti-immigrant extremism, hatred, and violence.”
Or that it printed a picture of a man they mistakenly identify as an antifa aggressor—essentially doxxing him and opening him up to white supremacist retaliation—only to recant that accusation in the online version.
Or that one of the main subjects of the article, John Cocozza, whose woe-is-me-I-got-hit-with-a-board-why-can’t-we-all-just-get-along appeal for sympathy gets major play, while his involvement in DEC is never mentioned (San Diego’s other propagandist news outlet, KUSI, also interviewed Cocozza with no mention of his involvement in the hate group).
(It’s also funny to note that from the looks of his Twitter, Cocozza is a softcore porn photographer for something called Bikini Girl Magazine and also a huge Star Wars nerd, which, you know, I can’t really judge him for those, but which definitely falls in line with the horny, angry nerdery that perfected online weaponization via 4chan, Gamergate, incels, etc.—all of which, I would argue, could be seen as preambles to the hate that Trump normalized).
Or that the article doesn’t mention that Pacific Beach Patriot March occurred only three days after the siege on the capitol until the second-to-last page in the story.
Or that author Eric Bartl likes to pal around with DEC founder Justin Haskins, was active in the DEC Facebook group, and has a history of writing Defend East County apologia.
Or... oh wait, there I go being divisive again.
WE ALL KNOW THE READER SUCKS, SO WHY IS THIS A BIG DEAL?
As much fun it is to drag San Diego Reader, one media watchdog says it’s emblematic of an ongoing campaign to consolidate power and discredit the left.
“The whole ‘anti-fascists are the real fascists’ tautology is straight out of the Kremlin gaslighting playbook,” reporter Brooke Binkowski tells me over email. “It's also one of the lowest common denominators of disinfo.”
Binkowski has made a career out of tirelessly combating disinformation. She grew up in East County and witnessed the pervasiveness of San Diego’s white supremacy first-hand. She managed the well-regarded mythbusting site Snopes until 2018, and now runs TruthorFiction.com, an “ethical alternative” to Snopes.
Suffice it to say, Binkowski has been combating disinformation, false narratives, and scrutinizing local media for years. And when Trump supporters stormed the Capitol on January 6th—an ultimatum that many in the media had regarded as a conspiracy theory—Binkowski’s long-gestating predictions turned out to be true. This was only solidified when a number of Capitol stormers turned out to be DEC operatives from San Diego (let’s also not forget that Ashli Babbitt, a woman killed by Capitol police during the attempted coup, was from San Diego).
I imagine this revelation to be a double-edged “I told you so” moment for Binkowski, as if one can really get any satisfaction from finally getting a local newsmedia to realize that our city’s full of Nazis.
Binkowski points to other examples of how far-right conservatives are blitzing in an attempt to consolidate political power.
“There is an extended disinformation campaign that is currently getting leveraged against San Diego. You have this ‘anti-fascists are the real fascists’ argument shitting up the Reader the same week that Carl DeMaio tries to get his imaginary outrage about anti-racist training, and that's all going on the same week that QAnon/DEC operatives are training their sights on trying to get Charda Bell-Fontenot—a Black woman—yanked from the La Mesa-Spring Valley school board for accurately pointing out microaggressions and comparing entitlement to white supremacy.”
This also coincides with the right-wing agendas that have infiltrated the Recall Newsom campaign, as well as the Reopen Schools movement, as pointed out recently by activist Wendy Wheatcroft.
But as hard as people like Binkowski and Wheatcroft hammer these points, it will always be an uphill battle for the left—and one that the Reader has no problem exploiting.
For one, antifa is hard to sympathize with, and the Reader story uses every angle to paint them as threats. They’re scary! They yell! They attack random people!
For the average layperson (or a Reader uh reader), I imagine that it’s a no-brainer on which side to take between a chummy dude wearing an American flag hat and someone wearing black bloc paramilitary attire. And do I think antifa get a little too into playing war? Sure. There are bad apples in every group, and I’m not going to condone all violence or property destruction.
But I whole-heartedly believe that antifa is fighting to preserve democracy, and those that point to BLM protests as being more violent than the Capitol riot is extremely dangerous rhetoric, and racist to boot. It’s the same as comparing the Civil Rights Movement to the bombing of Tulsa. There’s simply no way to compare a movement that’s fighting for equity with a majority attempting to retain power.
If (but more likely: when) the next attempt to overthrow the government happens, it won’t be antifa doin’ the overthrowin’. That, I’m sure of.
SO WHAT CAN WE DO?
I know there’s little that I—a wee libtard cuck—can say to Trump supporters without being labeled divisive. Without getting into he said/she said arguments. Without “you did it first” finger-pointing. There’s so little compromise with people whose brains have become worm food from years of watching Fox News, who seek out the comfort of those who promise to uphold the status quo, who constantly see themselves as a victim. And the left does it, too: we’re all going to be swirling around in our echo chamber toilets until the Proud Boys take over the white house, or a new MCU movie comes out and calms everyone down. Whatever comes first.
But Binkowski does offer some good advice on how we can avoid a potential fascist takeover, and it all starts with the media accountability.
“Not only do reporters have to learn to recognize [white supremacists] but they have to be fearless in covering them, drawing them all together, and explaining what they are likely intended to bring about, and it has to be done by local reporters who understand who the local players are,” Binkowski says. “Once you treat reporting and coverage as an inoculation against disinformation campaigns and adjust it accordingly, it can be incredibly helpful. If you can get out ahead of bad actors' goals and explain them and how the disinformation can be used, it completely changes how people react to these campaigns.”
Or, to borrow a line from All The President’s Men: follow the Nazis.
For further reading, check out this four-part Truth Or Fiction series “How to Fight Disinformation” here, here, here and here.
BUT SERIOUSLY, ABOUT THAT NEW USPS VEHICLE DESIGN
A lot of people are making fun of the new USPS vehicle design because it looks like a child designed it, but as a former USPS carrier, all I could think of is: damn, you could fit a lot of parcels in there. It’s a good design, haters.
FYI: the mail trucks you see now? They’re called LLVs (long life vehicles) and they’ve been around since the Clinton administration because they benefit from the simplicity of just a metal box and a motor. They don’t even have air conditioning, just a fan for those 90-plus degree days. They’re really scary to drive on the highway, because they start shaking when you get over 60 mph, but they’re a joy everywhere else. One time, I was driving in the upper reaches of Point Loma—which have these long, stepped streets—and I swear I caught air in one of those babies.
THE WEEKLY GOODS
Get tix to this
Listen up, photo-heads: The Medium Festival of Photography is starting today and going until March 13. It’s going to be ten days of virtual and in-person showcases (social-distanced, of course) which will include lectures, guest speakers, portfolio reviews, and workshops. Founder Scott Davis always puts together a great and, more importantly, accessible festival. That is, the programming has something for everyone and all skill-levels—everything from lessons on old-school darkroom developing to social media strategies. As someone whose Instagram feed consists mainly of baby kittens and hamsters, I’m stoked to enrich and diversify my photographic consumption (nothing wrong with kittens and hamsters, btw, but variety is the spice of life and all that).
Watch this
It took me a long time to mentally recover after seeing Mexicali band Silent for the first time. Not since Refused have I seen a band so wild yet refined, and their live show has a dark intensity that feels occultish. Their music is a vicious mix of post-punk and goth, with vocalist Jung Sing’s operatic voice soaring above it all. The band just released a new song from their upcoming album, Modern Hate (April 23 on Three One G Records) called“End,” and it pumped some much-needed darkness into my Cheetos-encrusted heart. Abandon hope all ye who enter, but those who dare will live deliciously.
Read this
So, Post Malone visited the Utah hotbed for paranormal activity, Skinwalker Ranch. That’s it. That’s the blurb. Send tweet.
Got a tip or wanna say hi? Email me at ryancraigbradford@gmail.com, or follow me on Twitter @theryanbradford. And if you like what you’ve just read, please hit that little heart icon at the end of the post.
Julia Dixon Evans edited this post. Thanks, Julia. Go follow her on Twitter.