On the rise and fall of a press Slack group
Media statistic of the week
Aisha Counts of Protocol reports that a network of Russian-speaking hackers are phishing YouTube influencers with fake collaboration offers in order to hijack their accounts. Since May, Google’s Threat Analysis Group has blocked 1.6 million phishing messages and restored almost 4,000 accounts that were targeted using these techniques.
This past week in the media industry
What a company
A consortium of 17 U.S. news organizations have been reporting on The Facebook Papers, more than ten thousand pages of leaked internal documents from whistleblower Frances Haugen that reveal new details and insights into the company’s practices. You’ll find plenty to dig into, but here are just a few of the big stories to come out of the trove of documents:
According to the documents, Facebook let election conspiracy groups grow at “meteoric” rates weeks before the Capitol riot, and employees expressed anger, frustration and disillusionment over the spread of misinformation and calls to violence, as Olivia Solon, Brandy Zadrozny, Cyrus Farivar and David Ingram write at NBC News.
Ryan Mac and Sheera Frenkel’s story in The New York Times on what those documents revealed is headlined Internal Alarm, Public Shrugs: Facebook’s Employees Dissect Its Election Role. That piece came out on Friday, prompting Garrett Graff to tweet, “And so the long-awaited storm of stories for Facebook begin.”
“Six days after Nov. 3, a Facebook data scientist noticed as much as 1 out of every 50 US views (or 10% of all political views) on the platform were on posts alleging election fraud,” tweets Mac, from “Our story on how employees felt FB could have done more ahead of Jan. 6.”
Craig Timberg, Elizabeth Dwoskin and Reed Albergotti of The Washington Post also reported on those revelations in their story, Inside Facebook, Jan. 6 violence fueled anger, regret over missed warning signs.
They note that the documents “provide ample evidence that the company’s internal research over several years had identified ways to diminish the spread of political polarization, conspiracy theories and incitements to violence but that in many instances, executives had declined to implement those steps.”
And at The Atlantic, Adrienne LaFrance highlights one Facebook staffer’s reaction: “One of the darkest days in the history of democracy and self-governance. History will not judge us kindly.”
La France writes that The Facebook Papers “leave little room for doubt about Facebook’s crucial role in advancing the cause of authoritarianism in America and around the world.” As Jeffrey Goldberg says, “What a company.”
“Once again @AdrienneLaF makes the case that the problem is not really certain fixable parts of Facebook,” tweets David A. Graham. “The problem IS Facebook.” Adds Daniel Engber, “The Facebook coverage is overwhelming -- but this great piece from @AdrienneLaF really cuts through.”
Putting its thumb on the scale
Keach Hagey and Jeff Horwitz of The Wall Street Journal have a story on Facebook’s internal chat boards, which show politics are often at the center of decision making. Hagey highlights the fact that “Breitbart was a source of constant consternation inside Facebook, with employees demanding ‘Get Breitbart out of News Tab’ and begging Facebook to kick it out of Facebook Audience Network.”
Clara Jeffery notes, “More details on what @MonikaBauerlein & I reported last Oct: Facebook put its thumb on scale for far-right (and, uh, not rigorously reported) sites for fear of blowback from conservatives, ref working—and, I’ll posit to say, inclination of C-suiters.”
In other words, “Facebook execs were so worried about being accused of having a liberal bias that they developed a powerful rightward tilt. This is why the wingnuts work the refs,” tweets Joshua Holland.
Also, Amol Sharma notices, “Facebook had some interesting classifications of publishers as it evaluated the impact of its tools: Reuters was labeled ‘liberal,’ along with the Washington Post, Politico, Axios and Apple News. CNN and the New York Post were labeled ‘moderate.’”
More Facebook Papers stories
If you think it’s bad here, look beyond the U.S., Ellen Cushing urges. Her piece in The Atlantic focuses on How Facebook Failed the World.
Jon Gambrell and Jim Gomez of The Associated Press report that Apple once threatened to remove Facebook from the app store over concerns the platform was being used as a tool for buying and trading maids in the Middle East.
In their piece, Facebook’s language gaps weaken screening of hate, terrorism, AP’s Isabel Debre and Fares Akram explain how the documents reveal a failure to address systemic problems monitoring posts in Arabic and other languages.
At The Washington Post, Elizabeth Dwoskin, Tory Newmyer and Shibani Mahtani cover the case against Mark Zuckerberg: Insiders say Facebook’s CEO chose growth over safety.
From Jeremy Merrill and Will Oremus at The Post, Five points for anger, one for a ‘like’: How Facebook’s formula fostered rage and misinformation.
And Alex Heath of The Verge writes about the company’s worry over a drop-off in teenage and young adult users, Leaked files show Facebook is in crisis mode over losing young people.
Nilay Patel sums it up this way: “The kids don’t like Facebook and don’t want to use it, and that has Facebook running scared.”
The big story behind the big story
You’ll also want to check out Ben Smith’s column in The New York Times, which takes us Inside the Big Facebook Leak, with reporting on the reporting and on Haugen’s meticulous media rollout.
As Sarah Fowler says, “You’ve probably noticed the numerous articles about Facebook hitting your timeline today. (And a few this weekend) This dive gets into the nuts and bolts of how so many competing outlets got the same information. ‘Apparently We’re a Consortium Now.’”
Yes, as Richard J. Tofel explains, “Fascinating from @benyt on the rise and fall of a press Slack group called ‘Apparently We’re a Consortium Now.’” Worth noting, “As the number of journalists from different outlets in a Slack rises, the probability that the Slack messages will be leaked to @benyt approaches 1,” tweets Andrew Prokop.
At any rate, “Journalists are dorks obviously but this is an interesting look inside a 𝕮𝖔𝖓𝖘𝖔𝖗𝖙𝖎𝖚𝖒 and how this sort of thing functioned (and fractured) behind the scenes,” Mark Berman says. Adds Kara Swisher, “This is yet another must read @benyt and it leaves me media nauseous.”
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One other interesting tidbit, per Smith: Haugen says she’s financially set “for the foreseeable future” thanks to “buy[ing] crypto at the right time.” Also, “TIL Frances Haugen is busily avoiding capital gains taxes by domiciling in Puerto Rico,” tweets David Dayen. And “Now I’m entertained,” says Jessica Lessin.
Before we move on, this might be a good time to revisit Tofel’s piece for his Second Rough Draft newsletter, Is it Time for Journalism to Get Off Facebook?
This necessary piece
Despite the dramatic downfall of Ozy, it’s a great time to invest in Black- and POC-led media, writes Farai Chideya in Columbia Journalism Review.
Chideya is an award-winning journalist and the host of “Our Body Politic,” a podcast reporting on how women of color impact today’s major political events. “I am so deeply grateful to be doing the work I do at the moment in history I am with the network I have,” she shares. “Stay tuned. And thank you to the ancestors who led me here.”
“Goodness. Floored by the mention of @url_media by the amazing @farai in this necessary piece. When I say we need to lead from a place of inclusion and generosity, this is what I mean,” tweets S. Mitra Kalita. “THIS … is what I’m thinking about today. You should too,” adds Marsha Cooke.
Collapsing on collision with the facts
Former New York Times White House reporter Jackie Calmes lit up media Twitter with her Los Angeles Times opinion column headlined Why journalists are failing the public with “both-siderism” in political coverage.
“People often ask me where the journalistic urge to both-sides the un-both-sides-able comes from,” Dan Froomkin says. “So I asked @jackiekcalmes, who has been in the belly of the beast.”
Froomkin interviewed Calmes for Press Watch, and she has an assignment for failing political reporters: Never use a quote that reporters and editors know is a lie without immediately refuting it. It won’t eliminate false equivalence, but at least it’s a start.
For his Confirm My Choices newsletter, Michael Hobbes wrote about The Methods of Moral Panic Journalism, or as he puts it, “Finally put all my thoughts on the ‘wokeness’ panic in one place.”
Bradford Davis describes it as “an outstanding read on how deceitful ‘cancel culture’ takes get laundered through your glossies.”
“I love this piece by @RottenInDenmark comparing the illiberal campus left panic with the frivolous lawsuit panic of the 90s,” tweets Scott Lemieux. “Both are based around cherry-picked anecdotes many of which collapse on any collision with the facts.”
And Ryan Kearney thinks, “This by @RottenInDenmark is the best evisceration of that Applebaum piece (and ‘illiberal left’ stories in general) that you’ll read.”
FOIA is broken
“Now this is dogged journalism! (And slow / nontransparent government),” tweets Katherine Reynolds-Lewis. “Bravo Bruce Alpert @NOLAnews for closing the loop on a FOIA request submitted 12 years ago.”
As Bruce Alpert writes at The Times-Picayune/The New Orleans Advocate, The Times-Picayune sought FBI files on Bill Jefferson's corruption case. They came 12 years later.
Alpert no longer works for the outlet and is now teaching part-time at Montana State University. On Twitter, he shares, “Six years after I left daily journalism, I finally got (some) of the documents I requested 12 years earlier.”
“The Freedom of Information Act is broken,” one first amendment attorney told him.
New and noteworthy
Ben Whitelaw links to what he sees as “An antidote to the $FB media consortium row: Helsingin Sanomat helped Szabolcs Dull (fired as EIC of Index.hu for whistleblowing) create a new outlet and launch a reader-funded model. Reason? Press freedom. Result: €1 million in a month.” The story, from Hanaa’ Tameez of Nieman Lab, How Finland’s Helsingin Sanomat has built digital success through “diamonds” in the rough.
Also at Nieman Lab, Sarah Scire explains how Vox Media has built a visual way to experience podcasts. It’s accessible to deaf audiences — and gorgeous. “For their new show More Than This, Vox Media set out to create a podcast that could also be seen and felt,” she writes. “The result was an ‘immersive transcript’ that’s accessible to deaf and hard of hearing audiences.”
At The New York Times, Diana Tsui wrote about the new Streaming service Blacktag, which is aiming to become a destination for brands looking to work with Black creators.
Donald Trump announced he’s creating a new social network called Truth Social, since he’s been banned from both Facebook and Twitter. As Patience Haggin and Michael Bender note at The Wall Street Journal, Trump’s Social-Media Platform Joins Crowded Conservative Media Field.
Ashley Carman of The Verge reports that Amazon is building a Clubhouse competitor that turns hosts into DJs. The app, codenamed “Project Mic,” gives anyone the ability to make and distribute a live radio show, complete with music.
Take it from Kelsey McKinney: “The evolution of the Manic Pixie Dream Girl ethos from a persona/style to a depicted life that is curated to be monetized is fascinating. Read @SafyHallanFarah.” She’s referring to Safy-Hallan Farah’s piece for TechCrunch on the grand unified theory of aesthetic vlogging.
Fascinating and spooky
Just what the season ordered. “The man who might have bought the Tribune is named Patrick Soon-Shiong and here’s a fascinating and spooky New Yorker profile,” tweets Rick Kogan. He links to Stephen Witt’s profile of the billionaire doctor in The New Yorker, How Patrick Soon-Shiong Made His Fortune Before Buying the L.A. Times.
“Journalists looking for a savior may have to settle for the occasional pep talk from a distracted billionaire,” Lisa Fung quotes from this “Fascinating look at @latimes owner Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong and his many ventures.”
A few more
From the Muck Rack Team
At Muck Rack, we love data. We recently combed through our database to find the most viewed finance journalists on Muck Rack in 2021. Head over to the blog to see who made the list of the top 10 finance journalists in 2021.
Cartoonist and Writer. English/Spanish Freelance. Owner: ActWord.com a.k.a. Conscience And Nonsense Magazine (Advocacy and Entertainment.)
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