If there is one thing all Americans might be able to agree on it is that Dolly Parton is a national treasure. She presents as a simple country girl but she is one of our greatest story-tellers, she helped finance the Covid-19 vaccine, she spoke out on behalf of Black Lives Matter, and now she has modestly rejected the Tennessee legislature's offer to build a statue in her honor.
There's simply "too much goin' on in the world right now," she explained.
Well, the biggest thing going on in journalism right now is starting to get some notice beyond the tech world and that is the agreement in Australia by Google to pay legitimate news sources for the content that drives so much of their success.
Facebook, by contrast, is so far flatly refusing to pay, which reminds me that while I publish these daily reports here on Facebook, they all first appear on a Google platform. Neither company pays me a penny, although it is true I am not an Australian.
But as a short, concise article in Axios notes, what' at stake in the Australian battle (as well as similar efforts in Europe) is whether the honest, legitimate news companies will survive the current assault by conspiracy theorists and would-be dictators denouncing "fake news."
The only thing fake on news sites is whatever quote is repeated from the likes of Donald Trump.
I'm standing by, like a Proud Newsboy, for this particular skirmish to play out before deciding whether to close up my Facebook shop and return to my longtime home at Google exclusively -- or whether to open a new service at third-party platform like Substack.
But what happens with me matters about as much as a flea one of those giant pre-historic elephant's behind. What is at stake here is the fabric of democracy. We can't go on like this, tolerating dangerous lies and conspiracy theories that directly undermine our fellow citizens' ability to co-exist with us. Millions of them are still inhabiting an alternative universe, one that resembles a cult rather than the country I know.
Current case in point: The massive snowstorms assaulting Texas. These are due to global climate change, yet the right-wing propagandists blame it on windmills. The antiquated fossil-fuel industry is actually the main culprit, but Texans will have to find their way over to the legitimate journalism world to find that out.
It's sad to see people freezing to death while denying reality, rather like the tragic cases of dying Covid-19 patients moaning on their deathbeds, "But this China virus isn't a real thing..."
They thought it was fake news. Maybe with more shared heroes like Dolly and more initiatives like the Google-Australian arrangement(*), we will start taking baby steps closer toward where we need to go...
(*) I'm reserving judgement.
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Today's headlines:
* Tech coughs up money for news as regulatory threats loom -- Without government intervention, experts predict that many quality news outlets will eventually crumble, leading to a more serious global misinformation problem. (Axios)
* Australia is demanding tech giants pay for news. Google relented; Facebook didn’t. (WashPo)
* Facebook 'unfriends' Australia: uproar as news pages go dark (Reuters)
* Twitter In Standoff With India's Government Over Free Speech And Local Law (NPR)
* Time to get tough with 'bully' Facebook, UK lawmaker and publishers say (Reuters)
* Humans are making Earth a broken and increasingly unlivable planet through climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution. So the world must make dramatic changes to society, economics and daily life, a new United Nations report says. Unlike past U.N. reports that focused on one issue and avoided telling leaders actions to take, Thursday’s report combines three intertwined environment crises and tells the world what’s got to change. It calls for changing what governments tax, how nations value economic output, how power is generated, the way people get around, fish and farm, as well as what they eat. (AP)
* U.S. to rejoin Paris climate accord (NHK)
* The Federal Emergency Management Agency is sending generators and other supplies to Texas to help the state cope with power outages after a severe winter storm, Jen Psaki, the White House press secretary, said. (NYT)
* More than 70% of continental US covered in snow, according to NWS (ABC)
* White House says severe winter storm likely due to climate change (Reuters)
* Fed's Brainard: Climate Change Already Affecting Economy, Financial System (WSJ)
* Deadly weather will be hitting the U.S. more often, and America needs to get better at dealing with it, experts said as Texas and other states battled winter storms that blew past the worst-case planning of utilities, governments and millions of shivering residents. (AP)
* The FBI and the U.S. attorney’s office in Brooklyn, New York, have reportedly begun a preliminary investigation into how New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and his coronavirus task force handled nursing home data during the COVID-19 pandemic. [HuffPost]
* Protesters Urged Defunding the Police. Schools in Big Cities Are Doing It. -- Los Angeles will eliminate a third of its school police officers, joining cities like Seattle, Denver and Minneapolis that took action after Black Lives Matter protests. (NYT)
* Arizona Republican lawmakers have launched a “full-scale assault” on democracy, a coalition of voting rights groups in the state warned, pointing to a flurry of bills that would restrict ballot access, purge voter registrations and overhaul the state’s election system in the wake of major GOP losses there in the 2020 election. [HuffPost]
* Promotions for Female Generals Were Delayed Over Fears of Trump’s Reaction (NYT)
* Dr. Larry Brilliant, a Bay Area epidemiologist, predicts a somber future for the pandemic: “The problem is tomorrow’s variants. We’re just on the cusp.” [San Francisco Chronicle]
* Pfizer, Moderna vaccines have reduced effectiveness against South African variant, new studies show (WashPo)
* WHO investigators are honing their search for animals that could have spread the new coronavirus to humans, identifying two—ferret badgers and rabbits—that can carry the virus and were sold at a Chinese market where many early cases emerged. (WSJ)
* A spike in Covid-related deaths at a state-run psychiatric hospital in Fresno County has angered and alarmed patients. They blame hospital staff for an outbreak that infected hundreds and killed more than a dozen patients over the past six months. [The Sacramento Bee]
* Nikki Haley reached out to Donald Trump on Wednesday to request a sit-down at Mar-a-Lago, but he turned her down. (Politico)
* U.S. Capitol Police are investigating two incidents related to the new metal detectors set up outside the House chamber: one involving a member of Congress who roughly forced his way past a police officer and the other involving a lawmaker trying to bring a gun onto the House floor. Both incidents were witnessed by a HuffPost reporter, who has been interviewed by investigators. [HuffPost]
* As protests against the recent military coup have gripped Myanmar, one gesture has emerged as an icon: the three-finger salute. Inspired by “The Hunger Games” and popularized by Thai protesters in 2014, it has become a symbol of democratic resistance across Asia. (WSJ)
* We’re living in the world Rush Limbaugh created (WashPo)
* Japan, U.S., India, Australia call for return of democracy in Myanmar (Reuters)
* For nearly a decade now, singer-songwriter Sza has been making music that feels like the lyrics were taken directly from her journal and sequenced on a project. Her love for nature and drive to combat environmental racism has fueled a new partnership with Tazo Tea and American Forests. Their mission is to hire a local workforce to plant and maintain trees to fight climate change and create jobs in marginalized communities. [HuffPost]
* Dolly Parton Says It’s Not ‘Appropriate’ To Put Statue Of Her At Tennessee Capitol -- “Given all that is going on in the world, I don’t think putting me on a pedestal is appropriate at this time.” (Twitter)
* End of Neanderthals linked to flip of Earth's magnetic poles, study suggests --Event 42,000 years ago combined with fall in solar activity potentially cataclysmic, researchers say (Guardian)
* NASA rover Perseverance touches down on Mars in search for signs of past life (WashPo)
* In college basketball, #3 Michigan beat Rutgers 71-64 for a 15-1 record. (Fox)
* Facebook Takes Down All Posts Spreading Misinformation About Fictional Nation Of ‘Australia’ (The Onion)
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"I'm not offended by all the dumb blonde jokes because I know I'm not dumb and I also know I'm not blonde." -- Dolly Parton
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