David FolkenflikDec 21, 2022

Friends new and old!

My first Mastodon post.

For the past 5 months, I've worked on a two-part investigation with Floodlight's Miranda Green & Mario Ariza.

The details are pretty bananas. And they get at the grim truth of what flourishes as local news coverage withers.

Part 1:
How power company cash secretly flowed to a half-dozen news sites in Alabama and Florida that assailed their critics

https://www.npr.org/2022/12/19/1143753129/power-companies-florida-alabama-media-investigation-consulting-firm

In the Southeast, power company money flows to news sites that attack their critics

Alabama Power and Florida Power & Light hired the consulting firm Matrix to help shape their fortunes. Matrix funded six sites that covered politics, filling a void left by the decline of local news.

NPR
Show threadRebusKnebus
@davidfolkenflik Unfortunately, client journalism and active media bias seems to be the norm at present, stretching from single reporters to entire organisations (Murdoch, Rothermere and Barclay in the UK), even the BBC is now firmly partisan primarily due to Tory pressure on recruitment of neoliberal and right-wing voices.
Your piece exemplifies what real journalism looks like, holding those who feel they are above the law to account.
Dec 22, 2022 at 6:10amWeb