AZ_desert_ladyDec 23, 2022
David Folkenflik

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
Dec 21, 2022 at 4:18pmWeb
Show threadMeecheDec 21, 2022
@davidfolkenflik welcome David. Bring your friends and colleagues.
Show threadJoe ❌👑Dec 21, 2022

@davidfolkenflik Glad to see you here, and thanks for the reporting.

It's frightening what's happened to local news.

Show threadClaireglideDec 21, 2022
@davidfolkenflik Welcome! Can’t wait to dive in.
Show threadFezDec 21, 2022
@davidfolkenflik Welcome 
Show threadNanaKimDec 21, 2022
@davidfolkenflik I kind of agree with Dunns sentiment. He was trying to help the people of his state, but they still voted him out.
Show threadExistentialistDec 21, 2022
@davidfolkenflik Welcome! We love #journalists over here!
Show threadJohn PanzerDec 21, 2022
@davidfolkenflik Welcome! And great story.
Show threadCalderDec 21, 2022
@davidfolkenflik This story makes me that much more thankful to have a strong, crowdfunded news source like @sprawlcalgary in my city. As hyper-consolidation of news rooms continues, I hope that local alternatives also succeed to help push back against similar situations.
Show threadMartin HerrDec 21, 2022
@davidfolkenflik Welcome!
Show thread@cindycrum on TwitterDec 21, 2022
@davidfolkenflik welcome and boosted you!
Show threadmechtild jdDec 21, 2022
@davidfolkenflik
Hello 🎀
Show threadBakersRelayDec 21, 2022
@davidfolkenflik Welcome Aboard!
Show threadMarcyDec 21, 2022
@davidfolkenflik This is why I'm here. Thank you.
Show threadrjohnsonmn ❌👑Dec 21, 2022
@davidfolkenflik Excellent reporting - thank you and welcome to Mastodon!
Show threadFanua 🌐Dec 21, 2022
@davidfolkenflik Welcome to #Mastodon, David, good to see you here. When will #NPR replace the bot account placeholder?
Show threadstefan hartwigDec 21, 2022
@davidfolkenflik Welcome! Happy to see you here!
Show threadSuzanne PaleyDec 21, 2022
@davidfolkenflik Interesting that they would perjoratively (and falsely) accuse someone of being a Democrat simply for being a consumer advocate and anti-corruption. So then what are the Republicans standing in opposition to those things for?
Show threadMarvin HamonDec 21, 2022
@davidfolkenflik I read Part 1, great work. I’m in the renewable energy engineering business and it’s sad the lengths people will go to protect fading interests.
Show threadBrendan KinneyDec 21, 2022
@davidfolkenflik Welcome David…and great reporting as always.
Show threadLucy BDec 21, 2022
@davidfolkenflik Good to see that you’re here! Looking forward to reading this and more from you here on Mastodon!
Show threadCJ Moose ⚒️🌋🦉🍻⛺Dec 21, 2022
@davidfolkenflik Welcome! Remember to use hashtags liberally for searchability.
Show threadHelchoseDec 21, 2022
@davidfolkenflik Welcome to the fold, David! We're glad to see you here. Thank you for the great reporting.
Show threadUnprecedented 2023Dec 21, 2022
@davidfolkenflik 👋👋
Show threadSome Guy 🇺🇲🇺🇦Dec 21, 2022
@davidfolkenflik Welcome David and thank you for this important reporting!
Show threadAndersDec 21, 2022
@davidfolkenflik Hello! Welcome to Mastodon!
Glad to have you here. Thank you for helping us all build a new and better online community.
Show threadMirishuliDec 21, 2022
@davidfolkenflik First, Thank you for joining Mastodon. I was raised in Alabama and the power companies are held in high regard by those over 50. TVA and the electrification of the south was a life changing event and power “co-ops” were community centers. We had a family reunion at the co-op when I was a child in the 70’s. This story doesn’t surprise me at all.
Show threadColopenDec 21, 2022

@davidfolkenflik

Great reporting! I'm still reading but this part struck me "[...] Alabama Power runs and owns a coal-fired power plant that is the largest single source of carbon dioxide emissions in the United States."

That's what a Alabama Power is manipulating the media for, to accelerate climate change and poison generations to come.

Show threadNBIsmeyDec 21, 2022
@davidfolkenflik welcome. And th a ka for that excellent reporting
Show threadBart DecremDec 21, 2022
@davidfolkenflik stoked that you are here!
Show threadPamela Barroway – Biz EditorDec 21, 2022
@davidfolkenflik Great to see you here - please bring more of your NPR colleagues! (NPR should consider starting its own instance.) Also, wowza - what a story!
Show threadMarc MeyerDec 22, 2022
@davidfolkenflik Yes!! Welcome!
Show threadSebastiaan HekmanDec 22, 2022
@davidfolkenflik Welcome!
Show threadAthena GraysonDec 22, 2022
@davidfolkenflik Welcome, from Ohio, where we know all about power companies buying lawmakers while the local news grows dark.
Show threadShoq 🌿Dec 22, 2022
@davidfolkenflik Welcome to the new digital world order, David.
Show threadIndivisible CA Green TeamDec 22, 2022
@davidfolkenflik Thank you for confirming what we suspected. The media consistently repeated #utility talking points and never interviewed non profit or faith leaders for their perspective on how rooftop #solar benefitted communities. #GavinNewsom via the California Public Utilities Commission just cut incentives for rooftop solar by 75% thereby ending it. Georgia followed his example and many others are waiting in wings. Newsom and wife non profit received over 1M from PGE alone.
Show threadHeraty LawDec 22, 2022
@davidfolkenflik welcome
Show threadRebusKnebusDec 22, 2022
@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.
Show threadAliSnarkbarDec 22, 2022
@davidfolkenflik this is a great piece and very important work!!! Great job!!!
Show threadottofluxDec 22, 2022
@davidfolkenflik it’s wild how monied interests have excelled at stealing the narrative — convincing people they’re exploiting with money from the exploitation that “they’re” the good guys.

(yes, i realize this applies to a great many politicians too)
Show threadottofluxDec 22, 2022
@davidfolkenflik i remember trying to warm my parents and others in the late 90s that just because something looks legit online that doesn’t mean it is. not sure anyone heeded that advice.
Show threadJimprallDec 23, 2022
@davidfolkenflik Wow, great investigative reporting! Another case of #darkmoney tactics of the dirty and powerful fossil energy industry, and the power companies still shackled to them @chrisnelder
Show threadbertDec 27, 2022
@davidfolkenflik great work! what a sad state of affairs