ArtimageDec 30, 2022
Dan Gillmor

The Santos/fraud situation is bad news for journalism on two grounds, but the Washington Post noticed only one of them.

The Post's coverage highlights Big Journalism's utter failure to do its job in a timely way even when a smaller news org had blown the whistle on some of Santos' lies weeks before the election.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/media/2022/12/29/north-shore-leader-santos-scoop/

1/x

(Edited to remove errant apostrophe...)

A tiny paper broke the George Santos scandal but no one paid attention

The North Shore Leader was onto his lies months before he was elected in New York.

The Washington Post
Dec 30, 2022 at 4:05amWeb
Show threadDan GillmorDec 30, 2022

That was bad enough. But there's another journalistic aspect to this situation that may be even worse.

The small news org that did cover the Santos deceit didn't have enough clout in its own community to make a difference.

There was a time in local journalism when coverage of (and scathing anti-Santos editorial about) the candidate's lies would have been enough to ensure his defeat.

2/x

Show threadDan GillmorDec 30, 2022

As local news orgs shrink in reach and authority, their ability to help set a public agenda is shrinking, too.

The North Shore Leader did timely and important work on Santos and his lies. (Example: https://www.theleaderonline.com/single-post/santos-filings-now-claim-net-worth-of-11-million) It deserves major kudos for that.

But we should all be worried that local news has eroded to such a degree that even this kind of work can't make the difference it should.

3/x

Santos Filings Now Claim Net Worth of $11 Million

By Maureen Daly Controversial US congressional candidate George Santos has finally filed his Personal Financial Disclosure Report on September 6th - 20 months late - and he is claiming an inexplicable rise in his alleged net worth to $11 million.. Two years ago, in 2020, Santos' personal financial disclosures claimed that he had no assets over $5,000 - no bank accounts, no stock accounts, no real property. A net worth barely above "zero". And his income was only just over $50,000 for the pr

theleader
Show threadDan GillmorDec 30, 2022

The rich and powerful people and institutions that journalism is supposed to hold to account are contemptuous of the craft, and of what remains of local news.

They know that even if a watchdog is around, the mutt can't bark loudly enough to be heard.

We have to figure out ways to bring malfeasance to the wider public, to help people know why they should care. Because if we don't, the rich and powerful will rob the rest of us blind -- and corrupt everything.

4/4

Show threadSummer BreezeDec 30, 2022

@dangillmor Why can’t we, as in the public, support local media in a way similar to ProPublica, but focused on local news? Is it possible?

Look at that public broadcasting reporter in WV fired for exposing problems with public institutions. That was public media, and she still appears to have been thrown under the bus.

If the current model isn’t working, is it possible to do it differently? And if people did try to do it differently, assuming you could raise support $, what would promote intelligent journalism and solid reporting, and the infrastructure around that reporting? (Legal, fact checking, editing.)

Show threadGrassroots JoeDec 31, 2022
@SummerBreeze @dangillmor
There's folks out there doing it. I found this poking around the intertubes as a place to start -
https://inn.org/
Home

The INN Network FindYourNews.org From local news to in-depth reporting on pressing global issues, INN’s 475+ members tell stories that otherwise would go

Institute for Nonprofit News
Show threadEmmett O'ConnellDec 30, 2022

@dangillmor that contempt leads them to opinion reporters who have bullhorns to a very engaged subset to voters and argue their case

Go right around local newspapers and mainstream news and hit AM radio and YouTube personalities

Show threadAphrodite (recharging)Dec 30, 2022

@dangillmor

so apparently i independently identified the problem of access vs ignored journos which is part of the herman-chomsky model of propaganda

(i was not aware of the h-c model before posting my thoughts on mastodon)

this is textbook by both my 500char posts and their thesis

the access journos are too busy cultivating access instead of being journos

the ignored journos are (checking notes) ignored

Show threadEvan LightDec 30, 2022
@dangillmor
We're just reaping the whirlwind here. Remember. https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/sinclair-faces-fallout-from-viewers-and-democratic-candidates-over-fake-news-promos/2018/04/05/dccb8d1a-377f-11e8-acd5-35eac230e514_story.html
Sinclair faces fallout from viewers and Democratic candidates over ‘fake news’ promos

As politicians threaten boycotts and paint broadcaster as tool of “Trump agenda,” viewers are openly criticizing its local TV stations.

The Washington Post
Show threadtrishandertonDec 30, 2022
@dangillmor I know the opposing campaign says they tried to draw attention to this--but I have to wonder how hard. Did they put the headline and key findings on a flier and send it to every Dem in the district? And I would ask where the state Democratic Party was but I live here so I know they and their leader are a useless, corrupt machine. There should have been press conferences on LI and in NYC to serve this to reporters on a platter.
Show threadtrishandertonDec 30, 2022
@dangillmor I think, too, that reporters and voters have become somewhat inured to lying since the Trump era. Ordinary untruths about one’s resume seem a bit unremarkable compared to the torrent of fantastical nonsense that poured from that White House daily. Only over time did we discover that Santos’ lies are of Trumpian proportions.
Show threadDan KennedyDec 30, 2022
@dangillmor Good points as always, but have you read any of the Leader’s coverage? It’s a bit of a dumpster fire, and I wouldn’t blame people for not taking them too seriously. That is no excuse, however, for larger media ignoring what was a clear signal to dive in, especially since senior people at Newsday were among the paper’s readers.
Show threadMichael MarkmanDec 31, 2022
@dankennedy_nu @dangillmor what about the Dems? Where was Robert Zimmerman’s campaign staff? What about DCCC staff? Surely they could have done something to push the story to the public and to the media outlets with more reach and clout than the Leader.
Show threadDan KennedyDec 31, 2022
@mickeleh @dangillmor Yes to all this. There’s a long history of journalists depending on opposition research, and what Zimmerman came up with was reportedly uninteresting: Santos is a MAGA Trumper, blah blah blah. The media made assumptions (always a bad idea) that Santos had lost before, that he’d lose again, and that it wasn’t worth doing a story.
Show threadMichael MarkmanJan 2, 2023
@dankennedy_nu @dangillmor Have you seen Steve Israel's piece in The Atlantic? Israel claims that the DCCC had done good oppo and gave it to Zimmerman but the press ignored it for the reason you mention. "This guy isn't going to win, so he's not a story." But that's just empty spin. Go back and look at the DCCC oppo—you're exactly right. It's all blah-blah-blah. Nothing about Santos's fabricated biography. Nothing about his questionable finances.
Everybody missed it.
https://dccc.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/George-Santos-Research-Book.pdf
Show threadDan GillmorDec 31, 2022
@mickeleh Expecting competence from complacent Dems is risky @dankennedy_nu
Show threadMichael MarkmanDec 31, 2022
@dangillmor @dankennedy_nu Especially in the state of New York. I have to say, though, that the legislative achievements of the Democrats—with razor-thin majorities—have led me to expect more competence.
Show threadDry as toastDec 31, 2022
@dangillmor the problem is the celebrity journalism machine. Reporters think success means they write one story that goes viral, then are able to write a book about it, do the talk show circuit and cash in — let’s call it the Maggie Haberman model.
Show threadf*cking b*tch clubDec 31, 2022
@dangillmor If you’re rich enough you OWN the media.
Murdoch
Bezos
Musk
Whatever their political sensibilities are, they own 3 major media companies, and between them, they reach a lot more eyeballs than any local news outlet.
Show threadRodney NorrisDec 31, 2022

@dangillmor I remember David Simon started to highlight the potential for a golden age of corruption with the collapse of local journalism many years ago.

This kind of stuff falling through the “cracks” is another side of that. But also the political climate contributes to no one caring about legitimate news on a candidate.

Where I live literally anyone with an R next to their name is guaranteed to win the general election.

Show threadJoseph DennisDec 30, 2022
@dangillmor The local news in my area is nothing more than the police blotter. They totally ignored Ohio HB 458 and an ignorant public passed it based on misleading titles. Now people are losing more voting rights.
Show threadCypherDec 30, 2022
@jd1515151 @dangillmor is owned by Grannet?
Show threadDry as toastDec 31, 2022
@jd1515151 @dangillmor same here. Our local newspaper covers high school, sports, crime, & that’s about it. Of course, it’s part of a struggling corporate chain. Papers used to be profitable, now all the owners are stuck with these unprofitable community institutions - white elephants. It’s a shame that none of these cos bothered to build their local news team & strive for excellence. Most owners were just interested in siphoning money out of the local community.
Show threadBruce MirkenDec 30, 2022
@dangillmor And some communities don't have any real local news.
Show threadIts GregoryDec 30, 2022
@dangillmor We're witnessing an upcoming conviction -n real time- getem G-men !
Show threadCypherDec 30, 2022
@dangillmor thank you for sharing this! I convered much of his lies tonight in my news roundup, but I missed this bit. I might have to go back and splice this info in because i was shocked that no one covered it. Smh
Show threadGiddey_upDec 30, 2022
@dangillmor “The Talented Mr. Santos” Amazing grift! Why tell the truth about anything when lies work so much better?
Show threadJohn GordonDec 30, 2022

@dangillmor “Lally has stayed in touch with his former staffers from his congressional campaigns, .... “You wouldn’t believe what we are seeing about Santos,”

So local GOP knew Santos was a con man but stayed quiet.

Sadly he’s far from the worst House Republican.

Show threadManquemanDec 30, 2022
@dangillmor Here in NY17, we were bombed by a PAC with a commercial slamming Maloney for supporting bail reform. No excuse for no Dem PAC doing the same in NY3 re Santos. Actually, it was a decision by the DCCC to not bother, they weren’t interested in winning the district.
Maybe the worst thing is the combined audience for mainstream journalism is fairly small. And that it’s the result of the audience being repelled with all the BS outlets produce, so much dishonest reporting.
Show threadMatthew NadlerDec 31, 2022
@dangillmor How much is the rise in partisanship? How many people voted for Santos despite knowing he was sketchy, because he was a Republican?
Show threadmjfuhlhageDec 30, 2022
@dangillmor Did that community news organization editorialize against Santos? Or did it adopt the "no more endorsements or editorials" stance that many papers are going with?
Show threadmjfuhlhageDec 30, 2022
@dangillmor Ah, there it is: "The Leader reluctantly endorsed Santos’s Democratic opponent the next month. “This newspaper would like to endorse a Republican,” it wrote, but Santos “is so bizarre, unprincipled and sketchy that we cannot. … He boasts like an insecure child — but he’s most likely just a fabulist — a fake.”"
Show threadMatthew NadlerDec 31, 2022
@mjfuhlhage @dangillmor one would have hoped a Republican leaning editorial page would have more away with Republicans.
Show threadDan GillmorDec 30, 2022
@mjfuhlhage Yes, as I noted the paper did a scathing editorial denouncing him.
Show threadmjfuhlhageDec 30, 2022
@dangillmor Thanks. I didn't see that.
Show threadcommchfDec 30, 2022
@mjfuhlhage @dangillmor They spelled out how crooked he seemed and endorsed his opponent. They are a Republican paper.
Show threadaiutoDec 30, 2022
@dangillmor
Sadly, few in Santos' area cares about news or facts. Over the last two decades, places like Great Neck have become havens for fascists. Oddly, most of them are Jews and non-white Christians, who'll be the first up against the wall when the whiter fascists take over. I don't understand their thought process here.
Show threadCUDA813Dec 30, 2022
@dangillmor was
Show threadMelanie SillDec 30, 2022
@dangillmor I agree that it’s a more profound gap, Even among the outlets that are surviving, a shrinking number see it as their job (or within their capacity) to do accountability #journalism, including on local elections. Did other/ bigger local outlets (and journalists who subscribed to the Leader) see it as their role to dig in and alert voters to the questions about #Santos? Or did this seem like someone else’s job?
Show threadDan GillmorDec 31, 2022

@melaniesill I increasingly wonder about this, and wish we had data to know for sure (academics take note).

In this case it's painfully clear that bigger outlets did NOT see it as their role to do anything in a timely way. (The Times' first dive into Santos doesn't even mention the local news outlet, though the Times is notorious for not giving due credit to other journalists.)

My guess is they all think it's the job of opposition research, not journalists, to vet backgrounds.

Show threadDan KennedyDec 31, 2022
@dangillmor @melaniesill Have you spent much time looking at the Leader? It’s kind of a rag, although the failures are inexcusable.
Show threadDan GillmorDec 31, 2022
@dankennedy_nu Not a lot of time, no. Are you saying there was reason not to believe what they'd written earlier? Or that it was easy not to take them seriously? @melaniesill
Show threadDan KennedyDec 31, 2022
@dangillmor @melaniesill I think it was pretty easy to dismiss the Leader, especially with Team Zimmerman asleep on oppo research. Inexcusable, as I said, but hardly anything novel.
Show threadDan GillmorDec 31, 2022
@dankennedy_nu Tangent: I really would appreciate a Mastodon client that threaded conversations so I could follow them more easily. (Not that Twitter did this much better...) @melaniesill
Show threadDan GillmorDec 31, 2022
@dankennedy_nu @melaniesill I keep coming back to how we can get organized enough to put things that matter on the civic agenda. And I'm not talking about clickbait swarms...
Show threadDan KennedyDec 31, 2022
@dangillmor @melaniesill BTW, I’m not being the least bit dismissive of the media failures that let to Santos escaping scrutiny. I’m just saying it’s an old, familiar problem.
Show threadMaria BustillosDec 30, 2022

@dangillmor

The big disconnect for me is that SCOOPS! are supposedly what the business side craves, yet they left this outrageous, lurid story untouched.

Show threadDan GillmorDec 31, 2022
@maria The only people who care about most "scoops" are other journalists. And I doubt they care very much.
Show threadMaria BustillosDec 31, 2022
@dangillmor oh some care a really really lot, partly because of career advancement
Show threadDCrockerDec 30, 2022
@dangillmor Increasing clout can come in two, related way. One is active promotion from the source, by pushing articles to people and/or organizations that can extend the reach. There can also be a 'pull' approach, where Reach-extending intermediaries can search for items. Curation of articles has always been an essential quality control feature of better news organizations. What we have now is a need for independent curation and promotion.
Show threadDan GillmorDec 31, 2022
@dcrocker Yes, very true. A critical need is to amplify the things that are important, but the overwhelming preference in the journalistic world is to amplify clickbait. And journalists have always been reluctant to highlight what other news orgs do, for a variety of (mostly) ridiculous reasons.
Show threadDCrockerJan 6, 2023
@dangillmor I'm wondering about a consumer-side group to do this. That is, forming an organization that is driven by its subscribers to do the curation. (I know. Truly remarkable suggestion. Why has no one ever thought of this model before... sigh.)
Show threadGraham KJan 6, 2023
@dcrocker @dangillmor Arguably, this is how Twitter worked, and Mastodon now works, for me. There is a bunch of people I follow, and their choices determine what I see. I miss lots, but there’s very little clickbait.
Show threadDCrockerJan 7, 2023
@gklyne @dangillmor The curation and propagation process, with something like Mastodon, is individual and accidental. That can produce interesting serendipity, but pretty much also guarantees missing significant material. While there's no perfect solution, I think an additional and different mechanism could be quite useful.
Show threadDCrockerJan 7, 2023

@gklyne @dangillmor Considering incentives, I think a model to consider is a consumer-funded non-profit, with subscriber-based oversight.

It would need a detailed charter to establish philosophy and operational style, with a function of acquiring material/articles to propagate, by actively looking for it, and by being responsive to material that is submitted.

This makes it somewhat like an old-time clipping service, but with a more interesting publication philosophy.

Show threadmsgbiDec 31, 2022
@dangillmor @charles_ex
Show threadGurtbeef RobeDec 31, 2022
@dangillmor you are assuming that republicans actually care about claims of problems with their candidates. This is the party whose leader has 32,000 documented lies along with 25 sexual assault allegations and countless other allegations. Draw all the attention you want. The problem is the party not the paper.
Show threadKarlDec 31, 2022
@twitterreject @dangillmor stop with those pesky facts, will yea….
Show threadGurtbeef RobeDec 31, 2022
@karl @dangillmor my head nearly exploded at the ridiculous claim he made. I’m not here to bash the guy but it’s like hes been hibernating for the last 22 years and missed everything political that’s happened
Show threadKarlDec 31, 2022
@twitterreject @dangillmor I’m rarely surprised by this type of selective memory these days. #Politics :(
Show threadJoseph DennisDec 30, 2022
@dangillmor Three grounds. The media ignored the North Shore Leader story and instead provided non-stop coverage of the Queen's funeral. Imagine waking up on a Saturday and Sunday and seeing nothing but a hearse driving down the streets of England on all the major news networks.