Mainstream Media

A giant mime shushes an empty legislative chamber

Politics This Week: RI’s Code of Silence

By Justin Katz | March 11, 2024 |

John DePetro and Justin Katz explore various subjects about which journalists aren’t free to be clear.

Ticket booth outside a circus sideshow tent

Politics This Week: State of Distraction

By Justin Katz | March 4, 2024 |

John DePetro and Justin Katz discuss the ways in which Rhode Island’s political elites distract and mislead the public.

Shortsighted inspectors of disaster

Politics This Week: An Establishment Without Clarity

By Justin Katz | February 26, 2024 |

On WNRI 1380 AM/95.1 FM, John DePetro and Justin Katz discuss: Political establishment deteriorating with the Washington Bridge Safety falling through the gaps of immigration euphemism Media punts on journalism when it comes to people they hate Tidewater beneficiaries “Quiet campaigns”   Featured image by Justin Katz using Dall-E 3 and Photoshop AI.

A water drop and ripples

The union push is a bad sign for ABC6.

By Justin Katz | February 23, 2024 |

Entirely apart from ideological battles, the push at the ABC6 news operation in Rhode Island is a bad sign for the station: Over a quarter century of living in Rhode Island, I’ve seen no movement from ABC6 toward a greater competitive position against WJAR (10) and WPRI (12).  The perennial third-place laggard from a struggling…

A water drop and ripples

Our institutions are guided by primitive and simplistic racism

By Justin Katz | February 14, 2024 |

I used to spend time pointing out the problem with this sort of bean-counting racism (and sexism), but it hardly seems interesting anymore.  The findings aren’t meant to indicate anything real; they’re simply intended to promote a simple-minded ideology.  We can see this in the fact that the conclusions only ever point in one direction. …

A water drop and ripples

If the mainstream doesn’t know about it, it must not exist.

By Justin Katz | January 16, 2024 |

I earmarked this Boston Globe article, which John DePetro and I discussed last week, for one additional point related to this: “A great scoop can come from anywhere,” said Brian Stelter, a media reporter who previously hosted CNN’s “Reliable Sources” and was a fellow at Harvard’s Shorenstein Center. “Right wing media historically has talked about…

A water drop and ripples

I’m seeing an interesting lesson for mainstream media types in RI.

By Justin Katz | January 9, 2024 |

Without naming names, I’m observing an interesting phenomenon on Twitter, recently. I’ve been saying that the Trump era led mainstream journalists to give themselves permission to ignore everybody with whom they disagree — which is to say, “conservatives.”  This has a downstream consequence, though:  when you determine to ignore people with whom you merely disagree, you…

Man with a knife sneaks up behind a Republican girl

Politics This Week: The Danger of Political Innocence

By Justin Katz | January 9, 2024 |

John DePetro and Justin Katz detail gaps in political awareness in RI.

A water drop and ripples

Progressives took over academia and journalism to rewrite facts and history.

By Justin Katz | January 4, 2024 |

I wondered, the other day, whether young Americans are so much ignorant of history as they are indifferent to the truth.  Here’s another shocking datapoint in that set: Following the trail of links suggests that the culprit is not ignorance or, for that matter, indifference.  This is part of an approach.  A filmmaker (presumably of…

Excited man awards Car of the Year to a clunker

Politics This Week: Superficial Successes and Status Markers

By Justin Katz | January 2, 2024 |

John DePetro and Justin Katz review some of the inauspicious indicators of Rhode Island’s political scene going into the new year.