ABC News is a brand of Disney Advertising.

Manufacturing Consent has this to say about Disney news media:

Ben Bagdikian notes that when the first edition of his Media Monopoly was published in 1983, fifty giant firms dominated almost every mass medium; but just seven years later, in 1990, only twenty-three firms occupied the same commanding position.

Since 1990, a wave of massive deals and rapid globalization have left the media industries further centralized in nine transnational conglomerates-Disney, AOL Time Warner, Viacom (owner of CBS), News Corporation, Bertelsmann, General Electric (owner of NBC), Sony, AT&T-Liberty Media, and Vivendi Universal. These giants own all the world’s major film studios, TV networks, and music companies, and a sizable fraction of the most important cable channels, cable systems, magazines, major-market TV stations, and book publishers. The largest, the recently merged AOL Time Warner, has integrated the leading Internet portal into the traditional media system. Another fifteen firms round out the system, meaning that two dozen firms control nearly the entirety of media experienced by most U.S. citizens. Bagdikian concludes that “it is the overwhelming collective power of these firms, with their corporate interlocks and unified cultural and political values, that raises troubling questions about the individual’s role in the American democracy.”

Voice of America (VOA) is a state media network funded by the United States of America, whose purpose is to project soft power through journalism.

In 2005, the Washington Post reported that suspected Al-qaeda operatives were flown into Thailand to be detained and tortured. VOA’s remote relay radio station in Udon Thani province has been widely suspected to be the torture site.

Manufacturing Consent has this to say about PBS:

Globalization, along with deregulation and national budgetary pressures, has also helped reduce the importance of noncommercial media in country after country. This has been especially important in Europe and Asia, where public broadcasting systems were dominant (in contrast with the United States and Latin America). The financial pressures on public broadcasters has forced them to shrink or emulate the commercial systems in fund~raising and programming, and some have been fully commercialized by policy change or privatization. The global balance of power has shifted decisively toward commercial systems.

James Ledbetter points out that in the United States, under incessant right-wing political pressure and financial stringency, “the 90s have seen a tidal wave of commercialism overtake public broadcasting,” with public broadcasters" rushing as fast as they can to merge their services with those offered by commercial networks." And in the process of what Ledbetter calls the “mailing” of public broadcasting, its already modest differences from the commercial networks have almost disappeared. Most important, in their programming “they share either the avoidance or the defanging of contemporary political controversy, the kind that would bring trouble from powerful patrons.”

• Horrific scenes … an Israeli drone targeted 5 unarmed Palestinian civilians in Al Sikka area in Khan Younis city in the beginning of February 2024. (NSFL)
• Israel-Hamas war updates: Israeli strike hits Gaza medical convoy
• Israeli warplanes hit UNRWA schools in Gaza with white phosphorus
• The Protest Dispersed. Then an Israeli Sniper Shot a 9-year-old Palestinian Boy in the Head
• Israel attacked a UN-run school housing refugees in Gaza despite warnings that civilians were there, the UN has said.
• Initial IDF probe: Hostages were shirtless, waving white flag when soldiers opened fire
• Israel deliberately killed Al Jazeera reporter Shireen Abu Aqla, Palestinian report says - BBC News
• Chef Jose Andres says Israel targeted his aid workers ‘systematically, car by car’

It might be fairly easy to de-anonymize users as not all users post in all threads, and identifying a user based on which threads they post in and generally what the response was to their posts isn’t impossible.

On the other hand, it doesn’t reveal information that we’ve decided should be treated special, like who is voting in the comments and posts. When posting a controversial twitter screenshot of a non-public figure, it’s internet etiquette and good form to blur the target’s name, even though the tweet can be found via text search. This ups the effort to attack the user a little, but also communicates through actions that trolling is being discouraged – which I think is the most effective deterrent.

The measures you’re taking seem to be in line with that internet etiquette. Especially considering the relatively small exposure your project is getting (at this point it seems it’s just us talking in this thread, for example) the precautions you have in place should be enough. You may consider revising this if you get complaints of harassment or when your project develops a much larger audience.

YouTube comment says “The truck driver was rescued but 13 people remain missing. The phong châu bridge in phu tho province was built in 1995 and had no signs of danger before storm yagi”

The article says “Đây là người lái chiếc xe đầu kéo mang BKS 19H - 024.19” but I can’t read the license plate in the video to confirm. My heart goes out to all of the dead and missing.

I’m really happy the truck driver survived.

Thank you!

Is there a cap to how much stomp a user can have through their votes? By accumulating enough zeitgeist points, can a single user ban a new user from !pleasantpolitics with downvotes?

I gotta say, you’re really good at making visualizations. I like this one best, but even the ones I liked less were extremely informative and readable.