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erronis
erronis's Journal
erronis's Journal
December 16, 2022
From the comments section:
A newspaper vanished from the internet. Did someone pay to kill it? WAPO
Cross posted in GD at https://www.democraticunderground.com/100217463717 based on request.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/media/2022/12/14/hook-charlottesville-vanished-archive/
Archived: https://archive.vn/lr6Rl
The Hook, a beloved Charlottesville weekly, closed a decade ago but its archives lived on — until its 22,000 stories were suddenly taken offline in June. Former staffers have theories about its mystery buyer.
One day in early June, a swath of Charlottesville’s history all but vanished from the internet.
Thousands of stories reported by the Hook — a defunct local paper whose online archives nevertheless had continued to inform historians, residents and public officials — disappeared. Anyone trying to read old stories about the university town’s sagas, scandals and sundry crimes was greeted by the same error message: “Sorry!”
In many ways, the erasure of the alternative weekly, whose print and online journalism ranged from nightlife listings to deep investigative work, isn’t unusual. Historians have long warned about the decay of digital news archives, which are increasingly falling victim to mishandling, indifference, bankruptcies and technical failures.
But some of the Hook’s founding journalists suspect the archive didn’t simply expire from natural causes. They think someone paid to kill it.
Thousands of stories reported by the Hook — a defunct local paper whose online archives nevertheless had continued to inform historians, residents and public officials — disappeared. Anyone trying to read old stories about the university town’s sagas, scandals and sundry crimes was greeted by the same error message: “Sorry!”
In many ways, the erasure of the alternative weekly, whose print and online journalism ranged from nightlife listings to deep investigative work, isn’t unusual. Historians have long warned about the decay of digital news archives, which are increasingly falling victim to mishandling, indifference, bankruptcies and technical failures.
But some of the Hook’s founding journalists suspect the archive didn’t simply expire from natural causes. They think someone paid to kill it.
One of those people was Curtis N. Ofori, now a D.C.-based investment banker and accountant. Ofori was a 21-year-old junior at U-Va. in 2004, when another student accused him of raping her in her room. After an investigation, an associate dean wrote that Ofori “used very bad judgment,” but said the university “was not able to conclude at the clear and convincing level” that he committed sexual assault, and so found him “not guilty,” according to a copy of a letter detailing its findings. Police investigated, but city prosecutors declined to file charges, Ofori’s lawyer would later state in a letter to the Hook.
The tipster had noticed that beginning in January — shortly after Spencer thinks the Hook’s archive was sold — an entity calling itself Experiential Solutions began sending takedown requests to Google, complaining that various news sites, blogs and discussion forums were infringing on the Hook’s copyrights. As catalogued on a Harvard University-hosted database called Lumen, the requests continued through late August and targeted 18 different web pages that reference alleged violent incidents at U-Va. The vast majority of the pages have one common denominator: the Ofori case.
An analysis by The Post found that 14 of the 18 targeted pages referenced Ofori, his accuser or her mother, or linked to Hook articles that did. Three of the pages cited the Hook’s 2011 article detailing the rape accusations. One of Experiential’s complaints targeted the same Russell document that Ofori tried to get delisted from Google in 2020. Google acted on at least 10 of Experiential’s complaints, removing those pages from search results.
An analysis by The Post found that 14 of the 18 targeted pages referenced Ofori, his accuser or her mother, or linked to Hook articles that did. Three of the pages cited the Hook’s 2011 article detailing the rape accusations. One of Experiential’s complaints targeted the same Russell document that Ofori tried to get delisted from Google in 2020. Google acted on at least 10 of Experiential’s complaints, removing those pages from search results.
From the comments section:
I didn't know that Curtis Ofori was (allegedly) a rapist, and never would have...but now I do. And I'm pretty sure this story is going to be at the top of any search results for him forevermore.
So if his goal was to hide his past (alleged) sexual assault, well...great job, Curtis Ofori. Now the whole nation knows that you're so afraid of your past that you'll literally destroy an entire paper's archives just to hide it.
So if his goal was to hide his past (alleged) sexual assault, well...great job, Curtis Ofori. Now the whole nation knows that you're so afraid of your past that you'll literally destroy an entire paper's archives just to hide it.
Thank goodness for Archive.org, at least until Ofori gets ahold of that, too.
https://web.archive.org/web/20150907001809/http://www.readthehook.com/102337/unsilenced-how-mother-fought-protect-her-daughter-and-yours
Yes, this. It's difficult to understand how someone could report this story and not make reference to The Hook's continued existence on the Internet Archive. Which is, of course, precisely why the Archive was created in the first place.
https://web.archive.org/web/20150907001809/http://www.readthehook.com/102337/unsilenced-how-mother-fought-protect-her-daughter-and-yours
Yes, this. It's difficult to understand how someone could report this story and not make reference to The Hook's continued existence on the Internet Archive. Which is, of course, precisely why the Archive was created in the first place.
December 14, 2022
Archived: https://archive.vn/lr6Rl
From the comments section:
A newspaper vanished from the internet. Did someone pay to kill it? WAPO
https://www.washingtonpost.com/media/2022/12/14/hook-charlottesville-vanished-archive/Archived: https://archive.vn/lr6Rl
The Hook, a beloved Charlottesville weekly, closed a decade ago but its archives lived on — until its 22,000 stories were suddenly taken offline in June. Former staffers have theories about its mystery buyer.
One day in early June, a swath of Charlottesville’s history all but vanished from the internet.
Thousands of stories reported by the Hook — a defunct local paper whose online archives nevertheless had continued to inform historians, residents and public officials — disappeared. Anyone trying to read old stories about the university town’s sagas, scandals and sundry crimes was greeted by the same error message: “Sorry!”
In many ways, the erasure of the alternative weekly, whose print and online journalism ranged from nightlife listings to deep investigative work, isn’t unusual. Historians have long warned about the decay of digital news archives, which are increasingly falling victim to mishandling, indifference, bankruptcies and technical failures.
But some of the Hook’s founding journalists suspect the archive didn’t simply expire from natural causes. They think someone paid to kill it.
Thousands of stories reported by the Hook — a defunct local paper whose online archives nevertheless had continued to inform historians, residents and public officials — disappeared. Anyone trying to read old stories about the university town’s sagas, scandals and sundry crimes was greeted by the same error message: “Sorry!”
In many ways, the erasure of the alternative weekly, whose print and online journalism ranged from nightlife listings to deep investigative work, isn’t unusual. Historians have long warned about the decay of digital news archives, which are increasingly falling victim to mishandling, indifference, bankruptcies and technical failures.
But some of the Hook’s founding journalists suspect the archive didn’t simply expire from natural causes. They think someone paid to kill it.
One of those people was Curtis N. Ofori, now a D.C.-based investment banker and accountant. Ofori was a 21-year-old junior at U-Va. in 2004, when another student accused him of raping her in her room. After an investigation, an associate dean wrote that Ofori “used very bad judgment,” but said the university “was not able to conclude at the clear and convincing level” that he committed sexual assault, and so found him “not guilty,” according to a copy of a letter detailing its findings. Police investigated, but city prosecutors declined to file charges, Ofori’s lawyer would later state in a letter to the Hook.
The tipster had noticed that beginning in January — shortly after Spencer thinks the Hook’s archive was sold — an entity calling itself Experiential Solutions began sending takedown requests to Google, complaining that various news sites, blogs and discussion forums were infringing on the Hook’s copyrights. As catalogued on a Harvard University-hosted database called Lumen, the requests continued through late August and targeted 18 different web pages that reference alleged violent incidents at U-Va. The vast majority of the pages have one common denominator: the Ofori case.
An analysis by The Post found that 14 of the 18 targeted pages referenced Ofori, his accuser or her mother, or linked to Hook articles that did. Three of the pages cited the Hook’s 2011 article detailing the rape accusations. One of Experiential’s complaints targeted the same Russell document that Ofori tried to get delisted from Google in 2020. Google acted on at least 10 of Experiential’s complaints, removing those pages from search results.
An analysis by The Post found that 14 of the 18 targeted pages referenced Ofori, his accuser or her mother, or linked to Hook articles that did. Three of the pages cited the Hook’s 2011 article detailing the rape accusations. One of Experiential’s complaints targeted the same Russell document that Ofori tried to get delisted from Google in 2020. Google acted on at least 10 of Experiential’s complaints, removing those pages from search results.
From the comments section:
I didn't know that Curtis Ofori was (allegedly) a rapist, and never would have...but now I do. And I'm pretty sure this story is going to be at the top of any search results for him forevermore.
So if his goal was to hide his past (alleged) sexual assault, well...great job, Curtis Ofori. Now the whole nation knows that you're so afraid of your past that you'll literally destroy an entire paper's archives just to hide it.
So if his goal was to hide his past (alleged) sexual assault, well...great job, Curtis Ofori. Now the whole nation knows that you're so afraid of your past that you'll literally destroy an entire paper's archives just to hide it.
Thank goodness for Archive.org, at least until Ofori gets ahold of that, too.
https://web.archive.org/web/20150907001809/http://www.readthehook.com/102337/unsilenced-how-mother-fought-protect-her-daughter-and-yours
Yes, this. It's difficult to understand how someone could report this story and not make reference to The Hook's continued existence on the Internet Archive. Which is, of course, precisely why the Archive was created in the first place.
https://web.archive.org/web/20150907001809/http://www.readthehook.com/102337/unsilenced-how-mother-fought-protect-her-daughter-and-yours
Yes, this. It's difficult to understand how someone could report this story and not make reference to The Hook's continued existence on the Internet Archive. Which is, of course, precisely why the Archive was created in the first place.
December 9, 2022
https://www.emptywheel.net/2022/12/09/three-things-goodbye-to-the-once-and-former-shitty-crustpunk-bar/
An excellent piece by Rayne.
Goodbye to the Once and Former Shitty Crustpunk Bar - EmptyWheel
Please read to understand why Democratic UnderGround should not be posting links to twitter content.
Unfortunately, Elon Musk figured out how to get inside this OODA loop.
He bought the bar. He was simply faster at doing this than Paul Singer was back in 2019.
And now the once-beloved shitty crustpunk bar which many of us could comfortably call home is now a goddamned Nazi pub.
The longer you stay there, the more that shit rubs off on you: you’re one of the Nazi watering hole’s patrons.
You’re a Nazi by association.
He bought the bar. He was simply faster at doing this than Paul Singer was back in 2019.
And now the once-beloved shitty crustpunk bar which many of us could comfortably call home is now a goddamned Nazi pub.
The longer you stay there, the more that shit rubs off on you: you’re one of the Nazi watering hole’s patrons.
You’re a Nazi by association.
https://www.emptywheel.net/2022/12/09/three-things-goodbye-to-the-once-and-former-shitty-crustpunk-bar/
An excellent piece by Rayne.
November 9, 2022
I find his analysis particularly acute. We can only fight lies with truth - not by trying to control the lies.
Big lies may have big consequences : Narain Batra
https://vtdigger.org/2022/11/09/narain-batra-big-lies-may-have-big-consequences/I find his analysis particularly acute. We can only fight lies with truth - not by trying to control the lies.
Donald Trump and Liz Cheney are both the offspring of American democracy and historically it has always been a struggle between such people. In closed authoritarian societies, if a lie is repeated 10 times, as the Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels asserted, it will become believable — but not for long, as the postwar Germans discovered. And as My Pillow guy Mike Lindell, Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani and others too would discover soon.
Nobody has a monopoly on truth; therefore, the First Amendment, in essence, says: Speak up fearlessly so that truth might emerge.
In the marketplace of ideas, when robust and uninhibited discussion about public issues leads to inaccurate information or misinformation, the remedy is not censorship or suppression of the information, however outrageous it may be.
Relentless fight against falsehood is the only way, but it requires people of tremendous moral courage, time and patience, and financial resources to dig out the truth and punish the liar.
The Jan. 6 Committee, the bipartisan select committee of the U.S. House of Representatives, is an exemplar of the collective moral courage for the truth to be established, regardless of the consequences, so that American democracy renews itself as it did after the Watergate, which brought down Richard Nixon.
Donald Trump and Liz Cheney are both the offspring of American democracy and historically it has always been a struggle between such people. In closed authoritarian societies, if a lie is repeated 10 times, as the Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels asserted, it will become believable — but not for long, as the postwar Germans discovered. And as My Pillow guy Mike Lindell, Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani and others too would discover soon.
At the core of American democracy is a dynamic system of fundamental rights that empowers the individual, limits the government, and decentralizes and distributes power. But no fundamental right is absolute because your right to free speech might interfere with someone’s right to a fair trial, invade someone’s privacy and cause emotional harm, or ruin someone’s business reputation. If the First Amendment’s broad tolerance for all kinds and shades of speech leads to defamation, damage to one’s reputation, threat to security or emotional hurt, the price can be very high.
The conspiracy theorist and Infowars host Alex Jones found out that the First Amendment does not protect the reckless disregard of truth, deliberately telling lies, or what the Supreme Court called “actual malice.” The jury asked Alex Jones to pay $965 million in damages to the Sandy Hook Elementary School families for telling lies about the shooting that killed 20 first-graders and six educators on Dec. 14, 2012. It took about a decade for justice to be done, but that’s how the justice system in a democracy works. Libel is a strong antidote against reckless liars taking shelter under the First Amendment umbrella.
Alex Jones is a small fry compared to a most politically powerful global media mogul, Rupert Murdoch, whose Fox News not only allowed the spread of the Big Lie about the 2020 presidential election; but also accused Dominion Voting Systems of using a faulty algorithm that made it possible for voter fraud to occur and steal the election from Donald Trump.
Moreover, Fox News hosts said without any evidence that the Dominion Systems, the Toronto election technology company, was a cover for the Venezuelan communist government of late Hugo Chavez.
In an interview with Anderson Cooper on CBS “60 Minutes,” Dominion Systems’ John Poulos said the Fox News’ deliberate and reckless falsehood has not only damaged the company’s reputation, but also: "People have been put into danger. Their families have been put into danger. Their lives have been upended and all because of lies. It was a very clear calculation that they knew they were lies. And they were repeating them and endorsing them."
Dominion’s $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit against Fox News and its parent company, Fox Corp., is rather complicated because it raises the question of the freedom of the press under the First Amendment, and the media’s right to report news, especially about a prominent politician’s allegations about electoral machine-enabled voter fraud.
Then-President Donald Trump’s tweets were always a source of media news regardless of their authenticity. Neither Fox News nor any other media company could have ignored it when, for example, Trump tweeted, "We have a company that's very suspect. Its name is Dominion. With the turn of a dial or the change of a chip, you could press a button for Trump and the vote goes to Biden. What kind of a system is this?”
Good journalism is based on: Trust but verify, and then report. Fox News should have known.
Dominion’s case argues that Fox News hosts knew the allegations against the company were baseless; nonetheless, they recklessly and knowingly went on repeating them and also allowed their invited guest speakers to do so. Moreover, according to the case, they wouldn’t have done it without the knowledge of Fox Co. chairman Rupert Murdoch and CEO Lachlan Murdoch. Their irresponsible actions not only caused tremendous harm to the company’s reputation, the suit alleges, but they also jeopardized the safety of their employees.
When the case goes to trial, the crucial question before the jury will be: Did Fox Corp.’s top executives know that the voter fraud allegations against the Dominion Voting Systems Corp. were false, but nevertheless allowed Fox News hosts and guests to keep broadcasting the lie?
More importantly, what role did major news media organizations such as Fox Corp. play in the 2020 presidential elections in diminishing voters’ trust in the electoral system and, consequently, people's faith in democracy?
November 9, 2022
Borowitz, people.
U.S.A. the Envy of World After Ten Billion Dollars in Campaign Ads Changes Almost Nothing
https://www.newyorker.com/humor/borowitz-report/usa-the-envy-of-world-after-ten-billion-dollars-in-campaign-ads-changes-almost-nothingBorowitz, people.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA (The Borowitz Report)—The United States of America has become the envy of the world after a ten-billion-dollar expenditure on political advertising changed virtually nothing.
People around the globe marvelled at a democracy so robust it could withstand an outlay of cash greater than the gross domestic product of nations such as Tajikistan, Montenegro, and Somalia.
“In my country, I would worry that spending ten billion dollars on campaign ads would result in the entire government being ousted,” a resident of Tajikistan said. “But America is such a great nation that you can spend that much and the results are barely detectable.”
“When you imagine what you could do with ten billion dollars, you immediately think of building new roads or schools,” a citizen of Montenegro said. “But America’s roads and schools must be in excellent shape, if they can afford to spend ten billion dollars on elections instead.”
“Ten billion dollars could pay for a lot of solar panels, wind farms, and other measures to mitigate climate change,” a resident of Somalia said. “Thank heavens Americans realized that political advertising is the thing that makes them No. 1 in the world and decided to spend it on that.”
People around the globe marvelled at a democracy so robust it could withstand an outlay of cash greater than the gross domestic product of nations such as Tajikistan, Montenegro, and Somalia.
“In my country, I would worry that spending ten billion dollars on campaign ads would result in the entire government being ousted,” a resident of Tajikistan said. “But America is such a great nation that you can spend that much and the results are barely detectable.”
“When you imagine what you could do with ten billion dollars, you immediately think of building new roads or schools,” a citizen of Montenegro said. “But America’s roads and schools must be in excellent shape, if they can afford to spend ten billion dollars on elections instead.”
“Ten billion dollars could pay for a lot of solar panels, wind farms, and other measures to mitigate climate change,” a resident of Somalia said. “Thank heavens Americans realized that political advertising is the thing that makes them No. 1 in the world and decided to spend it on that.”
October 7, 2022
Excellent TED presentation. I'd post in the video forum but my prior attempts don't work there.
All about understanding ourselves as we age and understanding that we (usually) won't know who we'll be in 10 or 20 or 30 years.
Shankar Vendantam (Hidden Brain): You don't actually know what your future self wants
https://www.ted.com/talks/shankar_vedantam_you_don_t_actually_know_what_your_future_self_wantsExcellent TED presentation. I'd post in the video forum but my prior attempts don't work there.
All about understanding ourselves as we age and understanding that we (usually) won't know who we'll be in 10 or 20 or 30 years.
October 4, 2022
Danziger: Then and Now
Mistakenly cross-posted in Video & Multimedia. No harm, no foul?
September 22, 2022
US Republican politicians increasingly spread news on social media from untrustworthy sources
New research shows US Republican politicians increasingly spread news on social media from untrustworthy sourceshttps://phys.org/news/2022-09-republican-politicians-increasingly-news-social.htmlA study analyzing millions of tweets has revealed that Republican members of the U.S. Congress are increasingly circulating news from dubious sources, compared to their European counterparts.
The research, published in PNAS Nexus and led by the Graz University of Technology (TU Graz) in Austria and the University of Bristol in the UK, showed Republican Congress members are sharing more links to websites classified as "untrustworthy."
It is widely acknowledged that what politicians share on social media helps shape public perceptions and views. The findings are especially pertinent, with the U.S. midterm elections coming up in November and much of the campaigning taking place on social media platforms.
The research, published in PNAS Nexus and led by the Graz University of Technology (TU Graz) in Austria and the University of Bristol in the UK, showed Republican Congress members are sharing more links to websites classified as "untrustworthy."
It is widely acknowledged that what politicians share on social media helps shape public perceptions and views. The findings are especially pertinent, with the U.S. midterm elections coming up in November and much of the campaigning taking place on social media platforms.
The findings showed that members of the Republican Party in particular shared significantly more links to websites classified as "untrustworthy" over the years. Compared to the period 2016 to 2018, the number of links to untrustworthy websites has doubled over the past two years.
Dr. Lasser said, "In general, members of parties in the right half of the political spectrum in all countries studied share more of these links—but only Republicans show this significant increase. In the other countries, the share remains stable."
Specifically, the percentage of links to untrustworthy websites posted by Republicans more than doubled between 2016 to 2018 and 2020 to 2022, from 2.4% to 5.5%.
Overall, Republican members of Congress post about nine times as many such links as Democratic members of Congress, for whom only 0.4% of the links contained in tweets point to untrustworthy sites.
Dr. Lasser said, "In general, members of parties in the right half of the political spectrum in all countries studied share more of these links—but only Republicans show this significant increase. In the other countries, the share remains stable."
Specifically, the percentage of links to untrustworthy websites posted by Republicans more than doubled between 2016 to 2018 and 2020 to 2022, from 2.4% to 5.5%.
Overall, Republican members of Congress post about nine times as many such links as Democratic members of Congress, for whom only 0.4% of the links contained in tweets point to untrustworthy sites.
August 28, 2022
Humor (and a lot of intelligent discussion from EmptyWheel)
https://www.emptywheel.net/2022/08/27/six-days-trumps-second-whack-filing-is-too-late/#comment-955318
quickbread says:
Five boxes of documents of obstruction. Banker boxes, right? When you put it that way, Marcy, that’s just a mind-boggling amount of both obstruction and documentation of it. I wonder if it’s not only material he moved from the WH in January 2021 but also paperwork he’d been stashing in FL for “safekeeping”/nefarious use throughout his term.
punaise says:
Six drops of essence of terror…
Five boxes of sinister docs…
When the searching’s done, may I lick the subpoena?
Of course, aha!, of course.
Peterr says:
Three boxes of Russiagate, from the FBI,
Seven from the Generals in their halls of stone,
Nine from secret spies doomed to die,
All for the Orange Lord on his orange throne
At his Mar-a-Lago, where the Shadows lie.
One box to rule them all, One box to find them,
One box to bring them all, and in the darkness bind them,
At his Mar-a-Lago, where the Shadows lie
emptywheel says:
Jeebus I love this place.
John Lehman says:
“ Round about the cauldron go;
In the poison’d entrails throw.
Toad, that under cold stone
Days and nights hast thirty one
Swelter’d venom sleeping got,
Boil thou first i’ the charmed pot.
Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn and cauldron bubble.
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