U.S. Media Refuses to Inform the Public When Its Commentators and Pundits are Paid Foreign Agents (Michael Krieger)
Tom here: It's ironic that the BezosPo, one of the worst offenders of publishing Saudi shills (as noted by Krieger), has also been a loud complainer about the fate of Mr. Khashoggi (who was also a Saudi shill despite posthumous rehabilition as a crusading journalist).
Jadaliyya (e-zine of the Arab Studies Institute) offers a tragicomic compendium: Seventy Years of the New York Times Describing Saudi Royals as Reformers*
Example:
1960:
“King Saud has increasingly assumed the role of liberal champion of constitutional reform.”
Note: The Saudi constitution was adopted by royal decree in 1992
Years later:
2009:
Announcing that local elections have been delayed for two years, this report nonetheless lauds the king’s reformist intentions before concluding with the following quote: “You have a reform-oriented king trying to push in the direction of reform, but you have a non-reform-oriented structure that is close to impossible to change.”
And finally, Thomas Friedman's fawning over the prince who is currently in the news for "whacking" a critic in the Turkish consulate:
2017:
[T]his Friedman piece includes such gems as “he is much more McKinsey than Wahhabi — much more a numbers cruncher than a Quran thumper.”
*Update: The timeline starts in 1953 so "seventy years" is an exaggeration. Post title changed,
"Liberal guilt" is a term that's gone out of fashion but it's weirdly intertwined with the Silicon Valley brand of paternalism. Witness the endless parade of Others on the search page of a company that, according to Fortune, "still hasn't fixed its diversity problem" in actual hiring.
The image above, from a few days ago, depicts baseball great Roberto Clemente as seen by uncredited artist Roxie Vizcarra. (Subject and artist are never written on the page -- you have to click somewhere to find this info.)
Vizcarra renders Clemente in a generic "clip art" style, transforming him from determined sports competitor to slightly vacant pretty boy. Like many of this company's illustrations it seems oblivious to human anatomy and perspective illusionism. The batting arm, for example, appears unnaturally twisted and lifeless. Clemente stares off in the distance, presumably looking at a high pop fly he just hit -- but appears stupefied rather than focused. In fact, the baseball seems to have sailed past him and landed in a pair of... severed hands. Is that a heart-shape on the ball stitching?
The map of Puerto Rico, Clemente's home island, appears to have been conquered by the sponsoring company, which has appropriated the territory's flag.
The blue molecule next to Clemente's elbow does not mean he is also a nuclear scientist. That's the "share" icon.
A previous post pondered the provenance of eBaum's WORLD and Cheezburger. Who owns them exactly, and what is the chain of possession from previous owners?
So is Viumbe a Literally subsidiary? Is eBaum in transition between owners with dated website info? Or is Literally the "old" owner? Inquiring meme ghouls want to know.
Thanks to polyaenus for emailing with some additional research. The text below is quoted in full from the email:
First, looking at the Viumbe site, it seems quite dead.
It lists three sites in its media kit pdf and two of them redirect to Ebaumsworld.
@celebremix stopped tweeting in 2012 and @viumbe in 2013.
The sales contact listed in the media kit seems to work somewhere else now.
However, the Ebaumsworld and Cheezburger twitters are still active, run by "EiC" @colbydroscher.
Ebaumsworld was acquired by Handheld Entertainment Inc (ZVUE) in 2007. [link]
Interestingly, Handheld was run by Google cofounder Larry Page's brother.
At first his company made a video/mp3 player called ZVUE, trying to compete with Apple's iPod.
I guess this didn't work and they tried to pivot into online media. [link]
Before they made the big purchase of Ebaumsworld, they ran some other sites:
"It offers content through YourDailyMedia.com, FunMansion.com, Putfile.com, Dorks.com, ZVUE.com, and UnOriginal.co.uk Web sites" [link]
ZVUE was eventually suspended from trading in 2014. [link]
I'm not sure how Viumbe got ZVUE's assets but this says it was formed in 2009. [link]
Viumbe "relaunched" Ebaumsworld in 2012. [link]
Viumbe was sold to JoBookit Holdings Limited in 2014 for $2.5 million according to this lawsuit. [link]
"Jobookit develops game changing concepts and dynamic technologies to optimize and ultimately simplify the world of online recruitment."
not sure what that has to do with a meme site.
This guy [twitter] is listed as both the CEO of Jobookit and the Co-owner of Viumbe until it was acquired by Literally Media in 2017. [link]
Literally (founded 2015) acquired Cheezburger in 2016
https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/cheezburger-acquired-by-literally-media-joining-ebaums-world-as-the-destination-for-reaching-millennial-and-generation-z-audiences-and-the-5-entertainment---humor-destination-according-to-comscore-data-576567001.html
(look at that fucking url lol)
One weird thing is that according to the above link, Cheezburger "joins" Ebaumsworld as being part of Literally Media, in 2016. Yet Filstein's own site and LinkedIn says Literally bought Viumbe in 2017. Confusing.
one last link i found from a bitter content farmer...
http://www.ebaumsworld.com/blogs/why-i-was-fired-from-viumbe/84865523/
