251 Comments

"Journalism is printing something that someone does not want printed. Everything else is public relations."

George Orwell

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Is it public relations or as I've heard it, propaganda?

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To be fair, comrade, everything is propaganda, including this comment to a degree. Just have to decide what propaganda you believe in. This is the people's propaganda, so I'm choosing it. :) Media literacy and all that.

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Get that I was mostly asking about the correct version of the quote

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The term 'public relations' was essentially invented to distance itself from the negative connotations of propaganda. I view them as identical.

https://youtu.be/rdpOQvzNPBI?si=WIgpoVGUCt3a5Vq2&t=770

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/493212.Propaganda

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Apr 30Liked by Ken Klippenstein

Never been more excited to smash the "confirm payment" button. Proud of you bro, deeply admire what you're doing. If more beltway journalists had your courage this would be a very different country

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Sorry it came to this and also I can't wait to see what this newsletter becomes. You've nailed everything that's wrong with journalism right now and if there's a way forward at all, I think you've just described it

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Apr 30Liked by Ken Klippenstein

I hope the Bohemian Grove members list sees the light of day one day

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author

working on it!

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Great, that's a subject that everybody needs to circle back to. There's a lot to look at there, I think.

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Apr 30Liked by Ken Klippenstein

Hell yes lol… this is the juice. Thanks for having the nuts to kick these fuckers in the teeth. I’ll be canceling my paid scrip to the intercept and giving that money to you, Ken. Carry on.

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Thanks!

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Awesome!

The org chart at the newsroom doesn't seem odd at all, though I know the place has been through it recently. Hard to think of a publication that would need legal representation more, for just one thing. And, given its financial situation, two people devoted to fundraising seems like a minimum amount of people doing the work to pay the journalists.

The business people of journalism rarely get the gratitude that journalists get, though they get even more of the stress, and they also don't get the big paychecks that their peers in other industries get.

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Apr 30Liked by Ken Klippenstein

I question the clarity of the Supervising Producer's Job Title, though not really--it just made me chuckle that the one person with "supervising" in their name doesn't supervise anyone. I get that they supervise product but don't function as a direct manager.

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Apr 30Liked by Ken Klippenstein

The Intercept is the newest victim of being Klipped

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Apr 30Liked by Ken Klippenstein

Mad props to you for this courageous move and story. The impact of philanthropy on journalism is deeply concerning. I work in resource mobilization for social movements and we are experiencing similar huge questions around the limits of philanthropy AND small dollar fundraising models on our work. So many funders are firing entire staffs, ending funding to movements, etc in the 3-4 years after the racial justice uprisings in 2020. Somethings got to change.

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I had no idea how corrupt the nonprofit world was before all this. In a way the for-profit world is more honest, doesn't pretend to be anything other than what it is

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May 1Liked by Ken Klippenstein

It wasn't really until after the Twitter Files that I realized fully that the non-profit "NGOcracy" very often operates as a way for highly moneyed interests to launder their ideas and needs into the public discourse and government action. I previously distrusted nonprofits because I thought they usually mismanaged funds. Now I don't trust them because they are the tool through which corporations, elites, and governments push their agendas when they can't get them to work out in the open. The "Censorship Industrial Complex" is just one example.

Books have been written on how special interest groups have brought down democracies in the past.

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I fully agree, out of my own experience.

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Long time critic of NGOs and non-profits out of personal experience.

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Yes it's because both worlds are staffed by people

It used to be non profits had nicer HR departments

Its like isms they are all eventually corrupted by the ists

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Foreign funded NGOs greatly affect my country of South Africa.

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Apr 30Liked by Ken Klippenstein

Hopefully Ryan Grim and others jump shit too. This is ridiculous

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May 1Liked by Ken Klippenstein

Best of luck. Similar story happened to me at nonprofit Consumer Reports. In 2012, they defanged a cover expose I edited of Facebook even while they were negotiating business with Facebook. Eventually they forced me out. Everyone else was paid hush money. Consumer Reports has never been the same since. I wrote all about it at: www.stateofthenet.net.

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Appreciate knowing this Jeff. Makes one question all those “consumer reports” that have come out since that time (and possibly before)

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Didn’t know but not surprising at all. All left leaning media rats can fight it out on the sinking ship. Good riddance to them and their stinking ship.

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dont lose that special charm of yours, snowflake

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Apr 30·edited Apr 30Liked by Ken Klippenstein

Ken, this is a very principled and ethical stance you've taken, and I'm grateful to hear the inside-baseball story of what was going on behind the scenes of The Intercept. I just wish that you had chosen a platform other than one that refuses to take a firm stance against actual-nazis to launch this next phase of your career.

cf., https://www.theguardian.com/media/2024/jan/03/substack-user-revolt-anti-censorship-stance-neo-nazis and https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2024/01/11/substack-platformer-nazis/

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May 1·edited May 1

Why should they take a stand on as you say actual-nazis. They need to be able to write what they want so people can see how bat shit crazy they are, censorship has not been or is it the answer.

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Anything the Guardian and the Washington Post are criticizing, I’ll support.

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Eh. Probably for the best that they're consistent with not banning people. Marketplace of ideas etc etc

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“Marketplace of ideas, etc” wow we’re just taking that canard for granted as common knowledge, huh?

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Oh fuck you and fuck every last one of you with your fucking fake stand against Nazis

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No fuck you and your censorship. You are a piece of shit to expect censorship, what right do you have to say what people can or can't see, read or write.

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The irony flew right over your head

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What irony is that champ? Freedom of speech is essential to a functioning society, you have no right to say what people can say, do or write. So once again fuck you and your call for censorship.

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absolutely asinine hipocrisy and self-negation, "Andrew" be thy name.

Start with a goll darn dictionary, graduate to a thesaurus.

You chose Drake.

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🤣🤣🤣🤣

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People have a “right” as you define it to advocate the complete negation of freedom as any being might perceive it, and get paid, even by me, so you say.

I will retain my right to object, protest, and resist such arrogant frippery. Apologies to actual Fripps.

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Agree.

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Thank you sir! I like your short and to the point answer. The word nazi has oddly become the go to assault on anyone we don’t agree with, thus rendering it meaningless.

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Popehat Ken White went to Ghost.

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I have no idea what Ghost is and I consider myself pretty chronically online. That's a problem.

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Ghost is one of two alternatives to Substack that have arisen within the last 6-9 months, in response to this very issue. I can't remember the other.

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May 1·edited May 1

FYI to provide some better clarity, Ghost has been around way longer than that and newsletters, memberships, and subscriptions became public features in Ghost 4.0, released back in March 2021: https://ghost.org/changelog/4/

One reason they've become a more popular alternative with all the recent Substack moderation drama is that they have both paid/hosted as well as free/self-hosted options (giving you true full control of your subscriptions, unlike Substack's lip service), and integrate with standard services like Stripe and Mailgun.

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I read a little bit more about Ghost after Popehat said he had migrated, and the subscription controls was one thing he mentioned.

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You don’t subscribe to Ken White?

You should.

Still on here (i think) with Serious Trouble podcast.

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It’s your problem.

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I wish there were a wide-reaching independent publishing platform that DIDN’T make space for or profit from Nazis. Substack is directly funding a bunch of them and keeping the list of “sponsored writers” they’re directly subsidizing SECRET, which is disgusting… but Ghost has been lax with quashing Nazis too, and few other indie platforms exist whose hands aren’t stained and who PEOPLE CAN ACTUALLY ACCESS, which is a massive problem. Heck, Substack is the only one with a decent app. So all of us are pretty trapped— readers who want to track y’all’s writing and writers who want to reach a wide enough audience alike.

It’s just a horrifying inevitably of the last half-century’s news collapse and internet consolidation, and a really depressing one at that. Either we pick corporate strangleheld news-sites or indie Nazi-profiteers. Most of my friends are trans and I can’t stand how I practically HAVE to use Substack to keep track of good sources, even though they’ve cut seven-figure deals with the likes of Glenn Greenwald to write misinformation that is helping the Right kill and deny care to trans people. It makes me feel kind of hopeless and late-stage Capitalism is actively denying us any alternatives. https://doyles.substack.com/p/in-queers-we-trust-all-others-pay

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Censorship isn't the panacea that you think, it's better for people to see who is a Nazi and who isn't. And by the way the right isn't killing anyone. They are trying to stop child mutilation. Maybe have a look at the Cass report. They have stopped puberty blockers in the UK for a reason. Also trans people who go through transition are still more likely to commit suicide so transitioning isn't the answer, more mental health services are.

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Speaking of your oh-so-brave stance against child mutilation, where have you been all these years contributing to the fight against the much more horrifically common child mutilation practice of male circumcision? Or the long-standing practice of doctors performing surgery on intersex infants to “correct” the infant’s outward gender to their best guess on what their genitals closest comply with since XX and XY aren’t the only possible options or determining factors for genital development? That’s a huge percentage amount of the population of “mutilated” children you’re ignoring, all of whom are being operated on without their actual CONSENT, unlike the trans youths who have to prove their gender identity for years and years to be eligible for elective surgery.

Just putting a little pin here in the blatant hypocrisy for those watching, since I know anti-trans advocates seldom believe in “consent” in the first place.

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Are you seriously trying to pull the CASS REPORT over on us? How stupid do you think people who read The Intercept are?!

Do you have any idea how BLATANTLY you pull your own pants down in front of everyone when you point to a report compiled by an avowed anti-trans activist and Ron Desantis advisor that uses “studies” performed by surveying PARENTS on an anti-trans messaging board to determine recidivism rates, lied about and ignored its own classification methods to draw bogus “conclusions” that its own graphs and metadata studies don’t actually show, and is currently being panned not just by mass media but by every major scientific and medical organization on the planet that’s studied the safety of puberty blockers (which are safely taken 95% of the time by normal cis teens to treat early onset puberty without harm) and the long-proven results of gender-affirming care?

The only people hypocritical enough to point to something as openly, blatantly conclusion-driven as the Cass Report are people who never cared about its methodologies or accuracy in the first place, only that it serves the purpose it was built for of giving people like you cover to demonize Trans people no matter how sloppy and blatant the lies are that you have to launder. You’re exposing yourself as someone who wants Trans people to suffer and die and will lie as lazily as they can just to make it happen faster.

https://ruthpearce.net/2024/04/16/whats-wrong-with-the-cass-review-a-round-up-of-commentary-and-evidence/

https://www.erininthemorning.com/p/opinion-englands-anti-trans-cass?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web

https://juliaserano.substack.com/p/the-cass-review-wpath-files-and-the?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&triedRedirect=true

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The Cass report that was enough for the UK to stop prescribing (thank God) puberty blockers to children and for the biggest trans clinic (once again thank god) too close. Puberty blockers shouldn't be given to children, there are studies to show the damage puberty blockers do to kids. You people are cult like in your obsession to transition kids, you should be ashamed of yourself. No transitioning should be happening to kids until they turn 18. Even the WPATH has said the handbrake needs to be pulled, so shove your sanctimony up your ass. Recently, surgeon and WPATH. Just one of the reasons for not using puberty blockers president-elect, Marci Bowers, raised concern that puberty blockers given at the earliest stages of puberty to birth sex males, followed by cross-sex hormones and then surgery, might adversely impact orgasm capacity because of the lack of genital tissue development (Ley, 2021).

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Gee, if only my third link hadn’t preemptively debunked everything you just said about WPATH. All of you disingenuous anti-trans advocates are the same when you try to sound reasonable and “concerned about children”, like that old Fox News bit from The Simpsons: “Not Fascists, But Number 1 With Fascists”. You would never bother to scrutinize a source or its biases if it helped you hurt the people you wish to exterminate.

Maybe if you want to fool more people into forcing trans people to exist in misery in the closet, develop irreversible body hair and secondary sexual characteristics they don’t identify with that will haunt them physically their entire lives without expensive later surgery, and commit suicide under a regime of bullying and legal oppression, you should try checking if sources you share like Marci Bowers said, oh I don’t know, that anti-trans advocates DELIBERATELY MISREPRESENTED HER POSITION and took her remarks and evidence provably out of context (( https://marcibowers.com/transmasc/dear-colleagues-clients-and-friends/ )) when she was just remarking on an area of study where more evidence could be obtained and should not be misconstrued as a barrier to the importance of gender affirming care. Waiting until the end of puberty to administer puberty blockers makes absolutely zero sense to anyone who understands how puberty blockers work, especially Marci Bowers, and puberty blockers ARE GIVEN SAFELY TO NON-TRANS CHILDREN TO TREAT EARLY ONSET PUBERTY WITH NO ILL EFFECTS over *ten times* more often than they’re used in the incredibly niche case of gender-affirming care.

Lie more, you genocidal prick.

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🤣🤣🤣 genocidal prick melodramatic much. I'm not killing trans people, they do a pretty good job of that themselves, even after they transition. The Review commissioned the University of York to conduct a series of independent reviews, they all can be transphobic. Your just upset that your fantasy world has been proven just that, fantasy. The old taken out of context quote, no the person said what they meant. Mutilating children isn't gender affirming care. Now goodbye, hope you have a great day. Genocidal prick🤣🤣🤣🤣

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You said “app.”

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I hate my reliance on phone apps to keep up with information but my own limitations mean I have to have something on the evil goddamned iOS phone I’m stuck with that actually works to keep up with marginalized voices and independent reporters, and Substack’s digital phone solution is one of the easiest to use. Having to use the word “app” still makes me cringe too.

I think one of y’all mentioned that there are solutions to keep track of your Ghost subscriptions on your phone that are actually user-friendly, is that true? If I keep having to rely on my email inbox alone I’m going to scream.

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Apr 30Liked by Ken Klippenstein

Journalists fail to recognize that if they only cover government, politicians and people in power, they become advocates for those people, meanwhile millions of citizens have no voice. Here's what happens when journalists listen to thousands of people in the heartland -- we can produce a view of reality that beltway journalists cannot, and do not understand: https://ohiocapitaljournal.com/2024/04/24/for-whom-the-bellwether-tolls-is-ohio-an-omen/

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Apr 30Liked by Ken Klippenstein

I'll probably disagree with a lot of your views, but honesty in journalism - doing journalism as opposed to acting as mouthpieces for a corrupt elite (I think of them as the Inner Party) - should upset people if it exposes truths.

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Bravo👏👏👏

You're amazing! Back in the 6th grade we were taught what good journalism is. I've not forgotten those lessons. You are one of the best reporters I have the pleasure to read. I also follow Seth Abramson. Another fantastic journalist. I really wish I could afford to support your work because it's so very important. Thank you!

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Apr 30Liked by Ken Klippenstein

The Intercept being editorially enfeebled and financially drained by the same manner of secretive, overpaid parasites you write about is such a bummer that I've been forced to become your paying subscriber.

But since you're righteous, important, and—I suppose less importantly—funny (nice touch stetting the "Confidential Information: Not for External Distribution" in your former employer's org chart), I'm very happy to do so.

I'm glad you got out and are still going.

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Apr 30Liked by Ken Klippenstein

I knew very little about the inner workings of the Intercept. So this email was very informative. I have passed it on to a number of other politically active friends.

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