Yesterday I saw a post on #Threads from a journalist wondering how to do their job without #Twitter. Even to the point they wondered how work was possible without trending topics to look at.
And that’s kinda alarming to be honest. The media has become so dependent on Twitter to find news that they genuinely struggle to find sources and do their job without it.
Back in March, when the #fediverse came together to help save us, we changed our name to “Texas Observer Lives!”
Today, we changed it back to just "Texas Observer" because we need YOUR HELP to survive into 2024! It's up to our readers to preserve the voice of progressive #Texas by joining our fall membership drive.
NPR’s data shows that they lost nothing after being ostracized by the psychotic white billionaire. It counters the idea that leaving Twitter is a loss. Let’s dismiss the idea that we need to be held hostage on any platform.
Anything from Vox Media and The Atlantic is now untrustworthy in any capacity from now on. Remember this when reading or linking to any articles in the future.
Earlier this week the New York Times claimed to have partially corroborated some of Jamie Reed's allegations against a clinic for transgender youth in St. Louis.
Their story did not back up the assertion that they corroborated Reed's claims. I know that because I looked at every single one of the 69 claims. #trans#transgender#news#journalism#Newstodon#bias
I understand that newspapers need support through subscriptions, but I often worry about about how this makes reliable information a luxury for those with the means to afford it.
Meanwhile misinformation & disinformation are widely accessible & free. #news#journalism
After reading many posts after the #introductions and some of the frustrations of people leaving Mastodon, one of the leading reasons was access to journalists. I've taken @tchambers 's journalist tracker google doc and converted it to the simple followers import format. Edit your profile, select Import/Export->Import, and upload to directly add 1000+ journalists. File here:
A year can go by in a flash. And that’s certainly how I feel as @Flipboard marks the first birthday of our Mastodon editorial desks. We tentatively dipped our toes into the water, not sure what to expect. What we quickly discovered was a smart, engaged community of people truly curious about our world for all its virtues and faults.
We instantly observed far more replies, favorites and boosts than we ever saw on X (Twitter) even though we had many more followers there. By November, we abandoned X to focus on Mastodon and a few other platforms.
When we launched our Mastodon accounts, we had no idea that Flipboard itself would federate, which is a work in progress. In recent months, we’ve federated our editorial curation from the app, greatly expanding your options to follow the topics you’re most interested in, such as news, politics, sports, entertainment, etc. And we’re in the process of federating publisher Flipboard accounts so that you can follow their topical Magazines. Already, you can find accounts such as Smithsonian Magazine, Euronews, Frommers, CBS Sports and SPIN.
Thank you for all of your feedback and support. If you like our work, please boost this post and help us grow our audience.
The candidacy of Ron DeSantis? The raging moral panic over trans people which is threatening to expand and come after all LGBTQ+ rights?
The moral panic was inflated to support the candidacy of Meatball Ron, a guy so uncharismatic he didn't even stay in the race for the New Hampshire primary. Now all of us will pay the price. #trans#news#uspol#journalism#transgender
This has been months in the planning, now on Assigned today:
In South Carolina, administrators at a large teaching hospital quietly decided to bow to political pressure and abruptly end all treatment for gender dysphoria for anyone under 18.
Hi everyone. I'm going to share a new #introduction.
I'm a #nonbinary (they/them) movement journalist in my 40s, currently based in Central #Texas. From 2022 until today's layoffs, I was Digital Editor at the @TexasObserver. I've been a writer, journalist and editor since at least 2011, when I got my start on the primordial political blog Firedoglake. My involvement with the Occupy Wall Street movement helped make me a journo and I've always worn my bias on my sleeve.
In the last 6 days the NY Times has run 4 articles about e-bikes -- all of them negative.
A few other stories the paper might consider:
🔹 E-bikes pollute far less than even electric cars
🔹 Compared to autos, e-bikes pose minimal risk to other people
🔹 Unlike cars, e-bikes provide exercise
I've never stopped feeling angry about the NYT's story from last November which fearmongered heavily about puberty blockers and the supposed risks to bone health they might bring.
So it is with grim satisfaction that I can report on a new study, in JAMA Pediatricts, that suggests fears about bone density have been wildly overstated. #science#trans#journalism#mediabias#news
Latest comic on a certain pundit's infamous $78 airport meal
(For those outside the US, the commentator David Brooks has made a career out of piously trolling liberals for their supposed decadence and lack of morals.)
Read this item from today's Politico. It describes how false equivalency and both-sides-ing are not just a lazy habit in journalism, but a tool of politics that incorporates the bad journalism into party behavior, thus making a mockery of the images of detachment on which the press sells itself.
I’ve been reading some of the criticism of the BBC creating their own Mastodon instance. Those against fall mostly into “they promote Transphobia” or “they skewed Brexit coverage” Both seem fair.
BBC creating an instance is good for Fediverse. Period. Just because they are on your street doesn’t mean you have to invite them in for tea or read/boost their posts / support them at all
BUT - If BBC fails no one else you DO want to read will follow here.
This was a 6 month effort by myself and 3 amazing trans women journalists, 2 incredibly trans devs, and other helpers.
The Library is a collection of information about the individuals and organizations involved in anti-trans activism. It's a labor of love for the trans community, and I hope you'll visit it, use it, and share it as widely as you can. #trans#transgender#journalism#transrights
Featured story: "The conservative campaign to harass the libs out of academia has already sent a chill through #Texas’ world-class public universities, making professors and administrators so fearful of setting off the lunatics in charge at the Capitol that they censor themselves—in scholarship or in their communications with students and the public."
We love the conversations and friendships we make here on the fediverse. The engagement we get here is truly unlike any other social media.
Now it's that time again, when we ask our community to support us. We still need your help to ensure we can continue our vital mission of telling vital, untold stories of #Texas life that matter far beyond our borders.