George Yatchisin
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gyatchisin.bsky.social
George Yatchisin
@gyatchisin.bsky.social
160 followers 220 following 43 posts
Santa Barbara Poet Laureate 2025-27
Write, read, interview, eat, drink, cook, repeat
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Reposted by George Yatchisin
craigcalcaterra.bsky.social
As I write in my newsletter today, there are several reasons why the media is utterly failing in its coverage of Charlie Kirk. These are the big three, however. www.cupofcoffeenews.com/cup-of-coffe...
The fact that most media types still live on Elon Musk's fascist-promoting Twitter platform and thus fail to understand just how much of an extremist Kirk was. Post-Musk Twitter is a bubble which showcases and promotes the most extreme voices imaginable which, in turn, gives the media a warped sense of what constitutes normal political and social discourse. It causes them to overreport and underreport a lot of things under the mistaken belief that the online stew in which they marinate is real life and the people who marinate there alongside them are normal and common; Despite Kirk's extremism, a lot of people in journalism and punditry engage in a professional tribalism which causes them to identify with other people who also spend too much time on social media, who do podcasts, and who show up in cable news green rooms alongside them. On some level they saw Kirk as one of their own even though he was, actually, involved in a completely different sort of project than legitimate journalists or pundits are. It's a more extreme version of what I've observed in sports media over the past 20 years or so in which reporters will almost always overlook the faults of a "fellow scribe" because, above everything else, they belong in the same club. It's an object example of failing to understand that we are what we pretend to be; and Basic fear. The media's reticence to label Kirk an extremist has made it jarringly clear how afraid the media is of the people in power who share Kirk's extremist beliefs. How afraid of they are of drawing the ire of Trump, Vance, Loomer, Libs of TikTok, and the rest. Reporters and commentators are censoring themselves and are otherwise acting obsequiously so they aren't denied access, won't get sued, won't get fired, won't have their employer's broadcast licenses suspended or investigated, and won't have mobs turned on them. At first this might have been done in response to actual criticism, hostility, or active pushback from those in power, but it has quite obviously become an internalized fear that has dissuaded them from speaking criticially, let alone condemning, racism, misogyny, homophobia, antisemitism and the like. This may be the most significant and the most disturbing explanation of such behavior given the implications it has for democracy and free expression.
September 12, 2025 at 10:55 AM
gyatchisin.bsky.social
Good thing he does, as the Dems in Congress sure don’t.
July 20, 2025 at 3:04 AM
gyatchisin.bsky.social
Thanks for sharing! And RIP David Thomas.
April 26, 2025 at 4:08 AM