This might not be a popular post, but it’s been gnawing at me and it must be said – IOTW Report

This might not be a popular post, but it’s been gnawing at me and it must be said

Tuesday, 15 November 2016, 13:05 BFH Uncategorized 53

I just received an email from Eugenia informing me that I should do a follow-up on the post we did about the CEO, Matt Harrigan, that went on a diatribe about assassinating Trump, a diatribe he tried to later blow off by saying it was “a joke.” The dude was fired.

American Thinker has the update. You can see it HERE.

As soon as I read the email a name popped into my head –  Mike Cernovich.

Who is Mike Cernovich? I have to confess that up until a few months ago I never heard of the guy, If you listen to his self-publicity that makes me a bit of an idiot. Cernovich is apparently the most important guy on the internet. He has a website called Danger and Play and we cannot do without him.

Cernovich is a Trump supporter, hated Hillary and is very popular on Twitter. Now let me tell you why I’m not a fan, and why I don’t think he possesses a particularly sharp mind for anything other than self-serving promotion.

Cernovich coined the loathsome word Churnalism.

What is that? It’s an epithet he created to deride nearly everyone on the internet that has a blog.

A “churnalist” is someone that picks up stories from other blogs and reposts them and does little else. They are useless, according to Cernovich.

The first time I ever saw him was in a rant where he was deriding people for reposting a video of a woman who did something good or bad, I don’t remember, but it doesn’t matter.

His point was that he was sick of going to blogs and seeing the same video posted over and over with nothing at all added but the posting author’s little spin on the existing video. Snarky little comments does not an interesting blog make, so says Cernovich.

He said that an intrepid blogger should be “out there,” “boots on the ground”, creating stories not just “churning” them. His advice was to find the woman in the video, knock on her door and get a follow-up story. Now you’re a journalist/blogger/whatever.

This is where his philosophy falls apart.

Okay, I go out an talk to the woman. I get my video. I upload it and put it on my blog. And it sits there, doing nothing, or it’s seen by my 40,000 visitors on a Tuesday afternoon. And, without the “churnalists” it stays seen by 40,000 people.

My big scoop is shite without “churnalists.” What Cernovich is deriding is what’s know as something going “viral.”

I’ve posted a picture, and without “churnalists” it doesn’t end up going from one coast to the other and then back again and ending up in my email inbox, sent to me by an Aunt that has no idea I am the creator of the picture.

Thank you “churnalists.”

It’s why an obscure story that breaks on a blog at 2pm on Monday is being talked about on Wednesday morning by people I would never have guessed would ever know about the story.

Would Matt Harrigan been fired if his story wasn’t reposted all over the internet on blog after blog after blog? I doubt it.

Posts are nothing but a pebble dropped into a pond. Hopefully it will cause a ripple, which pushes another ripple, from blog to blog to blog to blog. God bless the churnalists and the Churnalism Effect. It’s a form of activism.

Think about this. Cernovich is popular on Twitter. What is retweeting? How does his utterance get heard by thousands? It’s because of the retweeters who offer nothing at all other than “churning a tweet.”

Would he say the retweets are valuable? Should these tweeters concentrate on their own tweets, lest they be nothing but a useless tweet churner?

No, his position is idiotic and I have zero respect for someone with such a message.

Until he gets his mind right, I’m not a fan.

In fact, I hate that I wrote this post because in some perverted way it’s elevated his brand, which is all he wants anyway.

Oh, message to tipsters. Don’t send me his articles or tweets. I don’t want to be a churnalist.

 

53 Comments on This might not be a popular post, but it’s been gnawing at me and it must be said

  3. I go hot and cool with him-he hates the left dominated media so I’m with him on that. His book Gorilla Mindset is worth a read. His second book, MAGA Mindset, I listened to Molyneux read it and his various voices and inflections made it enjoyable.

    He is a self promoter-I have no problem with that.

  5. He comes off as a jerk on his blog. I went there a couple of times but four out of five posts are sales pitches for his products. At least Scott Adams provides wit and insight with his sales pitches. Twitter? pffft.

  9. I wonder if Harrigan is going to have as difficult time explaining to his children “what just happened” to his day job as he anticipated having to tell them about the election of Trump. All politics are local.

  10. If everyone was at one blog, the powerful voices of the commenters (where we get much of our original material) would be drowned out, diffused in a sea of white noise.

    That we have various communities of blogs, each doing their thing with a manageable amount of voices that can shine, is extremely important.

    But I do want to say that I do not take offense to Cernovich’s opinion because I think of myself as a “churnalist.”
    That’s not what we are. We do too much original material to be considered an aggregation site.
    But I support all right-wing sites, no matter what it is they are doing (unless they are stripping off our credits and reposting it as their own. Then I want them to die in a freak tire inflation mishap.)

  11. I like people who think like me and like what I like. I don’t have much time to search the web for interesting things so I stop here a few times a day for entertainment and education also comradarie. I laugh, I get fired up but I don’t have to go all over the place to do it and I like it. I like it a lot.

  13. I only heard of him recently myself maybe from a Paul Joesph Watson piece.
    I look at many blogs daily, and yes some have over lap, but when you deal with a MSM that posts nothing it important IMHO for everything to go viral. And link to other sites so those can get on the radar too.
    That is the only way we are going to stay informed, spread news and ideas and combat a corrupt MSM.
    Sounds like he has some churnalist envy.

  14. The attempt to simplify everything into the world into a ‘term’ or ‘handle’ is laziness.
    What Bloggers do is Share Information.
    Its not churning
    Its rowing the boat of our society

  16. If it’s any comfort,
    think of Cernovich’s newest book title,
    “MAGA Mindset” as
    Churnalistic Plagiarism
    of Trump’s “Make America Great Again” slogan!

  19. I wonder whether PacketSled has completely severed connections with Harrigan. As a co-founder of the company I imagine he would have a fairly large stock position and would be in a position (when the heat is off) to resume some sort of position of influence. I only hope that the SS ensures some sort of criminal mischief conviction is registered against him.
    In regards to churning a story, that’s what the internet is all about. If this Cernovich fellow can’t understand this then I kind of wonder what he’s doing on the web at all.

  21. Here’s a topic for the “churnalists.” How about get a movement started for the US to defund the UN. There’s a link at Drudge that now the UN is saying it’s too late to stop the global warming agenda. The UN is no longer relevant to it’s intended purpose and has actually become dangerous to western civilization and is more interested in furthering the agenda of tyrants, thieves, and killers.

    President Trump knows that global warming is a scam, so I think he would be on board. Think of how much of the US debt could be paid off with money wasted on the UN.

  22. Newspapers have always printed stories from various sources with the name of the source right under the headline. The editor picks what stories to print and where to put them. There is no difference here.

  23. To everything (churn, churn, churn)
    There is a season (churn, churn, churn)
    And a time to every purpose under heaven

    A time for love, a time for hate
    A time to make America great
    A time to grump, a time for Trump
    A time for Pence, I swear it’s not too late!

    (with apologies to the Byrds)

    🙂

  25. Fur, I *would* take offense at his use of the term in the pejorative.

    To me, it’s a good thing, as it’s the “cross pollination” of ideas which are sparked by the “passing along” of (what some consider to be) worthwhile information from other sources.

    That’s why I see his use of “Make America Great Again” a form of not just plagiarism but rank HYPOCRISY, if he really sees the spreading of other’s ideas to be such a contemptible thing.

  26. PacketSled takes recent comments made by our CEO, seriously. Once we were made aware of these comments, we immediately reported this information to the secret service and will cooperate fully with any inquiries. These comments do not reflect the views or opinions of PacketSled, its employees, investors or partners. Our CEO has been placed on administrative leave.

    Weeeeelll, he was ‘fired’. They leaned on him til he quit. That’s how they get rid of people without giving them unemployment bennies. 😀

  28. Fur, I want to understand this better. I tried doing a little research on Cernovich’s coinage of “churnalism”, but all I’m coming up with — at least on first sight — is that the word “churnalism” is directed at the media’s reportage of slim-to-no evidence being the base of a news story and then others who are sympathetic to that line picking up the ‘story’ and taking it out to the airwaves, online content, etc. I couldn’t find anything to suggest that Cernovich was deriding nearly all bloggers on the internet. The video of the woman doing something bad, that you use as your example, may likely have been that phony Trump accuser who ended up being torn to shreds (about Trump having sexually harassed her). Cernovich did a piece on her and it tied back to Gorilla (whatever) because it dealt with how to tell when someone is lying.

    Anyway…I searched the word “churnalist” and its origins are cited by WikiP as BBC journalist Waseem Zaku, 2008. And the word is defined: “Churnalism is a word coined to describe a form of journalism in which press releases, stories provided by news agencies, and other forms of pre-packaged material, instead of reported news, are used to create articles in newspapers and other news media. Its purpose is to reduce cost by reducing original news-gathering and checking sources,[1] to counter revenue lost with the rise of Internet news and decline in advertising; there was a particularly steep fall from late 2015.[2] The term “churnalism” has been credited to BBC journalist Waseem Zakir, who coined the term in 2008.

    Churnalism has increased to the point that many stories found in the press are not original.[2] The decline of original journalism has been associated with a corresponding rise in public relations.[3]”

    I couldn’t find anything about Cernovich talking about bloggers, like you, not being real journalists. Even Jim Hoft at GP and Sundance at CTH — two very ‘active’ bloggers — do much, if any, what we would think of as journalism.

    I don’t know Cernovich and I don’t follow him on social media, but I know he’s been a real warrior against clinton. I just hate to see us eat our own in this post-election season when we need all hands. And I want to make sure I understand the problem, if any.

  29. @MJA (all) — Here’s the latest post from PacketSled’s site:

    “The PacketSled Board of Directors accepted the resignation of President and CEO Matthew Harrigan, effective immediately. Fred Wilmot, the company’s Chief Technology Officer, will serve as interim CEO while the Board of Directors conducts a search for a permanent replacement. We want to be very clear, PacketSled does not condone the comments made by Mr. Harrigan, which do not reflect the views or opinions of the company, its employees, investors or partners.”

    fired or resigned, he’s done. Now I hope the FBI do their jobs.

  31. I also occasionally use the word “churnalist”.
    But only to attack supposed professional journalists, when they don’t do their job. They should verify what they are writing about. Just relying on some press release or the opinions of a supposed expert isn’t enough. Anybody can do that. Even worse if the journalist poses as if his “investigations” had discovered something important, when all he does is acting as a fan spreading any shit that hits it.

  33. MJA — Ok, I will. As I say, I didn’t look around much except the #Churnalism twitter thread and the conversation was aimed at talking heads. Too bad for Cernovich if he’s trying to promote himself over other bloggers by calling them churnalists. How stupid. Most bloggers aren’t aiming to be journalists.

    I took it mean that some bloggers simply repeat bad info, knowing that it’s bad info in the same way someone like Geo. Stephanopolous or Wa-Hon Williams repeats bad info knowing it’s baseless.

    thanks

  36. Internet ‘word of mouth’ is the most potent way to sink or promote a business. It’s expanded marketing without a doubt. What better way to spread news and opinions than through blogs?
    If Harrigan’s death threats had not been spread, publicized, discussed by thousands I expect not a damn thing would have happened to him’

  37. Eugenia — How true is that!

    One of the Trump co-chairs in our state and I kept getting into this argument over the course of months and I just could not convince him that blogs and other online media was just as responsible for getting out the vote and firing people up as the campaign’s ground game. He always found some way to give me the wave off — it was so irritating to me. I’d tell him about a really big story and his response was always, “Meh.” Older guy, party faithful, who’d been doing that way since dirt. I know for a fact that people getting Twitter updates and instant messaging on important race details — like the WikiLeaks stuff — changed a lot of hearts and minds.

  40. Anonymous above was me –
    The video he did was on Periscope. Periscope videos apparently expire –
    https://www.periscope.tv/w/1BdGYNDmoQvJX

    The story was about the woman who went off on the Lyft driver because he had a hula girl on the dashboard.
    He said instead of everyone CHURNING the same story with their stupid little snarky asides (and yes, he was that dismissive and cocky) they should find the woman and interview her and do a follow-up. That way you’re not just a useless bint doing the same thing he can get from 300 sources.

    Abigail,
    As far as being concerned that I an “eating one of our own.”
    You’re not concerned with a guy that is trying to dissuade our side from doing what we do – make shit go viral because we have a network of “churnalists.”
    I submit that I am responding to a guy that is attempting to “eat our own.”

    And as far as the potato/PATahTo argument that is going on about fired/resigned.
    CEOs get fired.
    It’s called “allowing them to resign.”

    That’s CEO privilege.
    If he was a copy boy he’d be fired.

    Let’s not play semantics, The guy wouldn’t have resigned if he wasn’t already fired. Capiche?

  41. “interview her and do a follow-up”</i"
    What a maroon. This guy Cernovich hasn't a clue. I worked patrol for 12 years, probably interviewed and did follow-ups around 1500 to 2000 a year, maybe 20,000+ altogether. And half of them were most likely lying out their ass, even the victims. He thinks people have no agenda when they tell a tale, try an investigation involving nitwits and good luck finding people who aren't stoned or drunk.

  45. Jeeze, Fur. What the heck? I get it. You’re pissed off at some guy I barely heard of. I’m just asking for more details and you somehow turned that into this??

    I wasn’t making a thing out of fired/resigned. I just updated MJA’s info with the most recent statement from the company. My point was it doesn’t matter whether he resigned or was fired.

    You just really hurt my feelings, Fur. I’m not one to “play semantics.” Capice? (Wow, that was the capper. Thanks a lot.) Not cool.

  46. Abigail, Abigail, Abigail. I sure hope Fur didn’t mean it the way you took it (I don’t know and ain’t gonna try to interpret).

    C’mon back to that rowboat on my moonlit lake and let’s have Geoff play “I Only Have Eyes For You” (or “In A Gadda Da Vida” if you prefer) on that hawaiian guitar he plays so well….

    §§§

    That said, I know what you mean about ostrich-like local politicos not wanting to be more effective in getting new voters!

    My County GOP is horseblindedly focused on “early voting” (having been suckered into the Dem’s game plan), rather than registering more voters and getting them to the polls. Ya remember how iOTWr had an article about that Florida GOP group holding registration drives at Chik-Fil-A? Well: GUESS which County that was…a week after – ahem – *someone* contacted the Trump “central” office in the metro DC area and told them the local GOP was a pack of Romney Era Quislings and hadn’t bothered to register folks, compared to all the Dem’s efforts here (the DNC ground game isn’t *all* voter fraud).

    Burn it all down.

  47. AA,
    the entire part, including the capiche part, wasn’t directed at you. It was for the guy who keeps insisting that Harrigan wasn’t fired.

    The link to the periscope video was for you because you wanted more info on the dude.
    My only comment to you was that I’m not eating our own, Cernovich is.

    I was cutting corners because my laptop is in service, and I’m on a laptop from 2010.
    It is not fun.
    I have to use 2 browsers because one won’t respond to gmail, the other won’t do wordpress, and they both can’t be running at the same time.
    It hasn’t been fun.
    It’s taking me 10x the amount of time everything normally would.
    I’m pretty friggin surly.

  51. Kindle would be Kindling.
    I don’t get the laptop back until at least Friday.
    Bad part is it’ll be my third time there in a week and the place is 45 minutes away.

    People who commute must have the ability to meditate while they drive. I have no patience.

  53. BFH – agree 100%. While it is true that he did some good work during the election season, he is too much of a self-promoter for me to enjoy his work in general. Plus, he sometimes comes off as not too bright, although I’m sure that’s wrong or he wouldn’t have had some of the success he has. He seems to me to be too much of a one-trick pony. Everything, and I mean everything, leads up to “buy my book.”

    At any rate, if it wasn’t for “churnalism” most important stories would not go viral and reach wide audiences. I’d rather have 1 BigFurHat than 100 Mike Cernovichs.

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