Dark Money Invades Social Media
On The Time of Monsters: Taylor Lorenz on the shadowy groups backing some big Democratic influencers.
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Dark Money Invades Social Media | The Time of Monsters with Jeet Heer
On August 27, journalist Taylor Lorenz reported for Wired on a dark-money project funded by
anonymous Democratic Party donors to shape social media. Her article documented that,
"In a private group chat in June, dozens of Democratic political influencers discussed whether to
take advantage of an enticing opportunity. They were being offered $8,000 per month to take
part in a secretive program aimed at bolstering Democratic messaging on the internet.
But the contract sent to them from Chorus, the nonprofit arm of a liberal influencer marketing
platform, came with some strings. Among other issues, it mandated extensive secrecy about
disclosing their payments and had restrictions on what sort of political content the creators
could produce."
I talked to Taylor about her article and the considerable backlash it provoked from the people
she wrote about. We also discussed why Republicans have done so well on social media and
why this latest effort is both morally dubious and ineffective.
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On August 27, journalist Taylor Lorenz reported for Wired on a dark-money project funded by anonymous Democratic Party donors to shape social media. As she wrote:
In a private group chat in June, dozens of Democratic political influencers discussed whether to take advantage of an enticing opportunity. They were being offered $8,000 per month to take part in a secretive program aimed at bolstering Democratic messaging on the internet. But the contract sent to them from Chorus, the nonprofit arm of a liberal influencer marketing platform, came with some strings. Among other issues, it mandated extensive secrecy about disclosing their payments and had restrictions on what sort of political content the creators could produce.
I talked to Taylor about her article and the considerable backlash it provoked from the people she wrote about. We also discussed why Republicans have done so well on social media and why this latest effort is both morally dubious and ineffective.
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The Time of Monsters with Jeet Heer
The Time of Monsters podcast features Nation national-affairs correspondent Jeet Heer’s signature blend of political culture and cultural politics. Each week, he’ll host in-depth conversations with urgent voices on the most pressing issues of our time.
Gaza and Elite Accountability w/ Connor Echols
Many of Joe Biden’s closest advisors are now well-ensconced in the sinecures reserved for the elite, working at think tanks, academia, and major media outlets. Normally, they could expect to have future jobs when the Democrats retake the White House. But this cozy situation is being disrupted by ongoing reporting showing the extent of their complicity in the Gaza genocide and other US crimes in the Middle East. I spoke about this with Connor Echols, managing editor of Responsible Statecraft, who wrote an excellent article on the efforts to hold these officials accountable.
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