Newsbot At Murdoch Tabloid Helps Sum Up Quality Of #BLM Hit Piece Better Than Any Human Ever Could

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A few months ago, Rupert Murdoch’s New York Post rolled out a hit piece that even by its own appalling standards, stunk like sh*t. Literally. Chris Graham reports.

In case you missed it – and let’s face it, it’s the NY Post, so of course you missed it – the Big Apple’s most and mocked and least trusted media outlet served up some fresh garbage in April headlined ‘Inside BLM co-founder Patrisse Khan-Cullors’ million-dollar real estate buying binge’.

It probably doesn’t need much explanation beyond this… The Post tried to suggest that Cullors (her correct name) used money donated to BLM to go on a ‘spending binge’… a ‘binge’ apparently equalling the number ‘one’, in the minds of the NY Post.

Of course, they didn’t directly say that, mostly because it’s simply not true – BLM hasn’t paid Cullors-Brignac anything since 2019, and prior to that she worked largely as a volunteer and was only paid occasional small stipends and re-imbursed expenses (for almost a decade’s mostly free labour). But when did a Murdoch smear ever directly allege anything?

We’re not going to link to the story here (the two quickest ways to damage your web rankings/reputation is to link to child porn or a News Corp publication), but all you need to know if you go looking is that the piece is so clumsily put together – and so easily disproveable – that if you Google the phrase ‘BLM founder home’, the top hit you get is a story debunking the Post’s.

It’s worth a read, particularly for the bit where it outlines how Cullors actually makes a living: “She has two book deals, including authorship of a New York Times best-selling memoir. The Los Angeles Times reported last year that Khan-Cullors signed a production deal with Warner Brothers “to develop scripted dramas and comedies, docuseries and animated programming for children, young adults and families.

“Khan-Cullors also noted that she is a public speaker, owns a gallery, has a deal with YouTube and teaches at a private liberal arts college in Arizona.”

Or you can go to Cullors herself: this is her personal website.

But here’s a screencap of the offending NY Post ‘investigation’, in all its gut wrenchingly embarrassing glory. And pay particular attention to the image/video….

Two important points to flesh out here:

1. The NY Post ran a story on a dog pooing in the middle of a street… which is undeniably one of more accurate, less offensive ‘stories’ trotted out by the masthead in recent times; and
2. That dog poo story is now popping up at the top of the BLM hit piece, as promoted content.

Obviously, the video is courtesy of a ‘newsbot’ which serves up ‘random’ content to readers. But it’s far nicer to think that maybe a sub-editor somewhere in the bowels of News Corp has pulled a swifty.

Speaking of pulling swifty’s for future reference the author of the piece is an alleged ‘journalist’ called Isabel Vincent. She exists unaccountably on Twitter here, where she provocatively describes herself as an “investigative reporter”.

And speaking of Twitter, in October last year, the NY Post had its Facebook and Twitter accounts limited after a story of similarly dodgy provenance which was aimed at stitching up Hunter Biden, the son of US presidential candidate Joe Biden. Logic dictates you wouldn’t have to work all that hard to find dirt on any of the Bidens… but admittedly this is the NY Post.  

The story was timed, obviously, to coincide with the run up to the November 2020 elections to the social media giants limited the distribution of the story on their platforms. When the paper’s account was finally fully restored, NY Post CEO Robert Thomson hilariously told media: “Our journalists are not lapdogs with laptops. Our journalists are not stenographers. Our journalists are not woke. Our journalists are awake to their profound responsibilities.”

Of course, the NY Post is best known for two things: (a) doing the bidding of Rupert Murdoch; and (b) ripping off content from other media outlets and reporting it without any independent verification… sort of a Daily Mail, but with better subs and without the nonsensical headlines.

Although in their defence, just like the #BLM piece, the dog poo story does appear to be original content.

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Chris Graham

Chris Graham is the publisher and editor of New Matilda. He is the former founding managing editor of the National Indigenous Times and Tracker magazine. Chris has won a Walkley Award, a Walkley High Commendation and two Human Rights Awards for his reporting. He lives in Brisbane and splits his time between Stradbroke Island, where New Matilda is based, and the mainland.

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