FBI Hits Back at Facebook/Zuckerberg, Fauci Made AIDS Crisis Worse, Lord of the Rings "Anti-Wokeness" Backlash is Stupid, Streaming Beats Cable TV For the First Time (The Five for 08/28/22)
Hey, welcome to The Five.
Apologies…this one is a tad late.
Let’s dive into Culture & Commentary.
[one]
On the Joe Rogan Podcast this week, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg admitted the social network was wrong for censoring the Hunter Biden laptop story ahead of the 2020 Presidential election.
The billionaire CEO of Meta said he regretted Facebook’s handling of the bombshell story during an appearance on “The Joe Rogan Experience” — but he still defended the process as “pretty reasonable.”
Zuckerberg opened up about the controversial media suppression after the host pressed him to explain his views on how tech platforms should handle content moderation on sensitive subjects.
“When something like that turns out to be real, is there regret for not having it evenly distributed and for throttling the distribution of that story?” Rogan asked about The Post’s Hunter Biden scoop.
“Yeah, it sucks,” Zuckerberg said. “It turned out after the fact, the fact-checkers looked into it, no one was able to say it was false … I think it sucks, though, in the same way that probably having to go through a criminal trial but being proven innocent in the end sucks.”
He said the platform opted to limit sharing on the story — but not halt it entirely — after the FBI told Meta employees to be wary of Russian propaganda ahead of the election.
“Did [the FBI] specifically say you need to be on guard about that story?” Rogan asked, referring to The Post’s article.
“No, I don’t remember if it was that specifically, but it basically fit the pattern,” Zuckerberg said.
After the fact, it’s impossible to know whether the censorship would have changed their vote if they had known the laptop story was true, but one poll found 17% of voters wouldn’t have cast their ballot for Biden if this story had come to light sooner.
Which means Facebook and Twitter’s suppression of the story may have swayed the election.
UPDATE: The FBI claim they didn’t do anything wrong, and pretty much smacked back at Zuckerberg. Read the statement here if you’re interested.
[two]
Dr. Anthony Fauci announced his retirement this week, after 50 years of government work that will result in an enormous taxpayer-funded pension.
It’s still too soon to write about (or change anyone’s mind, or even process) Fauci’s handling of COVID…one element of the doctor’s legacy has been cemented…the way he got AIDS completely wrong and led to the alienation of people with HIV from their friends and family. Many were left completely isolated and died alone due to bad info.
Dr. Fauci in the 80’s about AIDS:
Seeing it in children is really quite disturbing. If the close contact of a child is a household contact, there will be a certain number of individuals of people who are living in close contact with someone with AIDS who doesn’t have to have intimate sexual contact or share a needle, just the ordinary close contact that one sees in normal life.
Your guess is as good as mine as to how the history books will cover COVID, the lockdowns, vaccines, etc. But one thing is certain…if the full story is told, Dr. Anthony Fauci caused irreparable harm to people who were already dying of an incurable disease.
[three]
The final trailer for Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power dropped…I’ve slowly gone from dreading how bad this show could be to getting pretty hyped up.
Full reviews aren’t out, but the social media embargo has been lifted, and early reactions are overwhelmingly positive.
However, there is a backlash from the emerging “right wing film critic” movement, calling out the alleged “wokeness” of the Amazon Prime series…based on, a couple of minutes of trailer footage?
Like…how? Nobody has even seen this yet?
Why are all these people so pissed off?
In this way, “Right Wing Film” commentators…and Woke film critics are…exactly the same.
Both groups care more about the message being pushed than the narrative (or, lack there of either of those elements).
Which is dumb. Rings of Power is based on Tolkein’s writing, and the showrunners claim to be working hard to stay true to the original vision of the writing.
Which means the “cultural commentary” of the show will be about…wait for it…
…World War I.
Because that’s when this material was written.
Chill, and enjoy the show.
(Or, don’t watch it if fantasy isn’t your thing).
[four]
Woah, this is news.
For the first time ever, streaming TV platforms beat cable for overall viewership.
Streaming claimed the largest share of TV viewing in July for the first time ever. Streaming viewership has beat broadcast viewing in the past, but this marks the first time streaming has also trumped cable according to new data from Nielsen's monthly analysis of television delivery platforms.
Streaming represented 34.8 percent of total television consumption last month, narrowly edging out cable's 34.4 percent share. Broadcast viewing accounted for 21.6 percent of the pie.
Streaming usage grew 3.2 percent from June and a whopping 22.6 percent year over year. Cable usage dropped two percent from June and 8.9 percent on a year-over-year basis, while broadcast volume dipped 3.7 percent compared to the previous month and 9.8 percent versus July 2021.
[five]
As always, let’s head into the weekend with a pop culture roundup:
The sequel to Knives Out, entitled Glass Onion (huh?) hits Netflix 12/23. No trailer yet, just an image. You can see a couple more pics here though.
The Chuck Norris action vehicle Walker, Texas Ranger was a mainstay of my late elementary schoool and jr. high years…but I didn’t realize the series had been rebooted in 2021 on the CW simply as Walker.
Now, Walker is going the Yellowstone route and kicking off an 1800’s prequel, of the reboot. If that makes sense. Seems like they’re really playing up the revenge element in Independence.
Well, we’re getting more King Kong whether you wanted it or not. The ape-like monster is still fighting Godzilla or whatever in the big screen movies, but will also be headed to Disney+ for a new show.
Also, Apple+ is doing some kind of Godzilla/Monsterverse show that could include Kong.
Weird.The live adaptation of Pinocchio looks visually pretty great. Also, there’s like a 2.5% chance I ever watch this if my children force me to at some point.
Man vs. Lion is a sub-sub-sub genre of action/horror.
OK, this is only the second Man vs. Lion movie ever made…but the first one is a cult classic, 1996’s The Ghost and the Darkness, the true story of lions attacking a railway camp and eating the workers.
Idris Elba (The Wire, The Office) plays a guy who apparently tries to keep himself and his daughters from becoming an alpha predator meal. In theaters this weekend.Jason Momoa (Aquaman, Game of Thrones) plays a guy with goat horns on his head in a movie about childhood grief….errr, just watch the trailer. This one looks very promising.
On Netflix in November.
Until the next one,
-sth