this post was submitted on 01 Dec 2023
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[–] clearedtoland@lemmy.world 269 points 11 months ago (3 children)

My god. This deliciously tasty excerpt:

In various campaign biographies, a résumé and interviews, Mr. Santos said he graduated from Baruch College in New York City, where he was a volleyball star on a championship team. He boasted of working at Citigroup and Goldman Sachs and amassing personal wealth. He claimed to be descended from Holocaust refugees; that his mother was in the World Trade Center during the Sept. 11 attacks; and that he lost four employees in the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando.

None of those claims were true.

[–] MiscreantMouse@kbin.social 125 points 11 months ago (6 children)

The real question is where tf were the journalists while Santos was running his campaign on these false claims?

Too busy playing horse race? Frantically trying to find something newsworthy about Hunter Biden's laptop? Credulously glorifying some billionaire's childish misconceptions?

Guess we'll never know.

[–] SnotFlickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone 70 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (8 children)

Well, he's a representative for New York, in a district for ~~New York City itself.~~ Long Island and "technically" a tiny bit of NYC. (I have been informed that his district is mostly Long Island)

Let's break this down into two parts, okay?

  1. Local journalism is dead, dead, dead, dead dead. Especially in big places like New York City, where everyone assumes that the New York Times will be covering things. They didn't dig deep into Mayor Adams either, and that guy is under investigation now as well. They didn't question his former police credentials after decades of police misconduct. Beyond that the NYT is more of a national newspaper than an actual local paper. I'm sure there are plenty of small independent news sources in New York City, but I'm also sure they're mostly drowned out and ignored compared to how many people read something like the NYT.

  2. Corruption in New York City is literally, completely nothing new. Journalists have been failing to uncover unscrupulous activity for decades in this city. As I referenced mayor Adams above, this city filled with the rich, egotistical, and greedy, is a city built on the kind of lies George Santos peddles. How do I know? Because that city allowed Donald Trump to be a successful real estate developer using similar tactics. People have known he's corrupt since forever, but plenty of his corruption was just ignored until decades later. Same with Rudy Guiliani and so on.

Now I'm not saying we should just give up. Local journalism is important to fight for, and NYC being a corrupt hell-hole isn't a permanent foregone conclusion. However, my point is that NYT employs far fewer reporters than you think to cover an entire country, and the dearth of real local news sources all over the country is contributing to these kind of people succeeding, because the local press is dead in the water and can't afford to send someone researching local corruption.

Pay for your local news, is what I am saying, I guess, and things might marginally improve.

[–] IHadTwoCows@lemm.ee 17 points 11 months ago (1 children)

The NYT is no longer a news paper; it's a tech company focusing on being a lifestyle brand.

[–] SnotFlickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone 11 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

I mean, it was always a lifestyle brand. Even back in the day you'd open the "Lifestyle" section of the paper, and it would be about how to afford that third house in the Hamptons. It's always been clear who their market is aimed at.

[–] EatYouWell@lemmy.world 12 points 11 months ago

Yeah, actual journalism is dead, especially since investigating stuff like this might get you raided by SWAT

[–] deweydecibel@lemmy.world 6 points 11 months ago

Worth pointing out part of the reason local journalism died is because it's not financially viable.

Because interest in local politics died.

If people have a shit, journalist could make a living.

[–] hemmes@lemmy.world 6 points 11 months ago

In NYC construction, it's well known that Trump businesses would get bids contracted, then call a meeting before kickoff and demand that the primes and subs lower there price or they won't honor the contract. Some contractors would already have materials purchased and running the clock on the Net30s with their vendors. Trump Co. would basically tell them to go pound salt and try to sue if you want.

[–] merc@sh.itjust.works 5 points 11 months ago (1 children)

the NYT is more of a national newspaper than an actual local paper

These days, the NYT likes to think of itself as a tech company that also does some journalism. They've bought games like Wordle, they're a podcasting company, they publish books...

[–] Pips@lemmy.sdf.org 12 points 11 months ago

Games and alternative media formats for journalists have always been a part of journalism. I'm not sure how embracing modern technology makes them any less of a news organization. Would you prefer only the crossword and only in print?

A newspaper having a word game, a radio presence, and publishing books is not really a gotcha.

[–] Asafum@feddit.nl 4 points 11 months ago (1 children)

He was a representative of long island not NYC, specifically the district my dad resides in so I get to poke fun at him for electing this absolute joke of an asshat lol

Checking the map it looks like part of it might be in queens so "technically" some part of it is NYC, but it's mostly rich long island assholes. (I wish my dad was rich, he's just lucky to have had a house in that area for a long time) lol

[–] SnotFlickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone 7 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

You can tell I'm not from the area, because divisions like that are lost on me. I just know local news is hollowed out nationwide, and I somehow suspect it's a similar situation for New York state as a whole. Thanks for the more detailed breakdown of his district for me.

[–] Asafum@feddit.nl 3 points 11 months ago

Absolutely, local news would more than likely be "responsible" for covering him and they tend to favor the right, but not excessively thankfully.

[–] krashmo@lemmy.world 29 points 11 months ago

I remember seeing articles about this stuff during his election. Republicans elected him anyway. That's where we are now

[–] someguy3@lemmy.ca 28 points 11 months ago (3 children)

Why are you blaming journalists and not the GOP for not vetting their own fucking candidate.

[–] knatschus@discuss.tchncs.de 22 points 11 months ago

¿Porque no los dos?

[–] kent_eh@lemmy.ca 11 points 11 months ago

Have you seen most of the recent GOP candidates?

How do we know he isn't above their threshold for corruption and dishonesty?

Their bar seems pretty low.

[–] ICastFist@programming.dev 6 points 11 months ago

Pretty sure the republicans saw that fake resume and thought "fucking hell, we got president material here!"

[–] ShaggySnacks@lemmy.myserv.one 20 points 11 months ago

The North Shore Leader, a small paper on Long Island, broke the scandal before the November election. By the time other outlets picked it up, Santos had been elected. Grant Lally joined Geoff Bennett to discuss.

PBS News Hour - Small, local paper uncovered and reported George Santos scandal before November election, January 9, 2023

Local media does need support.

[–] merc@sh.itjust.works 16 points 11 months ago (1 children)

where tf were the journalists while Santos was running his campaign on these false claims?

There aren't enough journalists to go around. There are hundreds of congresspeople and there definitely aren't hundreds of journalists covering random unimportant congresspeople.

People have voted with their dollars, saying they don't care enough about vetting congresspeople before they're elected to actually pay the salaries of journalists to do that.

[–] MiscreantMouse@kbin.social -3 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Wow, so It's almost as if expecting unregulated capitalism to solve this problem is not working? How could that be?

Oh well, I guess we just need to ignore the problem until it gets better.

[–] Meowoem@sh.itjust.works 1 points 11 months ago

Look the incredibly rich people who own the media wish that us peasants would care enough about politics to force them to cover these things properly but unfortunately all their journalists are busy writing opinion pieces about how we need to get back in the office, how we shouldn't even try to make ethical purchasing decisions, and how great whatever makes them the most money this week is.

[–] KnowledgeableNip@leminal.space 5 points 11 months ago

Journalism as it used to exist has been absolutely gutted. There's no time for investigation, we need endless content pumped out at faster and faster rates. Who cares what's accurate as long as people click the link and give up that sweet, sweet ad revenue?

[–] argh_another_username@lemmy.ca 13 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Well, go big or go home. I’m sure he met Jesus Christ personally and he knows where Excalibur is hidden.

[–] clearedtoland@lemmy.world 8 points 11 months ago (1 children)

But can he find Jimmy Hoffa’s body?

[–] ooterness@lemmy.world 9 points 11 months ago

"Of course I know where the body is. He's me!"

[–] idunnololz@lemmy.world 13 points 11 months ago (1 children)

There's a reason why there are so many memes about this guy:

[–] Enk1@lemmy.world 3 points 11 months ago

How dare you sully the name of Sir Ulrich von Lichtenstein!