Got a nice message this morning to find out I was on Bleeding Cool news, a comic book news website for those who don’t follow such things. Last week, I forwarded them my 2nd blog on the troubles that Marvel is having, after my research going into every single one of their writers’ twitters and finding that they all hail from one side of the political spectrum, to an extreme bent, and how it looks like Editor in Chief Axel Alonso has a litmus test or a soft blackball of anyone who disagrees with that position from being on the staff.
My point was copied and pasted to the site, but with a headline and a takeaway that didn’t follow my whole point: that this blackballing is occurring in the entertainment industry across different media, which has now even been confirmed by Hollywood Reporter, no right wing blog there! That was the point, that was the message, anyone who could read my blog could see that… but instead, Rich of Bleeding Cool decided to focus on my little humor element at the end that called for Marvel Comics to hire me to fix their problems, in which I posted my pretty hefty resume of awesomeness.
Of course, the problem is, my blog wasn’t about that, and that was a joke.
The whole point is that Marvel DOESN’T hire anyone who disagrees with the lockstep groupthink, and it’s been that way for a while. Axel Alonso would never talk to me in the first place whether I wrote that blog or not. It’s true in Hollywood, it’s true in big publishing houses like Tor Books, it’s true in the music industry (‘cept country). Anyone without a horse in the race would obviously read my call to action and smirk about it. Silly, and I’m certainly laughing about it now.
This is how, as my title says, fake news operates. The media takes something that’s “technically true” about what was said, ignores the context of it, and runs a headline that will get people to click/laugh/repost and shake fists, whatever. It happens every time, and in similar fashion to the way Marvel hires their writers, with anyone who doesn’t toe the line for the left wing political perspective. Look at pretty much any freak-out headline this morning that will be like “But Trump said…”, completely missing the point of whatever he actually communicated.
Fortunately, normal folk don’t buy into that, and the reason the media is so freaked these days, is that with the internet it’s very easy to research exactly what a person said for themselves and come to our own decision. That’s why Brexit didn’t go the way the propagandists wanted, that’s why the US Election didn’t go the way the propagandists wanted, and that’s why the Hugo Awards had to change their rules because they couldn’t even deal with how many people were agreeing what was good science fiction, that went contrary to the establishment’s attempts to virtue signal. They want to keep their small power structures alive rather than grow with the times.
Now overall, I bear Bleeding Cool and Rich Johnston no ill will (though really I should do a separate blog questioning how he came to the conclusion that I’m slighting Chuck Dixon, who is one of my favorite comic book authors and was before I even knew what his politics were. Nightwing was the best!). I get almost all of my comic book news from them, have for years. We’ve had a cordial conversation privately despite this strange article written, which he hasn’t so far denied was an intentional hit piece. Not sure what the intention was of the article if he doesn’t seem to hold that view privately, maybe he could clarify. It’s funny that a lot of the comments do seem to agree with my real premise of the blackballing problem, and some even think it wouldn’t be a half bad idea for Marvel to actually hire me, furthering my point that most folk will decide for themselves, despite the bad attempts at narrative.
Folk from Bleeding Cool and Rich, this time I call on you just to read my work. It’s pretty highly regarded, and is fun without any sort of underlying political message. You just might like it, as it captures the feel that Marvel & Co. used to have. Excelsior!
No slight at Chuck Dixon was intended. Merely that the argument led towards Marvel hiring more conservative voices, such as Chuck Dixon – but instead it became a self-serving appeal to employ you. I thought that was funny.
They even spelled your name wrong 🙂
They always spell names wrong. Mine has been all over the place on there.
It’s funny that Rich did that that because Jon’s name is in the header.
I was being funny and ironic as Marvel would obviously never hire me, and to your further irony, they prolly wouldn’t hire Chuck for that matter. That’s been established by most folk who have read.
You Repubs need to move to Russia if you like it so much. Love it or leave it! How does Putin’s jizzum taste?
Mr. Andrew Breitbart Died of Horse-AIDS makes a good point. The way you conservatives have thrown your lot in with Putin and the Russians is mighty amusing to someone who remembers the cold war. Why do you conservatives hate America so much? And where does the love of Russia come from? Is it because Putin made it legal for Russians to kill gay people, or is it because Russia recently became a theocratic country, naming an “Official Religion of the Russian Homeland”?
I bet it’s the gay killing stuff. A recent study showed that the average American Evangelical thinks about gay sex on average of 5.5 hours per day. Certainly explains Larry Craig and Dennis Hastert, both conservative & Evangelical heroes.