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America, Daily Bread, Newspapers, Social Media

Daily Bread for 7.30.25: Social Media Now Leading News Source in America

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Good morning. Wednesday in Whitewater will be rainy with a high of 78. Sunrise is 5:44 and sunset is 8:17, for 14 hours, 33 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 31.3 percent of its visible disk illuminated. On this day in 1971, on Apollo 15, David Scott and James Irwin in the Apollo Lunar Module Falcon land on the Moon with…

Conservative Populism, Daily Bread, Elections, Far-Right Populism, Gov. Evers, Newspapers, Politics, Populists, Social Media, Wisconsin, WisDems, WISGOP

Daily Bread for 7.25.25: Fog-Shrouded Wisconsin

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Good morning. Friday in Whitewater will be cloudy with a high of 84. Sunrise is 5:39 and sunset is 8:22, for 14 hours, 43 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 0.7 percent of its visible disk illuminated. On this day in 1965, Bob Dylan goes electric at the Newport Folk Festival, signaling a major…

Daily Bread, Newspapers, Politics, Wisconsin

Daily Bread for 6.28.25: How Many Journal Sentinel Reporters Does It Take to Flack Unnamed WISGOP Sources? At Least Four.

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Good morning. Saturday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 86. Sunrise is 5:19 and sunset is 8:37, for 15 hours, 18 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 12.4 percent of its visible disk illuminated. On this day in 1902, Congress passes the Spooner Act, authorizing President Theodore Roosevelt to acquire rights from…

City, Daily Bread, Local Government, Newspapers, Presidential Race 2024

Daily Bread for 1.30.24: Hey, Journal Sentinel — Yeah, Sure, They’re Both Old. If That’s All You Can See, You’re Politically Blind.

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 Good morning.

Tuesday in Whitewater will be cloudy with a high of 38. Sunrise is 7:10 and sunset 5:05 for 9h 54m 50s of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 80.1% of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1930, the Politburo of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union orders the confiscation of lands belonging to the Kulaks in a campaign of Dekulakization, resulting in the executions and forced deportations of millions.

Trump is old, and Biden is old. Neither is getting any younger. And yet, and yet, if that’s all someone sees in these men, then he or she is politically blind. Along comes the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel with a story that gives voice to the ignorant and obtuse among us in ‘They’re both dinosaurs’: Concerns about age drive lack of enthusiasm for Biden and Trump.

It’s much easier for the Journal Sentinel to publish a story with a handful of snide quotes from superficial voters than to use their print & web space to show political and legal differences between the candidates.

Perhaps that’s why the Journal Sentinel Has Lost 81% Of Readers. 

Meanwhile, in Whitewater, an evergreen reminder: Telling readers who the applicants are for local offices (before the deadline has arrived!) matters less than what those applicants believe and how they would act on those beliefs. 

I’ll wait.

Mona Lisa Glass Case Splattered With Soup by Food Protesters in Paris:

Environmental activists splattered the Mona Lisa with soup on Sunday morning as they called for the right to healthy and sustainable food. The protesters threw tomato soup at Leonardo da Vinci’s masterpiece, which is protected by a glass case in the Louvre museum in Paris.

The painting wasn’t damaged and the gallery where it hangs was closed for an hour for cleaning, the Louvre said. The room reopened at 11:30 a.m. local time.

Quick comments: (1) Most performative protests are unproductive or counter-productive, (2) throwing soup at painting to protest for “healthy and sustainable food” is nuttily counter-productive, (3) Oh, my — France went from Devenue and Belmondo on the run to Riposte Alimentaire‘s soup-hurling act? That’s a disturbing devolution if ever there were one. 

Blogging, Daily Bread, New Media, Newspapers, Press

Daily Bread for 12.14.23: Standalone and Stand Alone

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 Good morning.

Thursday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 46. Sunrise is 7:18 and sunset 4:21 for 9h 03m 17s of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 3.2% of its visible disk illuminated.

 On this day in 1964, in Heart of Atlanta Motel v. United States the U.S. Supreme Court rules that Congress can use the Constitution’s Commerce Clause to fight discrimination.

  Over at Neiman Lab, Andrew Kaczynski’s The Homepage is Back makes a prediction for 2024: 

As some social media platforms diminish in significance as primary news sources for news junkies — because of their perceived unreliability and chaotic nature — there will be a notable rise in the importance of homepages and newsletters as those readers seek more authoritative and trustworthy sources for news.

The reality today is most voracious news consumers — members of the media included — have to embrace a choose-your-own-adventure approach to getting read-in each day, cobbling together an ever-changing combination of news sites, author pages, social channels, and email newsletters. It’s reminiscent of our pre-Twitter days. (RSS feeds, anyone?)

But is that necessarily a bad thing? I’d argue that it is well worth the extra effort. I’d even take it a step further and say there’s something cleansing about avoiding the algorithm and doing a little self-discovery when it comes to news sources. Personally, I’ve rediscovered the value and influence of morning political newsletters in reaching elected officials and decision-makers and the importance of homepages for getting a sense of the big national stories of the day. I’ve embraced the news sections of apps and, yes, I am still exploring the potential for new platforms like Threads.

Yes, for journalists, and for others like bloggers, the homepage is back. Then again, it never truly went away. Standalone and stand alone are both good practices. 

The rubber that stops cracks in their tracks:

Catspaw, CDA, City, Common Council, Conflicts of Interest, Council Leadership, Daily Bread, Disinformation, Foul Pursuits, Hubris, Local Government, Low Standards, Nepotism, Newspapers, Press, Regulatory Capture, Self-Dealing, Special Interests, Sycophancy, Tantrums, Unfit

Daily Bread for 9.30.23: Fierce or Bust

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 Good morning. Saturday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 82. Sunrise is 6:51AM and sunset 6:31 PM for 11h 45m 41s of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 98.2% of its visible disk illuminated. On this day in 1954, the U.S. Navy submarine USS Nautilus is commissioned as the world’s first…