I don't think it's necessary for me to go into detail into the Wall Street Journal vs. PewDiePie debacle, because you can easily find all those details with a simple Google or YouTube search, but the gist of it is this:
Not one, not two, but three journalists from WSJ, for a reason known only to themselves, decided one day to go on an absolute character-assassination campaign against the internet celebrity PewDiePie. They took small clips from six of his videos, removed completely out of their context, and wrote a hit piece published in the journal about him being an anti-semitic nazi. (One of the examples was so egregious that they took a clip of him pointing at something, and made it look like he was making a nazi salute.) What's even more egregious, not content with just slandering him in a published article, they went and actively contacted YouTube and Disney, his major sponsors, and slandered him, making them severe ties with him.
The Wall Street Journal is a really old (founded in 1889) and respected journal, that has received 39 Pulitzer Prices, and is generally regarded as one of the highest-quality journals in the world. Yet they decided to go on a slanderous character-assassination campaign against an individual YouTuber, trying to completely destroy his livelihood and his reputation.
But why? What exactly motivates such respected high-quality journals to do things that one could perhaps expect from the most infamous gossip tabloids out there, like The Sun in the UK. Heck, I don't think even The Sun would have succumbed to such libel, just to get clicks.
Many people are hypothesizing that the so-called "old media" is just afraid, and jealous, of the so-called "new media". People like PewDiePie are getting more views in a week than the Wall Street Journal webpages are getting in a month. The "old media" just can't stand, nor understand, nor accept, that they are not the most popular form of media anymore.
This act reeks of sheer desperation. It's so blatantly slanderous that it's just incredible. Once again: This is something you could expect from a gossip tabloid, not something you would expect from a highly reputable journal worthy of several dozens Pulitzer Prices. Heck, I don't think even the tabloids would actually contact sponsors and try to make them severe ties with the target of their attack.
Why did the WSJ try to destroy PewDiePie of all people? Why the vicious attack? Are they really so jealous, and so desperate?
And do you know what the sad thing in all of this is? The amount of people who are actually believing what they are saying, without doing even the minimum of fact-checking.
That's what makes media so incredibly dangerous. They can pretty much attack anybody they want, with outrageous lies, and people will believe them. They have this incredible power to destroy lives, even innocent lives, if they so decide.
I think PewDiePie would have strong legal grounds for a libel lawsuit against WSJ. He's probably not going to do it, however. He's probably thinking it's not worth the hassle and the controversy. Somehow I wish he did, though.
Not one, not two, but three journalists from WSJ, for a reason known only to themselves, decided one day to go on an absolute character-assassination campaign against the internet celebrity PewDiePie. They took small clips from six of his videos, removed completely out of their context, and wrote a hit piece published in the journal about him being an anti-semitic nazi. (One of the examples was so egregious that they took a clip of him pointing at something, and made it look like he was making a nazi salute.) What's even more egregious, not content with just slandering him in a published article, they went and actively contacted YouTube and Disney, his major sponsors, and slandered him, making them severe ties with him.
The Wall Street Journal is a really old (founded in 1889) and respected journal, that has received 39 Pulitzer Prices, and is generally regarded as one of the highest-quality journals in the world. Yet they decided to go on a slanderous character-assassination campaign against an individual YouTuber, trying to completely destroy his livelihood and his reputation.
But why? What exactly motivates such respected high-quality journals to do things that one could perhaps expect from the most infamous gossip tabloids out there, like The Sun in the UK. Heck, I don't think even The Sun would have succumbed to such libel, just to get clicks.
Many people are hypothesizing that the so-called "old media" is just afraid, and jealous, of the so-called "new media". People like PewDiePie are getting more views in a week than the Wall Street Journal webpages are getting in a month. The "old media" just can't stand, nor understand, nor accept, that they are not the most popular form of media anymore.
This act reeks of sheer desperation. It's so blatantly slanderous that it's just incredible. Once again: This is something you could expect from a gossip tabloid, not something you would expect from a highly reputable journal worthy of several dozens Pulitzer Prices. Heck, I don't think even the tabloids would actually contact sponsors and try to make them severe ties with the target of their attack.
Why did the WSJ try to destroy PewDiePie of all people? Why the vicious attack? Are they really so jealous, and so desperate?
And do you know what the sad thing in all of this is? The amount of people who are actually believing what they are saying, without doing even the minimum of fact-checking.
That's what makes media so incredibly dangerous. They can pretty much attack anybody they want, with outrageous lies, and people will believe them. They have this incredible power to destroy lives, even innocent lives, if they so decide.
I think PewDiePie would have strong legal grounds for a libel lawsuit against WSJ. He's probably not going to do it, however. He's probably thinking it's not worth the hassle and the controversy. Somehow I wish he did, though.
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