Counter-Journalism: Bleeding Cool's Rich Johnston is Fake News

no enemy but peace was an indie comic produced back in 2012 by Richard C Mayer better known as diversity in comics the story was based on the true exploits of one sergeant Marco Martinez during his first fight in Iraq and judging by the description it's clear that there's a lot more behind this comic than pure entertainment the story of Sergeant Marco Martinez is one of bravery and valor a one-time gangbanger who because of these events earned the Navy Cross but more than that man felt this story needed to be told because no one else was going to tell it oh sure the Marines would know that politicians would know and his family would know but no one else ever would this was a small battle that ultimately changed nothing concerning the war however no enemy but peace was never really a war story this was a story about a person and how this small tale of loyalty and determination out in the middle of the desert changed one man from a soldier into a real-life superhero and how this comic represents mayor's quest to prevent this story from being lost to time now why did I mention all that because six years later rich Johnston the writer and founder of bleeding cool and more recently the egor to mark Wade's bigger uglier igor decided to use the title of the comic in the title of a hit piece called no enemy but peace richard mayer antartic press and jawbreakers but never actually describes the work anywhere in the article Johnston's choice to include the work but not describe it represents the core reason why this article is far from a work of professional journalism and much closer to a work of professional propaganda [Music] bias in the media has become less of an opinion and more of an obstacle for the rest of us to work around to find the truth and although it can be cathartic to shot things like fake news there needs to be a follow-up exactly why is something fake news you know when I wrote that what is the most important piece of political journalism in 2016 an establishment Republicans guide to the all right you know with Alan Bakari profile last year and I said the I define the alt-right as it was emerging as this very broad coalition of mischievous dissident you know kind of like basically the generation Trump that bit of the Republican Party that split off well since then some elements within the old right and some journalists redefined to mean neo-nazi yet people insist on following me and neo-nazi you know engage you immigrant the black fiance I mean do you think do you think it's reasonable to call me alright given them all right now is now synonymous with with with neo-nazi do you think it's reasonable do you think it's right do you think you should be doing it just stop it's ridiculous it's used as a way to undermine people to insinuate that there's something nefarious or sinister actually even even the New York of all places said that I don't hold any views that are not respectable recent you know reasonable conservative mainstream views I'm just more provocative with it you see one of the things that people do is they'll say extreme about conservatives as a way to kind of imply there's something nefarious or dangerous she gets it too well actually what extreme means is a leftist thinks you're dangerous in the 1890s a Russian physiologist by the name of Yvonne Pavlov was testing the possibility of classical conditioning in dogs Pavlov was able to create a certain response from his dogs by linking a neutral stimulus a bell with a non neutral stimulus food obviously the dogs don't care about the bell but they do care about the food they only reacted to the bill when they got food every time it rang we have a similar relationship with words writers often use that fact to manipulate the readers emotions and rich Johnston is no exception for example let's look at the title in the article Richard Mayer gets plenty of attention and our tech press gets plenty of attention and jawbreakers will only get to mention but I'll address that in a moment no enemy but peace however makes up the first four words in the title but the very first paragraph is the only time the comic is referenced in the entire article and notice there's no mention of sergeant Martinez nor any where are the reasons behind Mayer's comic even explored so again why would Johnston use the titles so prominently if he's not going to talk about the comic easy because the words no enemy but piece are the exact words Johnston needed to set the scene the goal and Johnston's article is to convince his readers that Richard Mayer is nothing but a bigot a harasser a devious villain he used hate to amass a fanbase of bitter Nazis imagine you're a third party getting her information about the jawbreakers incident from bleeding cool the first paragraph tells you that this evil man behind jawbreakers this internet supervillain began his journey into comics with a work called no enemy but piece without context this fits right into Johnston's hands of course the Cobra Commander of comics would begin his unholy crusade by declaring that peace is his only enemy need more convincing of Johnston's biased and deceptive wording of course you do and I'm more than happy to oblige the work is saturated with examples so saturated in fact that we don't even have to leave the first paragraph the lion he was a fighter and artists turned into that professionally into comics industry would be fine on its own but paired with the biased nature of the article it gives mayor the somewhat villainous motivation of lashing out against established comic prose in a ruthless campaign of revenge the line becomes especially deceptive if you consider the original Kickstarter alluded to in this article gave no indication that mayor wanted to break into the comic books industry at all in fact the reason behind the comic is stated directly on the page and I quote shortly after the battle when my friends who had been in the thick of the fight told me of the heroics of Martinez tardif and the others I was shocked astounded and deeply proud to be in the company of these Marines when I returned to the States after finishing my deployment to Iraq I was equally shocked and astounded that no one had heard of the incredible bravery exhibited that day to the rest of the world It was as if battles simply never happened but bravery matters loyalty matters tales like this should not be forgotten does any of that sound like Maher was interested in entering the comic books industry and the Kickstarter along with the later reference to his first job record crowdfunding campaign stand as the only evidence to that claim but by telling us this 2012 Kickstarter was mayor's attempt to work professionally in the industry when there was no definitive evidence to hint that at all Johnston easily set the foundation for the narrative he needed to construct that Richard Mayer is a hostile bidder comics reject who used his need for revenge to amass a fanbase of evil minions oh and don't think I've forgotten about the comics themselves though Johnston obviously did or did he one thing you'll notice in Johnson's article is although he mentions the comics he doesn't touch on the substance the heartfelt story behind the creation of no enemy but peace is non-existent instead it's just the Kickstarter Mayor once did and for those of you not in the know jawbreakers was not marketed as an anti sjw comic it was sold as a fun story that promised action thrills and to be absent of modern politics no saccharine soliloquies to boy to tears but enriched Johnston's article about the jawbreakers incident the only thing he says about the comic is that jawbreakers is a military superhero comic and that's not even true jawbreakers is about a bunch of X superheroes turned mercenaries the military has nothing to do with it oh and if you think I'm being too pedantic here jawbreakers essentially has the same premise as Suicide Squad or a secret 6 I wouldn't exactly call those military comics either but in the diseased mind of a social justice warrior military equals conservative and conservative equals bad but why only give the blandest of mentions to mayors works we know Johnson's not being objective an objective article would at least give reference to sergeant Martinez or the marketed pulse-pounding adventure of jawbreakers just one line each would have done the trick in fact I'll show you right now the project called new enemy but peace was message him to Ted the true story of one sergeant Martinez during his firefight in Iraq noventa earned him two Navy Cross the campaign team dacovian off raising over $4,000 from over 100 people and Chopra's is a superhero comic that was marketed as a fun action-packed adventure for everyone or promising to be absent of modern politics is to patron by Vernon comic book artist Chad Malin risk-averse by Ethan Van Sciver and colors by brett Smith see easy so why didn't he do it after all jawbreakers lost souls is kind of at the center of the whole affair you'd think a comics journalist writing an article about a comic that caused such huge waves would at least talk about the comic well if Johnston told his readers that the dastardly Richard C Mayer created no enemy but peace not to enter the comic books industry but to tell the story of a brother an arm so his tale of bravery and redemption would be remembered and that his jawbreakers comic is not a hate-filled loony bin but a fun high-octane action thriller then some people might sympathize with him maybe even identify with what mayor is trying to accomplish but since this article is propaganda objectivity is a big no-no in allowing Mayer to be painted in a good light in any way is completely out of the question so knowing that it's no wonder rich Johnson decided not to actually talk about Richard Mayer's comics in an article about Richard mares comics however all that pales in comparison to what really shatters all pretense of objectivity and what truly makes this article a pathetic work of worthless garbage you spreading fear and doubt is a method used to sway public opinion against someone by offering negative or even false information the goal here is to undermine the targets beliefs seeing as how this article is presented as journalism Johnston relies more on spreading negative information in order to undermine both the character of the jawbreakers crew and the Titanic nature of their success we start off with Johnston naming off the jawbreakers crew and it's fine until the very last line it Faust's his second attempt to crowdfund sir comic but this time he had star status into posted by big names undermining the colossal success by implying that the big numbers attracted by the jawbreakers comic was only possible because Jon Malin Brett Smith then Ethan Van Sciver brought along their fan bases then Johnston really gets started first he says Richard C Mayer is a hateful man who runs a hateful YouTube channel where he makes video after video throwing insults at progressive comic creators then after telling his readers about how toxic diversity in comics is he tells his readers that John Malin and Ethan Van Sciver were outcasts from the comics community for attacking other employees making them sound like unhinged Mad Men which undermines the good nature of the project let's keep in mind that Ethan Van Sciver may have agreed to create a cover for jawbreakers but he isn't a core member of the jawbreakers crew so it's pretty clear why Johnston chose to include Van Sciver as if he were that way he could link the dirt he collected on Van Sciver to jawbreakers further undermining their goodwill so by this time it seems like the comic books industry's newest most powerful villain Richard C Mayer has begun to form his own Legion of Doom forming alliances with others supposed industry villains who they thought defeated sorry ostracized next the article makes sure to inform the reader that the large number of backers and the huge amount of cash was due in part to people pledging repeatedly for multiple copies and that this was done in an effort to beat two other crowd funded works black and leaving megalopolis by Gil Simone information presented to both undermine Mayer success and to link back to Johnson's proposed narrative that jawbreakers was fueled by hate and bigotry huge sections from a video called the door gross when mayor tries a dirtier version of his usual mockery of the Marvel mafia are also included Johnson makes certain to preface this as a harsh listen and bolsters it with the untrue statement that roasts are usually done with the consent of those being roasted either playing a petty game of semantics or Johnson as a man who's never been on the internet before then enters our hero Mark Waid the article presents Wade as the understanding party the man who once tried to make peace with the vile Richard C Mayer but was rejected helping to support rich Johnston's suggestion that Richard C Mayer is a spiteful villain who truly has no enemy but peace now comes the biggest crack and Johnston's thin veneer of objectivity the article addresses mark Wade's involvement and convincing Antarctic press to pull jawbreakers from its lineup by interviewing wade which basically amounted to wade investigating himself and finding that he did nothing wrong and because johnston is apparently one of those people who listens and believes he apparently listened to waste story and said ha that's good enough for me because despite johnston having a clear line of communication with mayer through twitter and mer showing willingness to engage with johnston at no point in the article is there an interview with mayor where he's allowed to give his side of the story Johnston got a direct quote from pretty much everyone remotely connected to the event except the people at the center of it a work of legit journalism please journalism is a search for truth presenting only one side of the story when he had clear access to the other side it would only seem like legit reporting under communism or CNN now it should be noted that Johnston does link articles as some of his claims like their coverage on no enemy but peace in the ostracization of Ethan Van Sciver it should also be noted that these links lead to other bleeding cool articles also written by rich Johnston but even if they were 100% legitimate accounts of what happened it still doesn't save his face of objectivity why because this is the same trick companies used when they present you with a 30-day free trial as long as you provide your credit card information first they're banking that most people will forget to cancel before the trial is up people are reading this one article for the whole story how many do you think are realistically going to dig through several articles for the big picture and how many do you think are just going to take Johnston's word for it if this article was truly objective wouldn't there be at least a sentence summarizing these topics for example Ethan Van Sciver was ostracized from the comics community after a particularly heated exchange on social media with his fellow comic-book professionals exemplifying his notorious mean streak that way the reader gets a little more context than Ethan Van Sciver attacks people rendering further exploration optional rather than mandatory deceptive wording being intentionally vague spreading fear and doubt by undermining the character the jawbreakers crew we Little League their monumental success and intentionally giving bleeding cool readers only half the story in the end Johnson's article is not a summary of truth but a collection of facts twisted into a fabrication a brand-new lie ready to be told a thousand times [Music]

Channel: Literature Devil

Views: 49,029

Rating: 4.9232283 out of 5

Keywords: Jawbreakers, Ethan Van Sciver, Brett Smith, Jon Malin, Bleeding Cool, Journalism, Fake News, Rich Johnston, No Enemy But Peace, Propaganda, Comics, Diversity&Comics

Id: 3Kz6Wj5h9hU

Length: 16min 13sec (973 seconds)

Published: Sat Jun 16 2018