Originally published via Armageddon Prose:
After scorning independent media for years on end — and also directing its censorship — the dinosaur Democrat Party has been on a quixotic quest to discover the “left’s Joe Rogan” since its embarrassing 2024 defeat.
Their solution: quietly pay the most mediocre and milquetoast Democrat “influencers” (like David Pakman) they can find — the ones with no self-respect or ethics who will say whatever they have to for a buck — up to $8,000/month to shit out party talking points while pretending to be “independent” in order to manufacture the mirage of grassroots support.
Via Wired (emphasis added):
“In a private group chat in June, dozens of Democratic political influencers discussed whether to take advantage of an enticing opportunity. They were being offered $8,000 per month to take part in a secretive program aimed at bolstering Democratic messaging on the internet…
After the Democrats lost in November, they faced a reckoning. It was clear that the party had failed to successfully navigate the new media landscape. While Republicans spent decades building a powerful and robust independent media infrastructure, maximizing controversy to drive attention and maintaining tight relationships with creators despite their small disagreements with Trump, the Democrats have largely relied on outdated strategies and traditional media to get their message out.
Now, Democrats hope that the secretive Chorus Creator Incubator Program, funded by a powerful liberal dark money group called The Sixteen Thirty Fund, might tip the scales. The program kicked off last month, and creators involved were told by Chorus that over 90 influencers were set to take part. Creators told WIRED that the contract stipulated they’d be kicked out and essentially cut off financially if they even so much as acknowledged that they were part of the program. Some creators also raised concerns about a slew of restrictive clauses in the contract.”
Related: Techno-Hell: AI Might Soon Be Writing the News You Consume
The Sixteen Thirty Fund spent nearly a half a billion dollars in 2020 pushing the Brandon Entity’s corpse over the finish line, making it one of the largest Democrat dark money media operations, if not the biggest, in operation.
Via Politico, September 2021 (emphasis added):
“A left-leaning, secret-money group doled out a whopping $410 million in 2020, aiding Democratic efforts to unseat then-President Donald Trump and win back control of the Senate.
The group, the Sixteen Thirty Fund, financed attack ads against Trump and vulnerable Republican senators and funded massive get-out-the-vote and issue advocacy campaigns amid the coronavirus pandemic, as detailed in a new tax filing obtained by POLITICO. It exploded in size during the Trump administration, going from a few tens of millions of dollars per year to raising and spending hundreds of millions.
The Sixteen Thirty Fund’s multi-million dollar grants singlehandedly powered some other organizations on the left, and it also incubated other groups, as a “fiscal sponsor,” that fought against Trump’s Supreme Court nominees, backed liberal ballot measures and policy proposals in different states and organized opposition to Republican tax and health care policies.
Its massive 2020 fundraising and spending illustrates the extent to which the left embraced the use of “dark money” to fight for its causes in recent years. After decrying big-money Republican donors over the last decade, as well as the Supreme Court rulings that flooded politics with more cash, Democrats now benefit from hundreds of millions of dollars of undisclosed donations as well.”
The kicker is the unreal restrictions that Chorus places on its influencer whores — mind you, while these people continue to market themselves as “independent” media.
Continuing:
“According to copies of the contract viewed by WIRED that creators signed, the influencers are not allowed to disclose their relationship with Chorus or The Sixteen Thirty Fund—or functionally, that they’re being paid at all…
According to copies of the contract viewed by WIRED, creators in the program must funnel all bookings with lawmakers and political leaders through Chorus. Creators also have to loop Chorus in on any independently organized engagements with government officials or political leaders…
Creators in the program are not allowed to use any funds or resources that they receive as part of the program to make content that supports or opposes any political candidate or campaign without express authorization from Chorus in advance and in writing, per the contract.
The contracts reviewed by WIRED prohibit standard partnership disclosures, declaring that creators will “not publicize” their relationship with Chorus or tell others that they’re members of the program “without Chorus’s prior express consent.” They also forbid creators from “disclos[ing] the identity of any Funder” and give Chorus the ability to force creators to remove or correct content based solely on the organization’s discretion if that content was made at a Chorus-organized event.”
Child sex trafficking victims enjoy more autonomy than this.
Related: Elite Media Propagandist Cries at Davos: ‘We Owned the News’
David Pakman, one of the named prostitutes in the Chorus stable, was forced by his outraged fanbase to put on a lame attempt at damage control (ironically, probably advised by Chorus on how to spin the exposition that he is a paid hack for Chorus.)
Note that, in this rambling, weaselly attempt at deflection, Pakman, who fancies himself “independent media” and often touts such credentials, never denies the core assertions in the article:
· He works with Chorus
· They pay him up to $8,000 per month
· He didn’t tell his audience because he signed a contract promising not to, and only after he got exposed did he come clean
· Chorus reserves the right to force Pakman to “remove or correct content based solely on the organization’s discretion”
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Benjamin Bartee, author of Broken English Teacher: Notes From Exile (now available in paperback), is an independent Bangkok-based American journalist with opposable thumbs.
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Author: Ben Bartee
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