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1000 results for “Nicole_w_Moxie”
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Koncert #Kanalizacija (LT, rock-jazz / psychedelic) • #ChrystePanie w #Chmury | 27.11 już dzisiaj, będzie gorąco! ) 🔥 Bramkę otwieramy o 19:00, koncerty zaczynamy od 20!
Wydarzenie https://squ.at/r/9r2b
Zapraszamy do odsłuchu audycji o tym koncercie w @radiokapital 🙉 https://radiokapital.pl/shows/cos-sie-dzieje111/svmerki-zmierzch
Partnerzy: Podróżnych Ugościć, Na obrzeżach, Radio Kapitał, Undertone, Empatia Distro, Independent.pl.
📣 Prosimy o udostępnienie! )
Plakat Nikolė Kremensaitė, typografia Zhenya Kazei
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Koncert #Kanalizacija (LT, rock-jazz / psychedelic) • #ChrystePanie w #Chmury | 27.11 już dzisiaj, będzie gorąco! ) 🔥 Bramkę otwieramy o 19:00, koncerty zaczynamy od 20!
Wydarzenie https://squ.at/r/9r2b
Zapraszamy do odsłuchu audycji o tym koncercie w @radiokapital 🙉 https://radiokapital.pl/shows/cos-sie-dzieje111/svmerki-zmierzch
Partnerzy: Podróżnych Ugościć, Na obrzeżach, Radio Kapitał, Undertone, Empatia Distro, Independent.pl.
📣 Prosimy o udostępnienie! )
Plakat Nikolė Kremensaitė, typografia Zhenya Kazei
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[blogue / mise à jour] Woody Allen, l’École de police de Nicolet et la police française • https://oreilletendue.com/2012/12/04/woody-allen-aurait-du-aller-a-nicolet/ • #langue #tutoiement #oreilletendue
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Windows App Development CLI v0.2: .NET support, manifest placeholders, “winapp store” and more | by Nicola Metulev
#windowsdev #commandline #winapp #cli #dotnet #windowsappsdk #msstore
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Windows App Development CLI v0.2: .NET support, manifest placeholders, “winapp store” and more | by Nicola Metulev
#windowsdev #commandline #winapp #cli #dotnet #windowsappsdk #msstore
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Windows App Development CLI v0.2: .NET support, manifest placeholders, “winapp store” and more | by Nicola Metulev
#windowsdev #commandline #winapp #cli #dotnet #windowsappsdk #msstore
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Windows App Development CLI v0.2: .NET support, manifest placeholders, “winapp store” and more | by Nicola Metulev
#windowsdev #commandline #winapp #cli #dotnet #windowsappsdk #msstore
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Windows App Development CLI v0.2: .NET support, manifest placeholders, “winapp store” and more | by Nicola Metulev
#windowsdev #commandline #winapp #cli #dotnet #windowsappsdk #msstore
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https://www.europesays.com/pl/105648/ Popis Roberta Lewandowskiego! Symulacja typuje wynik meczu z Maltą – Przegląd Sportowy Onet #eliminacje_ms #eliminacje_ms_2026 #eliminacje_mundialu_2026 #Malta #mecz #michal_skoras #nicola_zalewski #piotr_zielinski #PL #polacy #Poland #Polish #Polska #Polski #PS_DETAL_NEW #psv2 #reprezentacja_polski_w_pilce_noznej_mezczyzn #robert_lewandowski #screening_general #Sport #sport_sport #Sports #symulacje
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"Spain made her a princess. History made her a queen. This is the story in between." 👑📖
Today's spotlight shines on INFIDEL: THE DAUGHTERS OF ARAGON (SIX TUDOR QUEENS) by NICOLA HARRIS! This richly imagined work of biographical and historical Tudor fiction illuminates the remarkable and often overlooked journey of a woman whose story stretches far beyond the crown she would come to wear. 🌹✨
#BiographicalFiction #HistoricalFiction #TudorFiction #KU #KindleUnlimited
https://archaeolibrarian.wixsite.com/website/post/infidel-the-daughters-of-aragon-six-tudor-queens-by-nicola-harris -
From people who were Alice Wong's friends and colleagues, two posts.
For The Sick Times, by Miles W Griffis:
https://thesicktimes.org/2025/11/15/alice-wong-disability-activist-and-luminary-dies-at-51/At her blog, by Nicola Griffith:
https://nicolagriffith.com/2025/11/16/alice-wong/ -
Heute mal wieder ein Meilenstein in Köln. Grundsteinlegung für das Radsportzentrum NRW.
Fotos von oben aus dem/am Zelt kommen noch von meiner Kollegin Nicola. Bei dem heutigen Termin war ein Aufteilen der Fotopositionen notwendig, da der Weg vom Zelt in die Baugrube recht weit war.31 Fotos von mir unter https://w.wiki/EJ64 "© Raimond Spekking / CC BY-SA 4.0 (via Wikimedia Commons)"
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Dive into the festive madness with the Doctor in "Joy to the World"! Time, dinosaurs, and Nicola Coughlan - what more could you want for Christmas?
Check out the teaser trailer right here: https://www.theomenmedia.com/post/doctor-who-s-joy-to-the-world-a-timey-wimey-christmas-adventure-with-dinosaurs-and-delight
#DoctorWho #ChristmasSpecial #NcutiGatwa #NicolaCoughlan #Whoniverse #TimeTravel #BBCOne #DisneyPlus #FifteenthDoctor #JoyToTheWorld #StevenMoffat #SciFi #ChristmasAdventure
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Dive into the festive madness with the Doctor in "Joy to the World"! Time, dinosaurs, and Nicola Coughlan - what more could you want for Christmas?
Check out the teaser trailer right here: https://www.theomenmedia.com/post/doctor-who-s-joy-to-the-world-a-timey-wimey-christmas-adventure-with-dinosaurs-and-delight
#DoctorWho #ChristmasSpecial #NcutiGatwa #NicolaCoughlan #Whoniverse #TimeTravel #BBCOne #DisneyPlus #FifteenthDoctor #JoyToTheWorld #StevenMoffat #SciFi #ChristmasAdventure
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This may be of interest to those who follow Scottish politics. A rare in-depth interview with former Special Adviser (Spad) and political strategist, Liz Lloyd, who worked closely alongside Nicola Sturgeon for years.
There are two few interviews with women who have held these influential jobs behind-the-scenes. This is an interesting listen for that aspect alone.
🎙 🎧 The Unofficial Report (Ep3): Liz Lloyd.
#ScotPol #politics #SNP #Scotland #podcast #PublicAffairs #Spad
https://open.spotify.com/episode/1z1zsOj9iBjTNgukhsfvGT?si=oSJdqmiQRpmhwLYtwWhy_w&nd=1&utm_medium=organic&product=open&%24full_url=https%3A%2F%2Fopen.spotify.com%2Fepisode%2F1z1zsOj9iBjTNgukhsfvGT%3Fsi%3DoSJdqmiQRpmhwLYtwWhy_w&feature=organic&_branch_match_id=721998726281261625&_branch_referrer=H4sIAAAAAAAAA72N3QqCMACFn2ZeKmoEBRJFGEQUlRBdxdqPm85t7SfRp28GvUJwLg7n4%2BMw57RdJonVynE6xFDrWHDZJittFPbIFUoTGYFsRr0QD29EwSYF5GuQlSETjn82Ul2YiOZWYRJaOqajPTULvmmqY%2B1bZul7V4G8tBzkW3Xd41fHzxfdsf5wd%2F2NDY%2F%2B%2BwWFeELU%2FuMPZHOJA00jSqDzhhTK1FBy9AECnr94GwEAAA%3D%3D -
"Da Empoli issues a warning from history, that the Borgia poisoners are back as tech bros." John Sweeney
Giuliano da Empoli, The Hour of the Predator, Encounters with the Autocrats and Tech Billionaires Taking Over the World, 2025, Pushkin Press >>
https://pushkinpress.com/book/the-hour-of-the-predator/Where everything is bad
it must be good
to know the worst.
– F.H. Bradley
>>
Theodor W. Adorno. Minima Moralia: Reflections from Damaged Life
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minima_MoraliaThe Prince, Nicolo Machiavelli
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/1232/1232-h/1232-h.htm
#zeitgeist #mindsets #autocracy #governance #violence #law #book #Machiavelli #CesareBorgia #DaEmpoli -
"Da Empoli issues a warning from history, that the Borgia poisoners are back as tech bros." John Sweeney
Giuliano da Empoli, The Hour of the Predator, Encounters with the Autocrats and Tech Billionaires Taking Over the World, 2025, Pushkin Press >>
https://pushkinpress.com/book/the-hour-of-the-predator/Where everything is bad
it must be good
to know the worst.
– F.H. Bradley
>>
Theodor W. Adorno. Minima Moralia: Reflections from Damaged Life
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minima_MoraliaThe Prince, Nicolo Machiavelli
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/1232/1232-h/1232-h.htm
#zeitgeist #mindsets #autocracy #governance #violence #law #book #Machiavelli #CesareBorgia #DaEmpoli -
"Da Empoli issues a warning from history, that the Borgia poisoners are back as tech bros." John Sweeney
Giuliano da Empoli, The Hour of the Predator, Encounters with the Autocrats and Tech Billionaires Taking Over the World, 2025, Pushkin Press >>
https://pushkinpress.com/book/the-hour-of-the-predator/Where everything is bad
it must be good
to know the worst.
– F.H. Bradley
>>
Theodor W. Adorno. Minima Moralia: Reflections from Damaged Life
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minima_MoraliaThe Prince, Nicolo Machiavelli
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/1232/1232-h/1232-h.htm
#zeitgeist #mindsets #autocracy #governance #violence #law #book #Machiavelli #CesareBorgia #DaEmpoli -
"Da Empoli issues a warning from history, that the Borgia poisoners are back as tech bros." John Sweeney
Giuliano da Empoli, The Hour of the Predator, Encounters with the Autocrats and Tech Billionaires Taking Over the World, 2025, Pushkin Press >>
https://pushkinpress.com/book/the-hour-of-the-predator/Where everything is bad
it must be good
to know the worst.
– F.H. Bradley
>>
Theodor W. Adorno. Minima Moralia: Reflections from Damaged Life
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minima_MoraliaThe Prince, Nicolo Machiavelli
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/1232/1232-h/1232-h.htm
#zeitgeist #mindsets #autocracy #governance #violence #law #book #Machiavelli #CesareBorgia #DaEmpoli -
"Da Empoli issues a warning from history, that the Borgia poisoners are back as tech bros." John Sweeney
Giuliano da Empoli, The Hour of the Predator, Encounters with the Autocrats and Tech Billionaires Taking Over the World, 2025, Pushkin Press >>
https://pushkinpress.com/book/the-hour-of-the-predator/Where everything is bad
it must be good
to know the worst.
– F.H. Bradley
>>
Theodor W. Adorno. Minima Moralia: Reflections from Damaged Life
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minima_MoraliaThe Prince, Nicolo Machiavelli
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/1232/1232-h/1232-h.htm
#zeitgeist #mindsets #autocracy #governance #violence #law #book #Machiavelli #CesareBorgia #DaEmpoli -
A good summary of what recent housing policy changes add up to;
(1/?)
"If you look at what this government have done, right, so they've dialed back the state house building program, they just cut half a billion $ out of that last week in the budget."
#ChrisHipkins, 2024
https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/pat-brittenden/episodes/BHN-Chris-Hipkins-LIVE--Nicola-Willis-on-QA--TPU-Beehive-Stunt-e2kfoni -
CW: TW: Investigation into unsolved murders on White Ribbon Day
⚪ #WhiteRibbonDay: From a woman whose body was found so badly beaten she has never been identified to the case of a young mum who vanished on her way home, their cases remain unsolved.
NationalWorld's crime and justice specialist Karen Roberts looks at 20 women whose murders remain unsolved.
https://www.nationalworld.com/news/crime/women-murders-unsolved-nicola-payne-natalie-pearman-3925142 #vaw #violence #crime #uk #violenceagainstwomen
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CW: Long Post
I seem to be posting more about books since I joined Mastodon, so I thought I might start posting about my favourite #comfortbooks. Maybe one a day or so until I run out.
My first and favourite is #Hild by #NicolaGriffith
A fictional account of the real St Hilda of Whitby. I read this at least once a year and never tire of it. It is gentle and bloody, comforting and confronting. The writing is exquisite and matched to the setting and time, and opening it at any page will lose me in Hild's world. The sequel, Menewood, is due for release later this year. You will need to refer to the glossary (unless you are a mediaeval historian).
Nicola has also written amazing feminist SF (check out Ammonite and Slow River) and crime / mystery novels (the Aud Torvingen novels starting with The Blue Place).
https://nicolagriffith.com/2022/11/17/hild-menewood-and-meanwood/
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The thread about exploring Cromwell’s enigmatic Citadel of Leith
I was quite very excited to find this image in the Edinburgh City Libraries collection that I’d somehow missed before. It’s the “Gate of the Old Citadel of Leith“, an 1818 watercolour by the lawyer and prolific cityscape artist of Edinburgh, James Skene.
“Gate of the Old Citadel of Leith“, James Skene, 1818 © Edinburgh City LibrariesThe Citadel was part of Oliver Cromwell’s plan to subdue and control Scotland during his occupation of the country after the Battle of Dunbar in 1650.
It acted not just as a base for the occupying forces, but by protecting and controlling the Port of Leith it guarded the supply lines and meant the Army could be provisioned. Its construction was ordered in 1653, overseen by Cromwell’s man on the ground, General Monck, and was reluctantly financed by the city of Edinburgh to the tune of £60,000 Scots (£5,000). According to Nicoll’s Diary, construction began on May 26th 1656. The occupiers brought with them a printing press to churn out official declarations and propaganda and so it’s no coincidence that the first newspaper in Scotland is said to have been printed on an English press within the Citadel; “The Mercurius Caledonius – Comprising The Affairs now in Agitation in Scotland With A Survey of Forraign Intelligence“. It only ran for 12 issues from Dec 1660 – Jan 1661 and is not to be confused with the later Caledonian Mercury. It printed reports from Parliament, “Forraign Intelligence” and other stories sourced from the London papers. Monck also encouraged other English merchants and industrialists to set up in the safety of The Citadel and they introduced the craft of glassmaking, something Leith would later become famous for.
Mercurius Caledonius, edition of the first week of 1661.As I may have said many times before, as far as I am aware there are no surviving contemporary illustrations or plans of The Citadel and the earliest map showing it accurately in plan was not made until 50 years later, after it was abandoned as a fortification and encroached upon by the sea. Before we look further at Skene’s illustration, it’s worth getting an idea of the layout of the fortress.
The Citadel followed the classic 5-pointed “Star Fort” layout, with projecting, arrowhead-shaped bastions at each point of the star. These were fortifications explicitly engineered for the age of artillery; the corner bastions formed raised firing platforms to mount your defensive cannons. Gone were the tall, stone walls of medieval castles, in were carefully sculpted and aligned ditches and earthen mounds to resist cannon fire. John Naish’s 1709 survey and plan of Leith is the best reference to get an accurate survey of some of the walls and internal buildings. Note we can only see three sides and corners of the five walls; even at this stage he calls it the “Ruins of the Cittadell”. It can be seen from where he delineates the “high water mark on a raging full sea” that where the remaining walls and bastions should be has been reclaimed by the North Sea. The ditch that surrounds it all could be filled to a depth of 6 feet, and it can be seen on Naish’s map that a small pond has formed to the east of the walls.
Excerpt from John Naish’s 1709 survey and plan of “Leith, Surveyed May 28th 1709”. Crown Copyright, MPHH 1/32We also have a first-hand description of it during construction from the travelling English naturalist John Ray:
…one of the best fortifications that we ever beheld, passing fair and sumptuous. There are three forts [bastions] advanced above the rest and two platforms; the works around about are faced with freestone towards the ditch and are almost as high as the highest buildings within, and withal thick and substantial. Below are very pleasant, convenient and well-built houses for the governor, officers, and soldiers and for magazines and stores. There is also a good capacious chapel, the piazza, or void space within, as large as Trinity College, Cambridge, Great Court.
After the Stuart Restoration in 1660, The Citadel was abandoned as a military fortification. The contents of its chapel; its timber, seats, glass, masonry and even its steeple, were used in 1673 to refurbish that of Heriot’s Hospital. The City of Edinburgh were allowed to buy it back by King Charles II, so in effect they paid for it twice. Its walls were abandoned to the sea, or quarried out for building materials, and the modern buildings within them became something of a desirable place to live. John Skene’s delightful little sketch was made in 1818, a full 109 years after Naish’s map and 150 or more years after it was first built. But even in this time period, few other images of the subject matter were created and it remains a real rarity. So what does it show us of The Citadel, how does that relate to what we know of it and where was the artist positioned to sketch from. Let’s now find out, shall we?
Despite being a small watercolour, Skene has crammed a lot of interesting detail in there. The obvious thing is it shows a port (gateway). From this we can confirm that the gateway was surrounded with dressed masonry, the walls themselves were faced in stone and were likely filled with earth and rubble. It also gives us an idea of overall idea of the height of the walls and gateways as there are figures here for scale. If we suppose these are accurate, then the gateway might be 10-12 feet high and the walls 20-30 feet in total. The wall height of the contemporary Ayr Citadel is 25 feet, so this fits nicely.
The Citadel gateway, close-up.In the background of the image we can see limewashed buildings with pan-tiled roofs; standard, vernacular east coast Scottish style at this time. This building looks particularly tall, but if we work it out from the window spacing, it’s probably just 3 storeys plus an attic dormer. Skene often plays with the height of buildings and stretches them to make the scene look more dramatic. The chimneys are smoking, so these buildings are in use, most likely residential.
Pantile roofs and whitewashWe can also see that the blocks of buildings here don’t meet at right angles, given it was a five-sided fortification we would expect them to therefore be at about 72 degrees (give or take, as it was a slightly squished pentagon in plan). This distant range again looks to be 3 storeys with perhaps 2 in the attic dormer.
Pantile roofs and non-right anglesWe see can also see street lighting. From a previous thread on the topic we can be sure these are “train oil” (i.e. whale) lamps.
A lamp post.And a woman hangs out her washing to dry on the grassy slope that is all that remains of the former wall embankment.
Washing day.In the foreground, two men appear to be working stones. He in the red seems to have a regular block propped up and his partner in the blue looks like he’s trying to heave a slab off the ground. I wager they are reclaiming masonry from the collapsed walls; we know at both Leith and Ayr that this took place.
Working masonry.And just to the right of the two masons are two intriguing square posts. The Citadel was surrounded by a broad engineered ditch, which we can clearly see on Naish’s map, and it’s more than likely it would have had wooden trestle drawbridges across it. It’s nice to think that those posts may be part of that, they are after all aligned with the gateway.
Wooden posts in the waterIn the left midground we have yet more pantile roofed, whitewashed buildings. This range is two storeys and has curving, external stairs to the 1st floor. We know that there were at least two 2-storey blocks within the complex which would have been barracks quarters and stables and we can see evidence in maps of the late 18th and early 19th century that some of the buildings had external staircases.
Curving external stairs to the first floorAnd lastly, auld Leith wouldn’t be auld Leith without a forest of masts and rigging in the background. These are the ships of the port, crammed into the river basin beyond. There were no formal wet docks here at this time, everything tied up in the river mouth and alongside the quays of North and South Leith.
Masts and rigging of the Port of LeithSo to conclude an answer to the first question, we can see rather a lot. We can see that the fortifications were largely gone, but bits remained; we can see its buildings were actively occupied and in reasonably good repair at this time, and we get a good idea of the building style and some of its inner layout.
And on to the second part; where was Skene’s viewpoint from where he made his drawing? Well that’s easy of course because we know exactly where The Citadel’s port was as it’s still there! (Many people are amazed to find out that there’s a well preserved section of Cromwellian Fort wall hiding in plain sight at the end of a car park in Leith).
The surviving Citadel Port. The upper level of dressed masonry and the wall to the left are more modern © SelfAn 1804 Town Plan showing Leith by John Ainslie is roughly contemporary with Skene’s illustration. The gateway in the photograph above is marked S, and so Skene would have to have been outside (to the east or right of the S), looking inwards or west.
Ainslie’s 1804 Town plan of Edinburgh & Leith. Reproduced with the permission of the National Library of ScotlandExcept there’s actually three problems with this hasty conclusion.
- Firstly, in Skene’s image we are looking into The Citadel from outside and there is no way for there to be ships and masts in the left background as that is dry land well away from the shoreline. Skene is a reliable and accurate illustrator, it’s not likely he just made a big mistake.
- Secondly, there was no range of buildings in the north of the inner courtyard of The Citadel; the buildings on the right of Skene’s image should not be there.
- Thirdly, and crucially, the arch in Skene’s picture is a plain, rounded arch and clearly doesn’t match the segmental profile of the one in the photo above; it is also finished plainer, missing the tracery.
So how can we be looking at the arch from outside The Citadel bearing all of this in mind? The answer is quite simple actually, we can’t be. We are looking at a different arch! – Until the early 19th century, there was the remains of another port; the western or St. Nicholas Port. It is clearly marked T on the map below, set into W, which is the remains of old walls.
Aitchison’s Town Plan of 1795. Reproduced with the permission of the National Library of ScotlandSuddenly it all begins to fall into place. Skene is located on the shore, to the left of the above map, looking at the St. Nicholas Port. The stonemasons are working not on the shore but in the ditch outside the walls, and the washerwoman is hanging up her whites on the slope of that wall W. Beyond is the range of buildings marked X and on the map can see two small projections on those buildings, which I would suggest are the external stairways. Beyond X is the further range of buildings offset from them at an angle around 72 degrees. Skene is now looking directly towards the piers and quayside of the Port, shown on the map below, and so the masts and ships are now in the correct place.
Aitchison’s Town Plan of 1795. Reproduced with the permission of the National Library of ScotlandLastly, we can corroborate all pf this with a further map, that by William Bell dated 1813, which shows the layout of buildings and land ownership in The Citadel at that time, and confirms two Citadel Ports again; you can see one marked on the left below the word “Property” of “Mr. Campbell’s Property” and the other on the right, to the right of “Citidal Green“. Bell’s map shows that at this time the whole area was being encroached upon by the building of the wet docks.
Bell’s Plan of the Regality of Canongate etc., 1813. Reproduced with the permission of the National Library of ScotlandI’ve only ever seen one other illustration of the western port of the Citadel, which refers to it as “Oliver’s Mount” (i.e. Cromwell) on account of the mass of earth that had once formed the core of the wall rising above it. Confusingly it shows the passageway as bifurcating, which makes little defensive or engineering sense, and conflicts with Skene’s sketch. However, my understanding is at one time it may have been used as a cattle store and had been given a dividing wall internally. The artist of the below drawing may have been working off of a second-hand description and hence made it look like there were two separate passages, not one that had been divided.
“Oliver’s Mount” from Leith and its Antiquites by James Campbell Irons, 1898Another semi-contemporary image shows the “Cromwell House“, in which Cromwell most likely never stayed. It was probably built as a governor’s mansion and would have been a desirable property to take over after the fort was abandoned to residential use. The general style and scale of this building does not contradict Skene’s illustration. This building, also known as the “Governor’s House” was still standing in 1825 when it was advertised as for sale.
“Cromwell House” from the Story of Leith.A last piece of the puzzle and one which helps to tie everything nicely together can be found an etching by John Clerk of Eldin (who was a thoroughly good landscape draughtsman). It is something which is very easy to miss, but if we squint at “Leith from the West” we can see our gateway (highlighted blue) and the range of two-storey buildings with the curved, external staircases (red). The Leith Custom House is highlighted in yellow to help get our bearings. The full engraving is digitised in the National Galleries Scotland collection, you can zoom in on it and explore it at your leisure.
Excerpt of “Leith from the West” by John Clerk of Eldin. Move the slider to see the coloured highlightes. CC-BY-NC National Galleries Scotland.We can then take all of this evidence and add it on to Naish’s map to get a good idea of the layout and what the various features we can see on it actually were for.
Naish’s map, conceptual details of the Citadel filled in and annotated. Base map Crown Copyright, MPHH 1/32I know of know reconstruction plan or illustration of the Leith Citadel, but one does exist for another one of the Scottish Cromwellian citaels of this era, that of Ayr. This is similar in some respects to Leith as it was built on the shore of a port town, but was larger and had 6 instead of 5 corner bastions. The illustration below gives a reasonable impression of what Leith would have looked like though.
Ayr Citadel by Robert NelmesSurviving sections of the walls of Ayr also give us a good idea of what Leith might have looked like:
A bastion of Ayr Citadel. CC-by-SA 3.0 Rosser1954I find the Leith Citadel hugely enigmatic. It was a massive, dominant fortification that was totally unlike anything else in this part of the world. It was built at great expense and yet from a military point of view was abandoned within a few years of completion. It very briefly saw some military action in 1715 when Jacobites under Mackintosh of Borlum occupied it and had a standoff with government forces before retreating and briefly in 1780 some old cannons were mounted on its walls to counter the threat posed by John Paul Jones. I also find it remarkable that even though much of The Citadel survived so long and after its abandonment, so little was left by the way of record. We are lucky indeed to have the remaining gateway and a small section of wall, tucked away in a car park in North Leith.
The tantalising remaining fragment of the Citadel Wall. © SelfThe other great survivor of The Citadel is less obvious from the ground, but it you look at a map of streets in the area it is immediately obvious that there is a pentagonal arrangement, bounded by Cromwell Place, Couper Street, Coburg Street and Dock Street. This directly aligns with the orientation of the walls, ditches and internal structures as you can see on the below animated image transition of old maps of Leith on the modern streetscape and overlaid with a schematic of The Citadel.
Transition animation of the Citadel. NLS maps reproduced with the permission of the National Library of ScotlandNote to readers: unfortunately in April 2026, a third-party plug-in more than exceeded its authority and broke many of the image links on this site. No images were lost but I will have to restore them page-by-page, which may take some time. In the meantime please bear with me while I go about rectifying this issue.
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#Lochend #Logan #Restalrig #StMargaret -
Kronkeltje: 3L3D3P + Sexverbot + Clitteband + Oscar Jan Hoogland (Mishakosmos) + DJ’s Yoke+Jooke & Bandgurl666 + HOWIE REEVE (SC)
OCCII, Saturday, May 30 at 08:00 PM GMT+2
Bandgurl666, Geregeld Ontregeld and Pretty//Ugly present:
KronkeltjeA communal effort, Kronkeltje serves as a pre-event for the bigger Kronkel, a new, one-day, massive, alternative, multi-venue festival, whose later date will be revealed May 30th.
Poster made by Una Jongenelis
3L3D3P
3l3d3p - OSTRASIZED (Official Video)Watch this video on YouTubeLA Native 3L3D3P is a swim in the ocean with an anchor chained to your foot – a barrage of sound clashing its way to the surface in a slick, chaotic fashion.
A key member of the Vada Vada collective alongside The Garden, Cowgirl Clue, and more, 3L3D3P has built her reputation with a steady stream of singles and hyper-chaotic, batshit live performances.
With her debut album and first single,‘>>> (FWD)’. 3L3D3P is continuing to push the new punk-electronic movement to new heights, proving she’s not just a part of the scene, she’s shaping it.
<a href="https://3l3d3p.bandcamp.com/album/general">General! by 3L3D3P</a>
Sexverbot
“Sexverbot” is a punk band from Berlin. Fast guitars, clear lyrics, unmistakable character. Whether it’s fever dreams of capitalism (“Ich bin verliebt”), social coldness and concrete-tristesse (“Täglich grüßt die Monarchie”), self-destruction as the only way out (“Der Antagonist”), or a middle finger to New Age followers (“Mystic Shit”) – Sexverbot delivers short, punchy, and uncompromising songs. Much like the pioneers of decades past, the album reflects the sense of hopelessness and anger felt by a generation.
The self-titled debut was produced by Lorenz Szukal (Die Verlierer) and is being released via Bretford Records (LP/digital) and Mangel Records (tape).
<a href="https://sexverbot.bandcamp.com/album/sexverbot">Sexverbot by sexverbot</a>
https://ffm.to/sexverbot
https://www.instagram.com/sexv3rbot/Clitteband
Fun: fun on stage, in music. Fun in their identity as young, feminist, queer, loud, and alternative. With a mix of energetic and creative punk, Clitteband conquers halls all over the Netherlands. Shouting, stomping, messing around, pushing back, and broadening boundaries; Clitteband brews from old punk, but isn’t afraid to innovate.
<a href="https://clitteband.bandcamp.com/album/gratis-bier-politiek">Gratis Bier Politiek by CLITTEBAND</a>
Ponk Combo Treur feat. Oscar Jan Hoogland & Jannes Deurvorst
Collab with Mishakosmos festival
Oscar Jan Hoogland – electric clavichord piano Jannes Deurvorst – drums TOK NOK ZOK? TAK TAK TAK!DJs Yoke+Jooke
It’s not a joke It’s real A DJ set by the most famous trio duo It’s Yoke, Jooke & Jokuh Girthy, girly and groovy Happy, heartfelt and hardcore Get that wiggle inDJ Bandgurl666
Our very own Gigi a.k.a. Bandgurl 666, is not only co-organiser, but will also be spinning tunes between sets!
——————————————————— OCCII BENEFIT MEAL FOR KRONKEL @ MKZ (PEOPLES KITCHEN BEHIND THE OCCII) w/ HOWIE REEVE LIVE AFTER DESSERT
doors open: 19:00 | Music 20:30 | Donation
Call between 3.30 pm and 6 pm to make a reservation
Nr: 020 6790712Howie Reeve (Glasgow, UK)
“Unplugged-punk genius Howie Reeve is a linchpin in Glasgow’s DIY community... a breathtaking bass player.” (Nicola Meighan, The Herald)
“Howie Reeve is a unique and singular figure in the current British underground. Having spent over 20 years playing in a number of key Glasgow bands, since 2012 he has been performing solo on acoustic bass guitar, delivering a fragmented and dexterous music that takes in post-punk, avant-folk and free jazz. Increasingly turning to songwriting, he further engages audiences with cryptic, intimate and unsettling lyrics.
Resolutely DIY in his approach to music, he lives in Glasgow but appears to be perpetually on tour, whether in the UK, Europe or Japan.” (Chris Joynes)https://howiereeve.bandcamp.com/music
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Illusion of Itehari Review (Nintendo Switch)
Release Date: September 18, 2025 (North America)
Developers: LicoBiTs, Tiz Creation, Broccoli
Publishers: Aksys Games
Platforms: Nintendo Switch
ESRB Rating: T (Teen)SYNOPSIS
A love story from the beautiful and ephemeral world of the mechanical floating utopia.
In Itehari, the renowned and prosperous flying city, Hinagiku longs to explore the world beyond.
One day, Hinagiku, encounters an amnesiac man named Yashiro.
Their chance meeting drags her into a series of events involving the secrets and various truths hidden beneath the surface of Itehari… for this garden city in the sky, is a false utopia.ART AND MUSIC
Director: Asahi TakamuraScenario: Ringo Kazura, Eri Ichino, Rei KuroabumiArtist: RiRi (Main), Uta Natsume (Chibi)OST: Satoshi Nakayama (ED), ein himinn (OP), MANYO (BGM), Mikansei Brave (Vocals)Illusion of Itehari was created by the same developing team behind the otome game series, Piofiore. The scenario is led by Ringo, with Takamura directing once again, both of whom filled those exact roles in Piofiore. And of course, the famous illustrator RiRi, who defined Piofiore’s visual identity, is also responsible for the character designs here.
I’d say the art is one of this title’s strongest selling points. The CGs are absolutely mesmerizing, and the character designs are just gorgeous, that even the characters I don’t particularly care for still get a pass purely because they’re just that beautiful.😭 (Yep, I am sadly guilty of this, but well… that’s RiRi’s magic at work for ya!)
Voice Acting
Soma Saito as “Awayuki“ – Yves (Virche), Kiku (Tengoku Struggle), Mineo (CollarxMalice), Tsurumaru/Namazuo (Touken Ranbu), Shungen (Birushana), Levi (Psychedelica AH), Yumeno Gentaro (Hypnosis Mic), Ohtaro (Winter’s Wish), Takuma (Kitty Love), Akase (Charade Maniacs), YOFY (Sympathy Kiss)
Nobuhiko Okamato as “Tobari“ – Asher (The Red Bell’s Lament), Minami (9RIP), Radie (Radiant Tale), Hansel (Code Realize), Manabu Souda (Collar x Malice), Taiga (Variable Barricade), Hizamaru (Touken Ranbu), Yang (Piofiore), Hiroya (Period Cube), Peter Flage (Cupid Parasite), Haiji (Charade Maniacs), Iris (Iris School of Wizardry), Bakugo (MHA)
Yoshitsugu Matsuoka as “Tsuyukusa” – Nicol (My Next Life as a Villainess), Akaza (Olympia Soiree), Alice (Taisho x Alice), Gyobu (Charade Maniacs), Monshiro (Pyschedelica of the BB), Rin Okazaki (Spiral Memoria), Vash (Trigun), Kirito (SAO), Inosuke Hashibira (Demon Slayer), Xiao (Genshin Impact), Kirihiko (NilAd)
Takuya Eguchi as “Yori“ – Ciaran (The Red Bell’s Lament), Gretel (Taisho x Alice), Rei (Him, the Smile & Bloom), Miroku (B-PROJECT), Murakumo Go (Touken Ranbu), Kazuki Hoshino (CollarxMalice), Tenma Sumeragi (A3!), Nomura Risaburo (Hakuoki), Klein (IkePri), Lee Gyu-hyuk (Buried Stars), Reon (Dynamic Chord), Roger Barel (IkeVil), Kou (Hana Awase)
Chiaki Kobayashi as “Yashiro“ – Ray Under (Cupid Parasire SSD), Hairi (Olympia Soiree), Deuce Spade (TWST), Uro (Otome Daoshi ), Ibuki Taki (Ensemble Stars), Mao Ukyo (Break My Case)
Toshiyuki Toyonaga as “Taiju” – Orlok (Piofiore), Semi (Dairoku), Kintokihana/Awahana (Hana Awase), Seiji Kobayashi (London Detective Mysteria), Takeru Totsuka (Kamigami no Asobi), Goshi Kaneshiro (B-Project), Natsume (EPHEMERAL), Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (IkeVamp)
Hino Satoshi as “Narukami” –Toma (AMNESIA), Karakurenai (Hana Awase), Lavan (Psychedelica AH), Noiz (DRAMAtical Murder), Orochi (Dairoku), Guy (A3!), Mitsuhige Miyaji (Winter’s Wish), Kyojuro (Demon Slayer), Takuto Maruki (P5)
Yohei Azakami as “Tsuwabuki” – Koharu (9RIP), Ion (Radiant Tale), Rinne Amagi (Ensemble Stars!), Sakyou (Tokyo Onmyouji), Kagesumi (Ayakashi Gohan), Ryo Tominaga (Digimon Survive), Kou Haoren (Money Parasite), Shizukagata Naginata (Touken Ranbu)
Jun Fukuyama as “Karatachi” – Mizuchi (Hana Awase), Tomomori (Birushana), Vyn Richter (Tears of Themis), Mozu (BUSTFELLOWS), Goro Fujita (Meiji Tokyo Renka), Liberta (Arcana Famiglia), Rin (Togainu no Chi), Aido (Vampire Knight), Tokiwa Etsuya (Dairoku), Goke Kanimitsu (Touken Ranbu)
Kazuhiro Yoshimura as “Shioji” – Oleander (The Red Bell’s Lament), Alest (Radiant Tale), Minegeshi (Collar x Malice), Ten (Cafe Enchante), Maki (Side Kicks!), Souji Kamishiro (Suika Niritsu), Pepe (Bustafellows)
Yosuke Kobayashi as “Ugetsu” – Tomonari (Winters Wish), Flynn (The Red Bell’s Lament), Hira (Dairoku), Byleth (FE Engage, 3H), Shinano Toushiro (Touken Ranbu), Suwon (Yona of the Dawn), Yuli Norbert (MidCin), Manai Tomoki (Sweet Clown), Xavier (Love and Deepspace), Kiyoshi Kurotani (P5), Senku Ishigami (Dr. Stone)
CHARACTERS AND ROUTES
There are six routes in Illusion of Itehari. At the start of the game, only Awayuki and Tobari’s routes are available. Finishing Awayuki’s route (best ending) unlocks Yori’s, while finishing Tobari’s unlocks Tsuyukusa’s. Once you have cleared all four LIs, Yashiro’s route becomes available. Lastly, completing Yashiro’s route unlocks the Truth Route of the game.
Moreover, the common route also splits into three parts, although only two are available at the beginning. These two common routes, let you spend time with two LIs each: Awayuki/Yori and Tobari/Tsuyukusa. After clearing all four, Yashiro’s common route unlocks, and completing it will unlock the choices that’ll eventually lead you to the Truth Route. Also, you cannot fully skip the common routes, since different dialogues appear depending on which ones you go through first. That said, I would not recommend making separate save files for each common route. Instead, just start a new game each time and make use of the skip-to-next-choice function.
As for the recommended play order, Director, Takamura did not enforce a strict sequence. However, they mentioned in their blog that, in terms of world-building, the order they suggest is: Awayuki → Tobari → Yori → Tsuyukusa → Yashiro → Truth Route.
Personally, my soft rec’d play order as far as story progression is pretty similar, except I would swap Yori and Tsuyukusa. So: Awayuki → Tobari → Tsuyukusa → Yori→ Yashiro → Truth Route. My only reason for this, is that Yori’s route contains a spoiler related to Yashiro’s character development. If you do not mind character spoilers though, those two can easily be interchanged, and it really does not make much difference in the end.🤗
Walkthroughs:
Note: The CGs shown below are promotional images for the game, Illusion of Itehari. All spoiler-related content in this review will be hidden behind a spoiler drop-down, that you can choose to view at your own discretion.
⬇️ Click to view Content Warnings Murder, violence, arson, death, blood, classism, discrimination against common folk/poor people, sexual assault, trauma bond, gaslighting.AWAYUKI
- the hot butler 👅
- “yes my queen”
Awayuki is Hinagiku, the heroine’s attendant. He is overprotective to a fault, yet a highly capable individual who is more than worthy of protecting her. However, he tends to look down on himself because of his commoner status and even goes so far as to claim that he is merely the heroine’s property.
This route… ngl, was such a slog to get through. And I say this as a massive Soma Saito enjoyer. There was a lot of repetitive, nonsensical political discussion (though to be fair, this is pretty much true for most of the routes in this game). To me, the story didn’t really find its footing, until around chapter 5, which meant the earlier chapters in Awayuki’s route were an absolute snoozefest imo.
However, to my surprise, Awayuki still ended up being one of my favorite LIs in the game. Wild! He was such a great character throughout the entire story, and as an LI he’s downright laudable. It’s really not his fault his route was a snoozer!
⬇️ SpoilersLook, a seiyuu can only do so much. And even as someone who is extremely biased toward any Soma Saito character, I can admit when a route is mid, no matter how likable the LI is. That pretty much sums up Awayuki’s route for me. I lost count of how many times I dozed off while playing. It was a real struggle to stay focused. The endless repetition about commoners vs. nobles, master vs. servant, and how the whole “we can’t be together, etc. etc.” dragged on all the way until the very last minute. It was exhausting.😵💫
On a lighter note, Awayuki himself is an amazing LI no matter how you look at it. He definitely falls into that category of otome characters who deserved a better route. That said, his ending CG was so hot I practically forgave the entire struggle of staying awake just to finish his story lol.😂
TOBARI
- tatted hottie 👀
Tobari is the current head of Itehari’s entertainment district. Despite his young age, he acts as the caretaker of his people, and the residents of the entertainment district all admire him. He comes across as unfriendly at first and always maintains a straight-to-the-point attitude.
The start of Tobari’s route actually gave me the impression that this might be a good route to start the game with, as it introduces the story well, particularly the hierarchy issues in Itehari, and you get a lot of POVs from the commoner’s side in this story. However, the middle up to the end parts of his route became a bit spoiler-heavy, which might explain why the director suggested playing him second in their soft play-order.
I think Tobari is a good character and LI, but I’m not entirely sure if I enjoyed his route, tbh. The story felt a bit heavy-handed, and the romance didn’t quite land for me. It came across as forced more than anything, though of course, that’s just my personal opinion, as romantic interpretation is highly subjective. I understand that Tobari’s passive demeanor and his calm, detached attitude are part of his charms, but I just don’t think he and Hinagiku have believable chemistry to fuel what little romance they have in this route. For me, their relationship simply didn’t click for some reason.🤷♀️
⬇️ SpoilersTobari also lost points for me when his route made him look really gullible. Awayuki was right, in that Tobari can be vulnerable with the people he trusts. Shioji betrayed him, his own members (in the Shiranui) betrayed him, and even Doctor Shohaku betrayed him. He clearly has a weak sense of judgment when it comes to people he’s seemingly closed with. Not a good look for someone who’s supposed to lead a vigilant group and an entire district.
Also, the plot twist about him having Hari disease came out of nowhere, though I did find it a bit more relevant after playing the Truth ending. I think his Hari disease is further explained there than in Tobari’s route. (Being born from a noble and a commoner messed with his genes, which led him to develop Hari disease). The whole killing spree at the end of his chapter though…. felt kind of over the top, and not in a good way. It seemed almost too convenient for the story to end like that. I’m really not sure what to make of it, really.
On another note, I think the reason I disliked the romance in this route mostly comes down to Hinagiku. Her crush on Tobari felt way too forced, and her tendency to rush into danger without any smart plan was just… sorry for the word, plain STUPID. This impulsiveness happens in a lot of routes btw, where her thoughtless decisions get the better of her, but this route really took it to another level. I wasn’t a fan, and I was pretty happy to be done with this route, at the end.
TSUYUKUSA
- 🏳️🟢🏳️🟩🏳️💚
- green is my fav color
Tsuyukusa is an arcanist and the heroine’s childhood friend. He runs Hangetsugo, a shop that takes on odd jobs in Itehari. He doesn’t like going out except for work errands and would rather spend his time tinkering with his tools and gadgets in his own workshop at home.
This is it! Finally, a route I can actually get behind with! I enjoyed both the story and the romance. Though, in terms of the latter, I feel like Tsuyukusa has the best one in the game. Even setting aside the drab political discussions, Tsuyukusa felt far more involved in the story compared to the first two routes I played. I can’t quite explain why. The story itself was fairly predictable, yet for some reason, I found myself more engaged in this route than the others.🤔
Also, Tsuyukusa, my dude… I love this man so much (kicking my feet!) What an adorable guy!🥺 I can’t say for sure that his route had the best plot or story (laughs), but at least the romance popped, which pulled and elevated this route up by a mile.
⬇️ SpoilersI think Tsuyukusa’s relationship with Hiragi doesn’t come off as a surprise anymore, especially if you’ve already played Awayuki and Tobari’s routes beforehand. It’s also nice to see his bond with Hiragi, and I really liked his sibling-dynamic with him. I thought both were precious!!🥺
Unlike the two previous routes, where the heroine awkwardly chases the guys, gets rejected, but keeps pursuing them, the dynamic between Hinagiku and Tsuyukusa felt quite different (which is a nice change). Tsuyukusa was the one who confessed first, but he never pressured Hinagiku to respond. I also loved how clingy he was with her, yet it came across as sweet and really endearing.🥺 He definitely defines a mighty green flag of an LI to me!
Unfortunately, I found the politics here really uninteresting, though it does help expand more of the broader story of Itehari, which is explored further in the Truth route.
YORI
- # whoisthisdiva
- me during Yori’s entire route
Yori is part of the Kurozuro, an esteemed group of steam soldiers in charge of maintaining order in Itehari. He prides himself on being a high-ranking noble and looks down on commoners or anyone he considers beneath him.
Yori’s route was kind of interesting, and it’s not because he had a better *plot* or story than the other LIs. It’s more that his personality was entertainingly funny. The dude is a giant narcissist, as well as an elitist. He acts like a diva, but what’s funny is that he’s not really the diva he thinks he is (laughs).😂 His route focused a lot on himself; he is very self-absorbed and walks around with a giant ego on his back. He was a d*ck through and through, and as much as I despise his character, I would be lying if I said I didn’t enjoy his route because of how ridiculously egomaniacal he is. This was the only route that kept me wide awake, and strangely enough, I binged it faster than the others.
I feel like Yori is going to be a fan favorite because anyone craving a red-flag character will definitely hype him up. Personally, as a red-flag enjoyer myself, I was pretty lukewarm on Yori. He’s alright, I guess.🤷♀️ I have to say, however, his bad ending was probably my favorite ending in the entire game…🤭
⬇️ SpoilersYori’s route, especially his best ending, wrapped up conveniently too, which was quite anticlimactic for an eccentric character like him. The story itself was more or less a repeat of details you’d already know from the previous three routes, just with a different spin-off & result. The only thing that stood out to me here, was Yashiro taking on a semi-antagonist role and finally revealing his true purpose for coming to Itehari. This is why I recommended playing Yori’s route before Yashiro’s, since the transition feels more impactful that way. Although, if you don’t really care about Yashiro (like me lol), this reveal probably won’t matter or hit as much(laughs).😂
The romance here, like most of the romances in this game, felt more forced than anything. There was really no reason for Hinagiku to fall for your resident diqface, Yori. Lol. Especially when you have Tsuwabuki as a contender, like are you kidding me? …She basically gets drunk, gets a tongue lap, and suddenly she’s head over heels? I’m sorry, but I ain’t buying that, sis. They really tried so hard (but maybe not hard enough), because I just couldn’t take it (the sudden romance) seriously.
Speaking of Tsuwabuki, my god was this man hot! Honestly, I think it’s quite offensive that the game made him one of the most beautiful and likable characters, & even giving him a tiny bit of character development in this story, yet didn’t give him a route of his own. This felt like such a kick in the teeth for the players, no?😑
On the other hand, what was interesting, though, was Yori’s bad ending. Now THIS is what I want from my red flag characters: trauma bonding, pure gaslighting, and that you even get to *double the deed* with Awayuki???🍆🍆 Oh heck, sign me up! (cackles).🤣🤣🤣 Honestly, I loved this ending because it felt like the only twistedly fitting conclusion for Yori’s character.
YASHIRO
- (here we go again)… 🚬
- sus
Yashiro is an amnesiac man whom Hinagiku encountered one day during one of her daily walks in town. After he collapsed while helping her, she brought him to her estate out of a sense of duty as a noble.
After slogging through endless reiterations during the previous four routes, Yashiro’s route felt like the ultimate chore as you’re basically told the same story for the nth time, fully aware of what’s going to happen. Unfortunately for me, this route was criminally dull (sorry!), and it felt like the first few chapters were wasted on repetition instead of presenting anything new. The endings here were, yet again, rather convenient, which made the entire buildup in Yashiro’s story feel pointless? It didn’t help that the romance was also quite bleak. Sorry to say, this entire route was a hard sell for me. Then again, this is all just my personal opinion, so your mileage may vary. Yashiro is a great character though, no doubt! and Chiaki Kobayashi did amazing voicing him, so there’s always that!
⬇️ SpoilersI really feel like the whole buildup of Yashiro dressing in disguise and trying to cause a scene in Itehari’s square during the Lantern Festival was completely pointless. In the end, their goal of making people doubt the Taiju was immediately resolved, and they quickly moved on to cracking down on another Ginwan spy. Like… ??? What was even the point? Why did we spend so much time going through all that nonsense when this supposedly *grand master plan* was wrapped up so quickly. Not exactly a fan of this type of red herring. But whatever, I was just really glad to be done with this route.
On the positive side, I appreciated that this route gave us more insight into who Yashiro is, what his purpose was, and even a glimpse into his life in Ginwan. Sure, it was mostly exposition dumped through monologues, but hey, I’ll take any backstory I can get.🤷♀️
TRUTH ROUTE
⬇️ SpoilersNARUKAMI
- New phone, who dis!
- nothing burger
I sort of cackled-snorted when the story went, “Narukami waved his hand and instantly restored the collapsed pipes in Itehari,” like he’s some sort of Dumbledore. LOL
That said, I kept getting a serious sense of deja vu while playing this route because it felt a lot like Steam Prison’s Yune’s route/character. Narukami is an automaton powered by some kind of scarlet gold alloy as his heart. Similar to Yune, who has a gem artifact for a heart that grants him immortality, Narukami’s situation also felt kinda familiar in concept.
Honestly, I’m not really sure how I feel about this route. The romance, for one, was basically nonexistent. Plot-wise, I did appreciate moments where they tried to tie up loose ends from previous stories, like Tobari’s Hari disease and the fact that Awayuki, despite being a commoner, is surprisingly agile and strong. I also enjoyed the reveal that the city was designed so commoners couldn’t defy nobles because of their genes. It was an interesting piece of lore, even if it came out of nowhere.
What was kind of anticlimactic, though, was the big bad reveal (Saku) only for the character to go bye-bye within five minutes after the said revelation. 😭 Like… what even was that about??
On a positive note, the English title “Illusion of Itehari” made perfect sense after finishing the game. Itehari is essentially a facade of a country, built on glaring flaws that weren’t fully seen through by its creator/s. That’s why the term “illusion” fits so well. Maybe it’s just me, but I actually like the English title now!
Lastly, what really irked me was that after all the truth dumps, drama, and hoopla, everyone (esp the villains) got forgiven so easily and conveniently. It made the conflicts feel utterly ineffectual, as if all that build-up meant nothing. Perhaps, the only thing *not forgiven* was the time I wasted on this route?! (cackles).😂 …. But Narukami did have that hot CG of him showing his chest, so maybe I’ll consider that as an apology…👅 (cackles)
HINAGIKU (Main Heroine)
- wants to help…
- Hinagiku in a nutshell
Hinagiku has a strong sense of responsibility and duty from being born a noble. She always, and I mean, A-L-W-A-Y-S wants to “help“. I think she passes as a decent MC at the surface. Quite driven, a bit bratty, and sometimes a little nosy for her own good.
More times than not though, she crosses into being absolutely reckless, rushing into danger without any real plan or consideration of the possible repercussions of her actions. There’s very little critical thinking going on, and she keeps doing this over and over, and shows very little improvement in the later routes (sadly). She doesn’t seem to have any sense of self-preservation, and her thoughtless impulsiveness really drove me up the wall. Look, I really tried my best to give her the benefit of the doubt. I do admire her drive to always want to help, but I just couldn’t get behind the lack of logic in her decision-making. Idk, I guess spoiled rich brat heroines with idealistic views just put me off really bad.
Nothing you’ve done so far could even remotely be considered smart, though…😬What pisses me even more is how almost everyone in the game, especially the LIs constantly gas her up. “Oh, you’re running straight into a burning building? So brave!” “Ah, there’s a murderer on the loose and you want to investigate the cases at night? Incredible, you’re so strong!” (cackles)😂 This is all exaggerated but like… my goodness… why are they indulging her stupidity?😭
I know this sounds really harsh, and I’m fully aware that this all comes down to personal preference. I’m sure there are plenty of people who would find her quirky and cute! Not me, though! I’ve fully accepted that this heroine just isn’t for me. That being said, I will give her credit for a few moments I did enjoy, mainly in the romance parts where she actually took the initiative to express her feelings first to some of the LIs. And I think in Yori’s route, she managed to be somewhat proactive. But seriously…that’s about as far as my praise goes.
SYSTEM AND LOCALIZATION
The steampunk theme of the game was very apparent from the title’s UI, which I actually quite liked. Loved seeing the cogs and gears on my loading screen!
The Live2D, on the other hand, seems to be pretty polarizing for a lot of people. Unfortunately, I fall into the camp that isn’t a fan of how exaggerated it looks. The idle breathing(?) animation in particular felt excessive, and the way the character sprites’ chests expand and move is almost a bit unsettling.😅 And I say this as someone who loves Live2D in otome games a lot. There are a few games that utilizes Live2D really well. For example, in Light and Night, the sprite animations feel smooth, natural, and not jarring at all. The one used in this game, isn’t really a dealbreaker to me. You can still enjoy the game while overlooking it, but I really hope LicoBits improves the Live2D aspect in the game’s fandisk.
PROS:
- Mouth movements, blinking sprites, Live2D
- Heroine’s Name Customization
- Chapter Select
- GLOSSARY section
- EXTRA Content – (extra stories) that unlock after finishing certain endings in the game.
- Short stories
- Love Catch and Status Bar
- SKIP to the Next Choice function
- Skip READ function
- Quick Save/Quick Load
- CG Library
- Music Library
- Movie Library
- Backlog and Rewind function
CONS:
- Heroine not voiced
- No Heroine side image sprite
Localization
The localization was also pretty good; I didn’t notice any significant issues in the game’s translation or tone. I thought it was pristine, with typos being very rare. Kudos to the localization team for a job well done!
TRAILER
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ulngh0iBr5M&list=RDulngh0iBr5M&start_radio=1
OVERALL THOUGHTS
It took me roughly 60, possibly pushing to 70 hours, to 100% the game. I was surprised that this playtime was actually quite long, given that the game itself is of decent length. I think what made it longer for me was the repetition of the stories, as well as having to start a new game for each route in order to achieve 100% in the in-game progress and unlock all possible endings. As usual, I played the majority of this title with the Switch docked on my TV.
Illusion of Itehari’s premise definitely reminded me of Steam Prison, in a sense, as they share a similar concept: steampunk setting and the division between the Heights and the Surface World. The “Heights” in Steam Prison would be equivalent to Itehari in this game. There’s also a plot device in one route that feels somewhat similar to a certain route in Steam Prison, but revealing it here would be a spoiler, so you’ll just have to play the game and find out for yourself! 😋
Drowning in Politics
Truth be told, I wasn’t too crazy about the overarching plot of this title. I’m not particularly a fan of stories centered around heavy politics, and this game is about 90% political drabble, which immediately dulled my interest. The monologues, stuffed with a lot of padding, dragged on and to be honest, they weren’t very engaging (if anything they put me to sleep). It also didn’t help that the routes kept repeating the same details over and over again, that it made the narrative feel increasingly redundant.😭 If, however, you enjoy long-winded or detailed political discussions in your visual novels, this game right here, is definitely for you!
For its positives, one of the game’s strengths (besides the art), was its worldbuilding. I can definitely say that the build-up in most of the stories was nice, and I loved the beats of suspense it had. There was a lot of good momentum to appreciate in a couple of routes. However, what undermined that *momentum*, (and this is one of my main nitpicks), was how conveniently the endings rolled out. This made the earlier high-stakes conflicts feel completely weightless, undercutting the tension that had been carefully built, and in turn causing the reveals or plot twists to come across as rather pedestrian at best. I would’ve loved it if they had stuck to their guns and delved deeper into the conflicts presented in the story, like they did in Piofiore 1926. But then again, there’s a fandisk for this game that was just released, so perhaps these somewhat open-ended *easy* resolutions will finally get some satisfying closure in the next installment?
Great LIs in Tedious Routes
I adopted two husbands in this title: Awayuki and Tsuyukusa. After finishing the entire game, I was pretty stunned by how much I enjoyed Awayuki’s character. I have a penchant for the loyal, sad knight/servant archetype, and Awayuki fits this trope like a glove. It’s too bad his route was such a snoozefest! He deserves far better, and I hope he gets a good story in the FD. I also feel that Awayuki is far too good for Hinagiku; with her reckless, airheaded tendencies, being paired with him would practically increase her chance of survival by 99%. Good for her. That said (and I realize I’m contradicting myself lol), I cannot bring myself to ship them (laughs).😂 I dislike this pairing and would much rather see Awayuki with someone more compassionate and considerate than this spoiled little princess. Yes, I’m being petty atm. (cackles)🤣
Please, I love them both!🫶Tsyukusa, my other favorite LI, is one ship I can at least get behind. I liked his childhood friend dynamic with Hinagiku to some extent. I can see green-flag enthusiasts would love him and his droopy yet adorable demeanor.🥺
If I had to pick the LI best suited for Hinagiku though, it would probably be Yori (out of spite lol), mostly for the petty reason that they’re both spoiled, rich individuals who would likely complement each other in political functions. (cackling)🤣
Girl….. might as well! 🤣Tobari was too passive of a character for my taste, and his route was way too messy (plot-wise), so he didn’t really shine as much for me compared to the others. Yashiro was cute, but again, his route was dullsville, so I was falling asleep half the time instead of actually appreciating his character. 😭 I know I gave the Truth Route a lot of guff, but I did admittedly enjoy it in the end, particularly how the reveals of the overarching plot tied nicely into the stories of the previous routes. I also appreciated the expansion of the lore and how it came full circle, giving the game’s title real meaning.
💖LI RANKING: Awayuki = Tsuyukusa > > > > Yori = Yashiro = Tobari
📝ROUTE RANKING: Yori > Tsuyukusa > Truth Route > Awayuki = Tobari = Yashiro
Lastly, I’m convinced LicoBits entirely birthed Tsuwabuki’s character as bait to get everyone to buy and play the fandisk. Because, WDYM the most attractive, breedable man in this game isn’t a love interest? Are you kidding me?! And you can only get his ass in the fandisk? Nah, fam…this was a low blow! I see what you did there, devs!🫵
YES, YES YOU ARE! …..NOW LET ME SMASH!!As for the romance, I wish I could say the game had a lot of sugar content, but in all honesty, it was very lacking in that department. Sure, there were some moments that seemed kind of sweet, but they all felt short-lived. I also couldn’t really enjoy the romance (of what little there is in the game) because the chemistry between Hinagiku and some of her LIs felt forced. This might just be a personal thing, and perhaps my aversion to Hinagiku’s character may have influenced that, so take it as you will.
Do I recommend this game? YES.
Despite its flaws and a somewhat predictable plot, I would still wholeheartedly recommend Illusion of Itehari to otome gamers. This game is perfect for anyone who loves rich worldbuilding in a steampunk setting, featuring a cast of charming (and very hot) LIs, be it green or red flags, who, before you know it, will worm their way into your affections.🤭While it comes from the same team behind Piofiore, don’t expect it to be exactly like Piofiore. Though, if you appreciated Piofiore’s writing, character dynamics, and pacing, there’s a good chance you’ll enjoy this one too. Personally, to me, it’s the kind of title that slowly warms up to you the more you play it! And honestly, now that I’ve finished this game, I’m kind of looking forward to playing the fandisk! Ha! Pray to the otome gods we get an announcement next year!
#aksysGames #Broccoli #IllusionOfItehari #IllusionOfItehariReview #LicoBiTs #nintendoSwitch #OtomeGameReview #TizCreation #utakataNoUchronia #UtakataNoUchroniaReview
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Who owns that news company?
In this age, when our mainstream news media is now polluted more than ever with misinformation, disinformation and outright lies, maybe you’re wondering who is behind these various media and news companies? You might be surprised to find that it isn’t exactly who you might expect. You might also be surprised to find these owners’ political affiliations. Let’s explore.
Preface
It is important to understand that news media corporations are never-ending targets of acquisition by the wealthy billionaires of the world. What that ultimately means for this article is that because conglomerate ownership is liquid and constantly in a state of flux, it falls upon you, the reader, to verify that what is presented here in this article is still accurate at the time you are reading it. Inevitably, one or more will have been sold… again.
What this also states is that Randocity is a Blog publisher and not a Wiki. Randocity does not revisit and/or significantly modify or alter content of articles once written and published (other than for corrections, grammar and mechanics). These articles remain a point-in-time snapshot of how these companies existed at the time of publication. This information is important and relevant for readers at the time in and around when it was written and published. However, this information may become old and outdated years after publication. Again, it falls to you, the reader, to validate that what is stated here, which was accurate at the time of publication, is still accurate at the date you read this article.
On a separate but related note, it is presently unknown why these maniacal billionaires are willing to so completely trash and destroy the reputations of their own investments in these very newspapers, websites and TV stations. It is these very businesses that have spent decades building trust and ethical journalistic reputations, all gone in the blink of an eye because of single crazed billionaire. Now, back to our regularly scheduled program.
Which mainstream media outlets presently exist?
There are a wide array and types of mainstream media outlets including cable, broadcast TV and print publications. This article will provide a large number of these mainstream media outlets, but there are well more that exist, particularly those that also exist outside of the United States. This article will focus on various mainstream news media in the United States and that primarily intend to deliver news to American audiences.
Media NameTypeDescriptionOwned ByMain InvestorsAssociated Press (AP)News AgencyNews Reporting CooperativeNonprofitMembers contribute reporting and articles to AP for distributionReutersNews AgencyNews ReportingThomson Reuters Corporation (Canadian) <= The Woodbridge CompanyThe Thomson Family (Canadian)CNNCableNews and OpinionWB DiscoveryJohn C. Malone
(Republican) – 10% ownerFox News NetworkCableN & ONews Corp <= Rupert Murdoch, Lachlan MurdochMurdoch Family (Hard Right Republicans) – 40% voting stake, 14% ownershipMS Now (formerly MSNBC)CableN & OVersant MediaBrian L. Roberts (Center leaning, but likely more R than D)CBS NewsBroadcastN & OParamount SkydanceDavid Ellison [son of Larry Ellison] (Republican)ABC NewsBroadcastN & ODisneyVanguard Group (see below)NBC NewsBroadcastN & ONBC Universal, ComcastBrian L. Roberts (Center leaning, but likely more R than D)Spectrum NewsCableNewsCharter => Liberty MediaInstitutional investors (see below)
John C. Malone (Republican) – Liberty Media – 10% StakeNewsNationCableN & ONexstar Media GroupPerry A. Sook (Republican) – 33% ownerNew York TimesPrintN & ONew York Times CompanyA.G. Sulzberger, Ochs-Sulzberger family (Democrat leaning)
Dual Class Share Structure (see below)New York PostPrintN & ONews CorpLachlan Murdoch — 33% voting power (Hard Right Republican)Washington PostPrintN & ONash Holdings, LLC (Private)Jeff Bezos presumably 100% ownership Nash Holdings (Hard Right Republican)San Francisco ChroniclePrintN & OHearst CommunicationsHearst Family (Republican)L.A. TimesPrintN & ONant Capital, LLC (Private)Patrick Soon-Shiong (Republican leaning)USA TodayPrintN & O USA Today Co, Inc (formerly Gannet)Institutional Investors (Vanguard, Blackrock, etc)Wall Street JournalPrintN & O, InvestingDow Jones & Company <= News CorpRupert Murdoch (Hard Right Republican)Boston GlobePrintN & OBoston Globe Media Partners, LLCJohn W. Henry (Democrat)Chicago TribunePrintN & OTribune Publishing <= Alden Global CapitalRandall D. Smith (Hard Right Republican), Heath Freeman (Undisclosed, possibly R)NewsdayPrintN & ONewsday MediaPatrick Dolan (Democrat leaning)Minnesota Star TribunePrintN & OBillionaire Glen TaylorGlen Taylor (Republican) — former politicianTimeMagazineN & OTime USA, LLC.Marc Benioff (Hard Right Republican turned Independent) — 100% ownerNewsweekMagazineN & OOwner / Management OwnedDev Pragad and Johnathan Davis (each holding 50%) — Presumed RepublicansOne America News Network (OAN)InternetN & OHerring NetworksRobert Herring Sr. (Hard Right Republican)AxiosInternetNCox EnterprisesCox family (Republicans)PoliticoInternetN & OAxel Springer SE (German)Friede Springer & Mathias Döpfner — 95% of sharesPropublicaInternetN & ONonprofitHerbert and Marion Sandler (Democrat)Apple News (aggregator)App BasedN & OInstitutional Investors (Blackrock, Vanguard, etc)Tim Cook (Republican) & Arthur Levinson (Democrat, but has contributed to Republicans)Google News (aggregator)InternetN & OAlphabet, Inc.Larry Page (Left Leaning) and Sergey Brin (Left Leaning) — significant voting power with Class 3 sharesYahoo News (aggregator)InternetN & OYahoo! Inc. <= Apollo Global Management (90%) and Verizon (10%).
Leon Black, Josh Harris, and Marc Rowan (Apollo)
Institutional investors own Verizon.Legend
=> Should be read, left side company owns the right side company.
<= Should be read, right side company owns the left side company.What does the Main Investors column predict?
The Main Investor column potentially predicts the bias of the publication or TV news production. When there are one or two main investors in any business, they tend to have extraordinary input in the functioning of the business at the micromanagement level. To keep these investors happy and on board, management often bends over to the whims of these investors.
What this ultimately means is that newspapers and media can be unduly influenced by such investors into writing articles with certain political slants that favor some political candidates over others and which do not allow the journalist to remain unbiased while reporting.
This micromanagement negatively influences both the trustworthiness level of the news reporting itself and of the political leaning of the news media outlet as a whole.
Additionally, investors who intentionally don’t disclose their political affiliations, either through donations or via disclosing party membership, tends to indicate that these investors are more likely to be reeds-in-the-wind. What a reed-in-the-wind means is that whichever political party is in power, these “reeds” will favor that party by blowing generally in that direction. The reason “reeds” tend to do this is because it allows them to always favor their business’s success by ceding to and feeding the party in power. While being a “reed” may seem like a good business strategy, it can easily backfire on any company when the political party in power is generally disliked by the majority of the populous.
Credibility Ratings and Bias
This next table a few paragraphs below encompasses the same media outlets listed above. The below list includes ratings and commentary of trustworthiness and bias level based on that outlet’s factual reporting versus misinformation, among other factors. This trustworthiness rating is an aggregation of the observable characteristics of various media’s publishing behaviors by Randocity, but it also factors in such ratings from sites like MediaFactsBias.com, OpenSecrets.com (showing political contributions by various owners, operators and investors of the site) and also factors in various other potential and future bias which may influence how a site’s editors operate their news products.
News outlets feature both reporting of actual and, hopefully, factual news information, but also feature opinion and speculative pieces designed to sway audiences to a particular point of view. These ratings encapsulate and aggregate both of the News and Opinion sections into one single rating of trustworthiness. Additionally, a separate news bias rating is also presented that describes how biased any news outlet is or may become in the future.
Recently, many news sites have begun mixing and conflating factual news reporting with opinion news pieces, often marrying the two together into one single segment for the sake of brevity at the cost of drastically increasing bias and simultaneously reducing trustworthiness.
Trustworthiness?
What exactly is trustworthiness for a news media outlet? Simply put, it is a media site’s ability to be believed. You read an article and you either believe what it says OR you do not, or you may land somewhere in between. In the early days of journalism, yellow journalism became important for one reason alone; it sold papers. However, yellow journalism is the practice of embellishing or even fabricating information in an attempt to make the news more sensational than it actually is. Yellow journalism is a stain on journalism and remains so to this day. Yellow journalism is considered unethical journalism. It tarnishes the reputation and trustworthiness of any newspaper, news outlet or any news organization that willfully employs such misinformation and disinformation tactics solely in an attempt at gain more readers, subscribers or followers.
If you’re into TikTok or YouTube shorts, you may recognize the equivalent as ragebait, clickbait and clout chasing.
Some newspapers gained such followings on the backs of yellow journalism papers, like the San Francisco Chronicle, owned by the Hearst Corporation. Other yellow journalism includes the grocery store tabloids like The Sun, The National Enquirer, The National Examiner, The Star and even to a certain degree, People and Us magazines. These tabloid papers, found near your local grocery checkout stand, are not included in these listings because they are not consider news organizations. These “magazines” (ahem) are essentially written almost entirely based on rumors, innuendo, including paparazzi photos of celebrities taking shopping trips along with other inane, but completely not newsworthy articles (if you can even call them articles). I liken these grocery tabloids to adult versions of comic books. When you read something in these tabloids, the trust level is so low as to be nonexistent. When you buy these tabloids, you should go into the purchase knowing that it’s essentially the same as reading a comic book.
Bias?
What exactly is bias? It’s when a writer or news host uses specific words or phrases to lead you into believing that something is true, when in fact, that information may either be only mostly true, mostly false, entirely false or entirely fabricated. In other words, a news host or news writer has a fiduciary and ethical journalistic responsibility to write and report on factual news only. However, because opinion pieces have become the norm on various news channels, opinion is always subject to bias, to the whims of the news host or news writers. Often these opinion shows tend to lead viewers towards liberal or conservative views based entirely on the host’s (and/or channel owner’s) political leanings.
Because many news stations and newspapers have begun serving up opinion as factual news, this leaves viewers and readers in a quandary. This means that what you’re now reading or watching is simply a news host’s opinion. An opinion is an opinion is an opinion! It doesn’t matter if it’s your best friend’s opinion or a random news anchor’s opinion, it doesn’t mean that information is in any way factual or accurate. Why would you want to trust an opinion coming from a random news journalist? You don’t know them personally. So, why trust them?
News stations have slowly begun dropping reporting of factual news in replacement for opinion shows. Some news stations have even begin mixing what appears to be factual news into opinion news segments. The host launches into their show discussing something that appears factual, but then dives into opinion segments. Often, only the most prominent news hosts get to air their opinions directly (Rachel Maddow, Lawrence O’Donnell, Hannity, etc).
Less prominent news hosts rely on talking-head (see talking-head section at the bottom) pundits to provide opinions; opinions and speculation wrapped in the guise of discussing factual news. The format is completely predictable. The news host asks a question of the “panel” and then allows one person on the panel to answer that question, often the news host sways the question in a specific direction using specific leading arguments. This question’s bias is intended to draw out that pundit’s opinion, even as stupid as that opinion may end up being. Sometimes the news host may allow several to answer the same question, but most often it’s limited to one specific pundit (often hoping to gain a specific point of view in the answer). Pundits almost never answer questions factually and simply draw on their own personal “experience” (or not) to offer their opinion and assessment of any specific situation.
You’ll also notice that news hosts never respond to the answers from the pundits. The host asks the question. The pundit answers. The host moves to a new question without even acknowledging that pundit’s answer. It’s fairly bizarre. Why ask a question if you’re not intending to respond to the answer either to agree or disagree?
News hosts also often ask questions involving speculation of what might happen in a month or two or even next year. No one possesses a crystal ball, not even the pundits! Any host that postulates such inane future looking questions should immediately be turned off as useless. Newspapers don’t have the luxury of pundits or of talking-head segments, but those single opinion writers may offer up information that’s just as inane. In fact, often these talking-head segments may use those very same print newspaper pundits by inviting them onto TV news segments. Do with this information what you will.
News sites that are moving towards a mostly opinion news format are considered far less trustworthy than news sites still featuring mainly factual news reporting when combined with limiting or eliminating their opinion shows. The more opinion shows on the air OR the more opinion pieces in print, the less amount of publishing that can be done on factual news. Newspapers might argue this aspect, but there are a limited number of people contributing to a newspaper. Those people can contribute factual news articles or they can contribute opinion pieces. Attempting to do both may not be feasible in the allotted time before the next daily paper is printed. In a 24 hour TV news format, those 24 hours have to be filled with something.
The bottom line is that bias is always derived from opinions. When news is reported accurately and timely, it tells of whatever happened exactly as it happened. When opinion gets involved, it is designed by its very nature to distort facts, some more than others. Opinion intentionally ignores some facts, disguises some facts and twists some facts into a pretzel. This is the exact opposite of factual reporting, with that exact opposite being bias.
Ratings Systems Used
There are two ratings systems involved and presented just below. Trustworthiness ratings are on a 1 to 10 scale with 1 being least trustworthy and 10 being most trustworthy. There is also a second rating system involving political and/or social engineering using an L to R bias for left or right leaning ideologies presented. The scale is from L10 to L1, C, R1 to R10, with L10 being maximum left leaning, L1 being one left of center, C being exactly center, R1 being one right of center and R10 being right most leaning. For visualization purposes, the bias chart appears as follows:
[L10 L9 L8 L7 L6 L5 L4 L3 L2 L1 C R1 R2 R3 R4 R5 R6 R7 R8 R9 R10]
Because this chart is too long to fit into the Bias cell below, the cells are filled solely with the letter+number.
Right vs Left Trustworthiness
While news media outlets can range from fully trustworthy to fully untrustworthy with any bias level, it is pretty much understood that the more right leaning a publication is, the less likely those writers are to consider facts when writing articles. The same may be somewhat true for hard left leaning outlets, but to a lesser degree and frequency.
It is unknown why hard right leaning outlets tend to be more delusional than less right leaning outlets or even hard left leaning outlets, but that’s not for this specific article to uncover. You, the reader, must simply must acknowledge that this phenomenon exists.
Bias Chart
Immediately below is the bias chart:
Media NameTrustworthinessBiasCommentAssociated Press6L1Trust is lowered because of its affiliate methodology, meaning badly penned articles can slip through its distribution network.Reuters9CCanadian owned company likely means least amount of bias over American politics.CNN3R3Now more right leaning after purchase by Discovery with Right Winger John Malone as an investor.Fox News Network1R10Disinformation CentralMSNow (formerly MSNBC)6L3.5After spinoff into MS Now, format changes are being slowly introduced.CBS News2R5After CBS bought by right winger David Elison, the network is firmly right wing.ABC News6.5R1News with a Disney bent.NBC News5R1Probably one of the most centrist on this list.Spectrum News8CSticks strictly to reporting, not opining.NewsNation4R3Tries to be centered, but fails most of the time. Reporting is lackluster.New York Times5R1New York Post3R1Washington Post1R8Owned by Right Winger Jeff Bezos.San Francisco Chronicle3R3Began as yellow journalism, may still linger on this one.L.A. Times3R3Owned by an alleged centrist, but is really more right wing than centrist.USA Today4R2Wall Street Journal1R9Owned by Hard Right Winger Rupert Murdoch.Boston Globe6L1Chicago Tribune6R1Newsday6L3Minnesota Star Tribune6L3Time4R8Fairly hard right wingNewsweek5R3More right wing than not.OAN1R10Fox News liteAxios5CRConfusedPolitico7L3Propublica7L3Criticized by right-leaning media as too left-leaning.Apple News5CRAggregatorGoogle News5CRAggregatorYahoo News4L3AggregatorFar Right Leaning
Sites like Fox News, OAN, Breitbart and NewsMax are so far right leaning, this author has only included OAN and Fox News as two far right wing examples. There’s no reason to include any other far right media in this list above when Fox News and OAN can serve as both a poster-child and placeholder for all of them. When you see either here, you can simply substitute any of the other far right media using the same level of trust and the same level of bias as Fox News or OAN.
These far right leaning media aren’t in business to offer you accurate or factual information. They’re in business to gaslight you into believing lies, untruths and falsehoods. If you choose to read any of these far right newspapers, sites or watch their TV news programs, you must do so with your eyes open. Know that what they are peddling is almost assuredly inaccurate and often downright false. Believe the far right lies at your own peril.
AllSides Media Ratings
Another chart that is mostly correct, but doesn’t factor in additional elements is the below AllSides Media Bias Chart. For example, CNN is listed as left leaning, but CNN is more right leaning these days than appears in this chart. I wouldn’t put CNN in center. Based on this chart, CNN should be in the same column with Fox Business and Just News. In fact, Fox Business should move to the far right column. CBS news is now also miscategorized. CBS news has recently shifted from its former left leaning position to a right leaning position, again in the same column with the New York Post and Just News.
Axios is a conflicted site. It’s listed as left leaning by the below infographic, but its political news area regularly and specifically pulls Trump news front and center and seemingly tries to paint it in a positive light.
MSNow has been spun off recently and it is unclear exactly where on the bias spectrum they will land. At the moment, AllSides lists them as far left. While this left leaning aspect may be true of Rachel Maddow, Lawrence O’Donnell, Nicolle Wallace and Jen Psaki, the news programs aren’t nearly as far leaning. These above hosts mentioned are opinion hosts. While MSNow is left leaning, it isn’t an L10.
Disclosures involving certain information / investors listed above
Institutional investors are designed to allow many people to all hold investments in funds that that fund company manages. Since these institutional investments aren’t held by one or two individuals alone, these funds don’t seek to sway news media outlets into covering favored, biased or politically charged topics.
The Vanguard Group is an institutional fund. This is a fund (or set of funds) managed by Vanguard and opened up to investors who choose to invest in Vanguard’s funds either through Vanguard itself or through brokerage firms like Charles Schwab or through 401k investment vehicles. Blackrock is similar to Vanguard, but some brokerage firms may be blocking Blackrock orders.
Leon Black (Apollo) is in midst of a securities fraud lawsuit alleging that Black (as an executive of Apollo Global Management, Inc.) may have been involved in concealing payments to Jeffery Epstein, which also implies that Leon Black had business ties to Epstein. This lawsuit seeks remedies for those investors in Apollo who may have suffered losses as a result.
The AP and Reuters both serve as news agencies that perform similar functions, but do it in somewhat different ways. The AP works as a conglomerate news organization, aggregating and publishing articles written by its news station members and affiliates. The AP employs many staff and journalists for the company to function. Reuters directly employs many journalists who seek out and write articles on a wide array of news topics, but Reuters does not offer an affiliate system like the AP. Both of these news agencies seek to write factual news based reporting, but not opinion pieces.
Unbiased Reporting
Are there any sites that presently offer unbiased reporting? There are a few that come close. These news outlets include Spectrum News, Local TV news stations, Reuters and any other news sites that focus strictly on reporting breaking news without including any rhetoric or opinion pieces. Sites that intentionally stay far away from opinion reporting are the closest you will find in unbiased news reporting.
Even though a site may offer unbiased reporting, their factual aspect of reporting may still suffer. Reducing or eliminating opinion and op-ed pieces from a news outlet is the first step towards eliminating unnecessary bias. However, the producers and editors must still shore up fact-checking to ensure that all news pieces have been properly fact-checked and are fully free of unnecessary opinions.
Are news aggregators like Google News and Apple News unbiased? No.
The sheer act of aggregating and curating news articles can introduce and produce bias strictly based on the types and amounts of curated articles included. For example, site curators may choose to include incredibly poorly written, highly biased opinion pieces over properly fact-checked well-written articles that are free from opinion. By a curator intentionally choosing poorly researched and badly written articles over much better written content, that biases these news aggregator sites and reduces the content trust levels. Curators must prioritize curating the best written, most trusted articles over poorly researched and badly written articles. And no, poorly written articles have no place in Journalism or as breaking news at all.
Talking-Heads: Do they help or hurt news segments?
The results are mostly negative on the use of talking-head analyst-pundit-guest segments. The vast majority of the time, these talking-head segments are a severe and worthless waste of time. The analyst-pundits offer less than worthless feedback, throw out useless drivel, regurgitate the news information multiple times over, potentially suggest useless advice and occasionally offer up outright disinformation. Ultimately, these pundit talking-head segments tend to be huge time wasters and a burden for TV news reporting segments. These segments are now essentially being used as time fillers, solely to lead into commercials. As time fillers, I supposed they work for that purpose. As for offering up relevant, useful information (the reason why they should exist), that happens maybe 10% of the time, perhaps less depending on who has been invited.
More than this, some hosts simply don’t know how to frame proper questions, often uttering incredibly pointless, insipid or stupid questions. Questions that often even a teenager could answer. The news host might as well be asking the guests the time of day or what day it is. Often, too many news hosts drone on and on, dragging out their lengthy and wordy question so long that it leaves the pundit less than a few seconds to actually answer the question. That assumes the pundit can even follow that long chaotic train of thought. If your question is required to be so wordy, then move on and ask another. Questions need to be concise and quick. Let the pundit spend the majority of the time answering. Why even invite guests on if the questions fill the majority of the time?
I do understand why pundit segments are used. It allows a news network to platform and voice what might be otherwise considered unpopular points of view and opinions. By having a guest spew this information, it takes the legal burden (or at least this is the hope) off of the network when or if disinformation is spread, misinformation is shared or defamation is traversed. Because this person is an “invited guest”, the theory is the legal responsibility falls onto the guest and off of the network. The jury is still out on this aspect. After all, the guest wouldn’t have been on the news segment speaking without that network invitation.
More than this, these news segments use the host to ask incredibly leading questions. Questions that hope to take the pundit-guest-analyst into territory that might be controversial. Often, guests refuse to bite. Instead, the answer tends to go in a completely different direction, often answering something that wasn’t even asked.
When there is a panel of 3 different talking heads together, things tend to get especially dicey, particularly when the guests are allowed to interact with one another. Being effectively a Zoom call among 4 people who don’t know one another, it can easily turn into a talking-over-one-another or even a one-guest-fighting-with-another problem. This author has seen this outcome all too often. This may be why news sites are now limiting talking heads to one at a time. This guest limiting means producers have determined that these talking-head segments are more of a burden than a help.
Still, the fundamental problem remains. How useful are these talking-head segments to imparting quality news? The short answer is, these segments absolutely are not necessary! News can be imparted without the need for these pointless superfluous pundit segments. The time is now to rethink the use of these segments and finally get rid of them. Let the news speak for itself. We don’t need pundits regurgitating the exact news we’ve already heard several times over.
Closing Statement
If you have questions about a specific media company not included, please leave a comment below. This author is willing to update this article for a limited time to add new companies that may be of interest to readers. A comment will be added when update submissions are closed. Until then, requests for updates remain open.
Media bias exists in just about every news network out there. Every journalist employed holds an opinion. It can be near impossible to extract all of that opinion from the written word. Only with careful editing and consideration of the written and spoken word can bias be removed from news reporting. The first step is to remove the useless opinion pieces from newspapers and television news programs. The second step is to accurately require fact checking and verification of sources. Only by reintroducing both steps back into news reporting can media outlets get back to reporting news accurately.
The third and final step is to reintroduce separate political segments or pages. These clearly labeled “Politics” segments or printed areas specifically confine politics to a single TV program and/or a single printed area of a newspaper. There is no need for news programs and newspapers to continuously and constantly report on politics as front page news every single waking moment. It’s time to put politics back into its own designated corner, leaving headline and front page news to news other than politics.
Linkification of Sites
This article has intentionally refrained from linking to any of the above named media sites. If you wish to visit any of them, it is on you to head to a search engine like Google or DuckDuckGo to find and visit them yourself. This article is here to provide who owns what site and to disclose their trustworthiness and bias levels. It falls on you to decide if, based on these ratings, you wish to find out more about any specific site.
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Who owns that news company?
In this age, when our mainstream news media is now polluted more than ever with misinformation, disinformation and outright lies, maybe you’re wondering who is behind these various media and news companies? You might be surprised to find that it isn’t exactly who you might expect. You might also be surprised to find these owners’ political affiliations. Let’s explore.
Preface
It is important to understand that news media corporations are never-ending targets of acquisition by the wealthy billionaires of the world. What that ultimately means for this article is that because conglomerate ownership is liquid and constantly in a state of flux, it falls upon you, the reader, to verify that what is presented here in this article is still accurate at the time you are reading it. Inevitably, one or more will have been sold… again.
What this also states is that Randocity is a Blog publisher and not a Wiki. Randocity does not revisit and/or significantly modify or alter content of articles once written and published (other than for corrections, grammar and mechanics). These articles remain a point-in-time snapshot of how these companies existed at the time of publication. This information is important and relevant for readers at the time in and around when it was written and published. However, this information may become old and outdated years after publication. Again, it falls to you, the reader, to validate that what is stated here, which was accurate at the time of publication, is still accurate at the date you read this article.
On a separate but related note, it is presently unknown why these maniacal billionaires are willing to so completely trash and destroy the reputations of their own investments in these very newspapers, websites and TV stations. It is these very businesses that have spent decades building trust and ethical journalistic reputations, all gone in the blink of an eye because of single crazed billionaire. Now, back to our regularly scheduled program.
Which mainstream media outlets presently exist?
There are a wide array and types of mainstream media outlets including cable, broadcast TV and print publications. This article will provide a large number of these mainstream media outlets, but there are well more that exist, particularly those that also exist outside of the United States. This article will focus on various mainstream news media in the United States and that primarily intend to deliver news to American audiences.
Media NameTypeDescriptionOwned ByMain InvestorsAssociated Press (AP)News AgencyNews Reporting CooperativeNonprofitMembers contribute reporting and articles to AP for distributionReutersNews AgencyNews ReportingThomson Reuters Corporation (Canadian) <= The Woodbridge CompanyThe Thomson Family (Canadian)CNNCableNews and OpinionWB DiscoveryJohn C. Malone
(Republican) – 10% ownerFox News NetworkCableN & ONews Corp <= Rupert Murdoch, Lachlan MurdochMurdoch Family (Hard Right Republicans) – 40% voting stake, 14% ownershipMS Now (formerly MSNBC)CableN & OVersant MediaBrian L. Roberts (Center leaning, but likely more R than D)CBS NewsBroadcastN & OParamount SkydanceDavid Ellison [son of Larry Ellison] (Republican)ABC NewsBroadcastN & ODisneyVanguard Group (see below)NBC NewsBroadcastN & ONBC Universal, ComcastBrian L. Roberts (Center leaning, but likely more R than D)Spectrum NewsCableNewsCharter => Liberty MediaInstitutional investors (see below)
John C. Malone (Republican) – Liberty Media – 10% StakeNewsNationCableN & ONexstar Media GroupPerry A. Sook (Republican) – 33% ownerNew York TimesPrintN & ONew York Times CompanyA.G. Sulzberger, Ochs-Sulzberger family (Democrat leaning)
Dual Class Share Structure (see below)New York PostPrintN & ONews CorpLachlan Murdoch — 33% voting power (Hard Right Republican)Washington PostPrintN & ONash Holdings, LLC (Private)Jeff Bezos presumably 100% ownership Nash Holdings (Hard Right Republican)San Francisco ChroniclePrintN & OHearst CommunicationsHearst Family (Republican)L.A. TimesPrintN & ONant Capital, LLC (Private)Patrick Soon-Shiong (Republican leaning)USA TodayPrintN & O USA Today Co, Inc (formerly Gannet)Institutional Investors (Vanguard, Blackrock, etc)Wall Street JournalPrintN & O, InvestingDow Jones & Company <= News CorpRupert Murdoch (Hard Right Republican)Boston GlobePrintN & OBoston Globe Media Partners, LLCJohn W. Henry (Democrat)Chicago TribunePrintN & OTribune Publishing <= Alden Global CapitalRandall D. Smith (Hard Right Republican), Heath Freeman (Undisclosed, possibly R)NewsdayPrintN & ONewsday MediaPatrick Dolan (Democrat leaning)Minnesota Star TribunePrintN & OBillionaire Glen TaylorGlen Taylor (Republican) — former politicianTimeMagazineN & OTime USA, LLC.Marc Benioff (Hard Right Republican turned Independent) — 100% ownerNewsweekMagazineN & OOwner / Management OwnedDev Pragad and Johnathan Davis (each holding 50%) — Presumed RepublicansOne America News Network (OAN)InternetN & OHerring NetworksRobert Herring Sr. (Hard Right Republican)AxiosInternetNCox EnterprisesCox family (Republicans)PoliticoInternetN & OAxel Springer SE (German)Friede Springer & Mathias Döpfner — 95% of sharesPropublicaInternetN & ONonprofitHerbert and Marion Sandler (Democrat)Apple News (aggregator)App BasedN & OInstitutional Investors (Blackrock, Vanguard, etc)Tim Cook (Republican) & Arthur Levinson (Democrat, but has contributed to Republicans)Google News (aggregator)InternetN & OAlphabet, Inc.Larry Page (Left Leaning) and Sergey Brin (Left Leaning) — significant voting power with Class 3 sharesYahoo News (aggregator)InternetN & OYahoo! Inc. <= Apollo Global Management (90%) and Verizon (10%).
Leon Black, Josh Harris, and Marc Rowan (Apollo)
Institutional investors own Verizon.Legend
=> Should be read, left side company owns the right side company.
<= Should be read, right side company owns the left side company.What does the Main Investors column predict?
The Main Investor column potentially predicts the bias of the publication or TV news production. When there are one or two main investors in any business, they tend to have extraordinary input in the functioning of the business at the micromanagement level. To keep these investors happy and on board, management often bends over to the whims of these investors.
What this ultimately means is that newspapers and media can be unduly influenced by such investors into writing articles with certain political slants that favor some political candidates over others and which do not allow the journalist to remain unbiased while reporting.
This micromanagement negatively influences both the trustworthiness level of the news reporting itself and of the political leaning of the news media outlet as a whole.
Additionally, investors who intentionally don’t disclose their political affiliations, either through donations or via disclosing party membership, tends to indicate that these investors are more likely to be reeds-in-the-wind. What a reed-in-the-wind means is that whichever political party is in power, these “reeds” will favor that party by blowing generally in that direction. The reason “reeds” tend to do this is because it allows them to always favor their business’s success by ceding to and feeding the party in power. While being a “reed” may seem like a good business strategy, it can easily backfire on any company when the political party in power is generally disliked by the majority of the populous.
Credibility Ratings and Bias
This next table a few paragraphs below encompasses the same media outlets listed above. The below list includes ratings and commentary of trustworthiness and bias level based on that outlet’s factual reporting versus misinformation, among other factors. This trustworthiness rating is an aggregation of the observable characteristics of various media’s publishing behaviors by Randocity, but it also factors in such ratings from sites like MediaFactsBias.com, OpenSecrets.com (showing political contributions by various owners, operators and investors of the site) and also factors in various other potential and future bias which may influence how a site’s editors operate their news products.
News outlets feature both reporting of actual and, hopefully, factual news information, but also feature opinion and speculative pieces designed to sway audiences to a particular point of view. These ratings encapsulate and aggregate both of the News and Opinion sections into one single rating of trustworthiness. Additionally, a separate news bias rating is also presented that describes how biased any news outlet is or may become in the future.
Recently, many news sites have begun mixing and conflating factual news reporting with opinion news pieces, often marrying the two together into one single segment for the sake of brevity at the cost of drastically increasing bias and simultaneously reducing trustworthiness.
Trustworthiness?
What exactly is trustworthiness for a news media outlet? Simply put, it is a media site’s ability to be believed. You read an article and you either believe what it says OR you do not, or you may land somewhere in between. In the early days of journalism, yellow journalism became important for one reason alone; it sold papers. However, yellow journalism is the practice of embellishing or even fabricating information in an attempt to make the news more sensational than it actually is. Yellow journalism is a stain on journalism and remains so to this day. Yellow journalism is considered unethical journalism. It tarnishes the reputation and trustworthiness of any newspaper, news outlet or any news organization that willfully employs such misinformation and disinformation tactics solely in an attempt at gain more readers, subscribers or followers.
If you’re into TikTok or YouTube shorts, you may recognize the equivalent as ragebait, clickbait and clout chasing.
Some newspapers gained such followings on the backs of yellow journalism papers, like the San Francisco Chronicle, owned by the Hearst Corporation. Other yellow journalism includes the grocery store tabloids like The Sun, The National Enquirer, The National Examiner, The Star and even to a certain degree, People and Us magazines. These tabloid papers, found near your local grocery checkout stand, are not included in these listings because they are not consider news organizations. These “magazines” (ahem) are essentially written almost entirely based on rumors, innuendo, including paparazzi photos of celebrities taking shopping trips along with other inane, but completely not newsworthy articles (if you can even call them articles). I liken these grocery tabloids to adult versions of comic books. When you read something in these tabloids, the trust level is so low as to be nonexistent. When you buy these tabloids, you should go into the purchase knowing that it’s essentially the same as reading a comic book.
Bias?
What exactly is bias? It’s when a writer or news host uses specific words or phrases to lead you into believing that something is true, when in fact, that information may either be only mostly true, mostly false, entirely false or entirely fabricated. In other words, a news host or news writer has a fiduciary and ethical journalistic responsibility to write and report on factual news only. However, because opinion pieces have become the norm on various news channels, opinion is always subject to bias, to the whims of the news host or news writers. Often these opinion shows tend to lead viewers towards liberal or conservative views based entirely on the host’s (and/or channel owner’s) political leanings.
Because many news stations and newspapers have begun serving up opinion as factual news, this leaves viewers and readers in a quandary. This means that what you’re now reading or watching is simply a news host’s opinion. An opinion is an opinion is an opinion! It doesn’t matter if it’s your best friend’s opinion or a random news anchor’s opinion, it doesn’t mean that information is in any way factual or accurate. Why would you want to trust an opinion coming from a random news journalist? You don’t know them personally. So, why trust them?
News stations have slowly begun dropping reporting of factual news in replacement for opinion shows. Some news stations have even begin mixing what appears to be factual news into opinion news segments. The host launches into their show discussing something that appears factual, but then dives into opinion segments. Often, only the most prominent news hosts get to air their opinions directly (Rachel Maddow, Lawrence O’Donnell, Hannity, etc).
Less prominent news hosts rely on talking-head (see talking-head section at the bottom) pundits to provide opinions; opinions and speculation wrapped in the guise of discussing factual news. The format is completely predictable. The news host asks a question of the “panel” and then allows one person on the panel to answer that question, often the news host sways the question in a specific direction using specific leading arguments. This question’s bias is intended to draw out that pundit’s opinion, even as stupid as that opinion may end up being. Sometimes the news host may allow several to answer the same question, but most often it’s limited to one specific pundit (often hoping to gain a specific point of view in the answer). Pundits almost never answer questions factually and simply draw on their own personal “experience” (or not) to offer their opinion and assessment of any specific situation.
You’ll also notice that news hosts never respond to the answers from the pundits. The host asks the question. The pundit answers. The host moves to a new question without even acknowledging that pundit’s answer. It’s fairly bizarre. Why ask a question if you’re not intending to respond to the answer either to agree or disagree?
News hosts also often ask questions involving speculation of what might happen in a month or two or even next year. No one possesses a crystal ball, not even the pundits! Any host that postulates such inane future looking questions should immediately be turned off as useless. Newspapers don’t have the luxury of pundits or of talking-head segments, but those single opinion writers may offer up information that’s just as inane. In fact, often these talking-head segments may use those very same print newspaper pundits by inviting them onto TV news segments. Do with this information what you will.
News sites that are moving towards to a mostly opinion format are considered far less trustworthy than news sites still featuring mainly factual news reporting when combined with limiting or eliminating their opinion shows. The more opinion shows on the air OR the more opinion pieces in print, the less amount of publishing that can be done on factual news. Newspapers might argue this aspect, but there are a limited number of people contributing to a newspaper. Those people can contribute factual news articles or they can contribute opinion pieces. Attempting to do both may not be feasible in the allotted time before the next daily paper is printed. In a 24 hour TV news format, those 24 hours have to be filled with something.
The bottom line is that bias is always derived from opinions. When news is reported accurately and timely, it tells of whatever happened exactly as it happened. When opinion gets involved, it is designed by its very nature to distort facts, some more than others. Opinion intentionally ignores some facts, disguises some facts and twists some facts into a pretzel. This is the exact opposite of factual reporting, with that exact opposite being bias.
Ratings Systems Used
There are two ratings systems involved and presented just below. Trustworthiness ratings are on a 1 to 10 scale with 1 being least trustworthy and 10 being most trustworthy. There is also a second rating system involving political and/or social engineering using an L to R bias for left or right leaning ideologies presented. The scale is from L10 to L1, C, R1 to R10, with L10 being maximum left leaning, L1 being one left of center, C being exactly center, R1 being one right of center and R10 being right most leaning. For visualization purposes, the bias chart appears as follows:
[L10 L9 L8 L7 L6 L5 L4 L3 L2 L1 C R1 R2 R3 R4 R5 R6 R7 R8 R9 R10]
Because this chart is too long to fit into the Bias cell below, the cells are filled solely with the letter+number.
Right vs Left Trustworthiness
While news media outlets can range from fully trustworthy to fully untrustworthy with any bias level, it is pretty much understood that the more right leaning a publication is, the less likely those writers are to consider facts when writing articles. The same may be somewhat true for hard left leaning outlets, but to a lesser degree and frequency.
It is unknown why hard right leaning outlets tend to be more delusional than less right leaning outlets or even hard left leaning outlets, but that’s not for this specific article to uncover. You, the reader, must simply must acknowledge that this phenomenon exists.
Bias Chart
Immediately below is the bias chart:
Media NameTrustworthinessBiasCommentAssociated Press6L1Trust is lowered because of its affiliate methodology, meaning badly penned articles can slip through its distribution network.Reuters9CCanadian owned company likely means least amount of bias over American politics.CNN3R3Now more right leaning after purchase by Discovery with Right Winger John Malone as an investor.Fox News Network1R10Disinformation CentralMSNow (formerly MSNBC)6L3.5After spinoff into MS Now, format changes are being slowly introduced.CBS News2R5After CBS bought by right winger David Elison, the network is firmly right wing.ABC News6.5R1News with a Disney bent.NBC News5R1Probably one of the most centrist on this list.Spectrum News8CSticks strictly to reporting, not opining.NewsNation4R3Tries to be centered, but fails most of the time. Reporting is lackluster.New York Times5R1New York Post3R1Washington Post1R8Owned by Right Winger Jeff Bezos.San Francisco Chronicle3R3Began as yellow journalism, may still linger on this one.L.A. Times3R3Owned by an alleged centrist, but is really more right wing than centrist.USA Today4R2Wall Street Journal1R9Owned by Hard Right Winger Rupert Murdoch.Boston Globe6L1Chicago Tribune6R1Newsday6L3Minnesota Star Tribune6L3Time4R8Fairly hard right wingNewsweek5R3More right wing than not.OAN1R10Fox News liteAxios5CRConfusedPolitico7L3Propublica7L3Criticized by right-leaning media as too left-leaning.Apple News5CRAggregatorGoogle News5CRAggregatorYahoo News4L3AggregatorFar Right Leaning
Sites like Fox News, OAN, Breitbart and NewsMax are so far right leaning, this author has only included OAN and Fox News as two far right wing examples. There’s no reason to include any other far right media in this list above when Fox News and OAN can serve as both a poster-child and placeholder for all of them. When you see either here, you can simply substitute any of the other far right media using the same level of trust and the same level of bias as Fox News or OAN.
These far right leaning media aren’t in business to offer you accurate or factual information. They’re in business to gaslight you into believing lies, untruths and falsehoods. If you choose to read any of these far right newspapers, sites or watch their TV news programs, you must do so with your eyes open. Know that what they are peddling is almost assuredly inaccurate and often downright false. Believe the far right lies at your own peril.
AllSides Media Ratings
Another chart that is mostly correct, but doesn’t factor in additional elements is the below AllSides Media Bias Chart. For example, CNN is listed as left leaning, but CNN is more right leaning these days than appears in this chart. I wouldn’t put CNN in center. Based on this chart, CNN should be in the same column with Fox Business and Just News. In fact, Fox Business should move to the far right column. CBS news is now also miscategorized. CBS news has recently shifted from its former left leaning position to a right leaning position, again in the same column with the New York Post and Just News.
Axios is a conflicted site. It’s listed as left leaning by the below infographic, but its political news area regularly and specifically pulls Trump news front and center and seemingly tries to paint it in a positive light.
MSNow has been spun off recently and it is unclear exactly where on the bias spectrum they will land. At the moment, AllSides lists them as far left. While this left leaning aspect may be true of Rachel Maddow, Lawrence O’Donnell, Nicolle Wallace and Jen Psaki, the news programs aren’t nearly as far leaning. These above hosts mentioned are opinion hosts. While MSNow is left leaning, it isn’t an L10.
Disclosures involving certain information / investors listed above
Institutional investors are designed to allow many people to all hold investments in funds that that fund company manages. Since these institutional investments aren’t held by one or two individuals alone, these funds don’t seek to sway news media outlets into covering favored, biased or politically charged topics.
The Vanguard Group is an institutional fund. This is a fund (or set of funds) managed by Vanguard and opened up to investors who choose to invest in Vanguard’s funds either through Vanguard itself or through brokerage firms like Charles Schwab or through 401k investment vehicles. Blackrock is similar to Vanguard, but some brokerage firms may be blocking Blackrock orders.
Leon Black (Apollo) is in midst of a securities fraud lawsuit alleging that Black (as an executive of Apollo Global Management, Inc.) may have been involved in concealing payments to Jeffery Epstein, which also implies that Leon Black had business ties to Epstein. This lawsuit seeks remedies for those investors in Apollo who may have suffered losses as a result.
The AP and Reuters both serve as news agencies that perform similar functions, but do it in somewhat different ways. The AP works as a conglomerate news organization, aggregating and publishing articles written by its news station members and affiliates. The AP employs many staff and journalists for the company to function. Reuters directly employs many journalists who seek out and write articles on a wide array of news topics, but Reuters does not offer an affiliate system like the AP. Both of these news agencies seek to write factual news based reporting, but not opinion pieces.
Unbiased Reporting
Are there any sites that presently offer unbiased reporting? There are a few that come close. These news outlets include Spectrum News, Local TV news stations, Reuters and any other news sites that focus strictly on reporting breaking news without including any rhetoric or opinion pieces. Sites that intentionally stay far away from opinion reporting are the closest you will find unbiased news reporting.
Even though a site may offer unbiased reporting, their factual aspect of reporting may still suffer. Reducing or eliminating opinion and op-ed pieces from a news outlet is the first step towards eliminating unnecessary bias. However, the producers and editors must still shore up fact-checking to ensure that all news pieces have been properly fact-checked and are fully free of unnecessary opinions.
Are news aggregators like Google News and Apple News unbiased? No.
The sheer act of aggregating and curating news articles can introduce and produce bias strictly based on the types and amounts of curated articles included. For example, site curators may choose to include incredibly poorly written, highly biased opinion pieces over properly fact-checked well-written articles that are free from opinion. By a curator intentionally choosing poorly researched and badly written articles over much better written content, that biases these news aggregator sites and reduces the content trust levels. Curators must prioritize curating the best written, most trusted articles over poorly researched and badly written articles. And no, poorly written articles have no place in Journalism or as breaking news at all.
Talking-Heads: Do they help or hurt news segments?
The results are mostly negative on the use of talking-head analyst-pundit-guest segments. The vast majority of the time, these talking-head segments are a severe and worthless waste of time. The analyst-pundits offer less than worthless feedback, throw out useless drivel, regurgitate the news information multiple times over, potentially suggest useless advice and occasionally offer up outright disinformation. Ultimately, these pundit talking-head segments tend to be huge time wasters and a burden for TV news reporting segments. These segments are now essentially being used as time fillers, solely to lead into commercials. As time fillers, I supposed they work for that purpose. As for offering up relevant, useful information (the reason why they should exist), that happens maybe 10% of the time, perhaps less depending on who has been invited.
More than this, some hosts simply don’t know how to frame proper questions, often uttering incredibly pointless, insipid or stupid questions. Questions that often even a teenager could answer. The news host might as well be asking the guests the time of day or what day it is. Often, too many news hosts drone on and on, dragging out their lengthy and wordy question so long that it leaves the pundit less than a few seconds to actually answer the question. That assumes the pundit can even follow that long chaotic train of thought. If your question is required to be so wordy, then move on and ask another. Questions need to be concise and quick. Let the pundit spend the majority of the time answering. Why even invite guests on if the questions fill the majority of the time?
I do understand why pundit segments are used. It allows a news network to platform and voice what might be otherwise considered unpopular points of view and opinions. By having a guest spew this information, it takes the legal burden (or at least this is the hope) off of the network when or if disinformation is spread, misinformation is shared or defamation is traversed. Because this person is an “invited guest”, the theory is the legal responsibility falls onto the guest and off of the network. The jury is still out on this aspect. After all, the guest wouldn’t have been on the news segment speaking without that network invitation.
More than this, these news segments use the host to ask incredibly leading questions. Questions that hope to take the pundit-guest-analyst into territory that might be controversial. Often, guests refuse to bite. Instead, the answer tends to go in a completely different direction, often answering something that wasn’t even asked.
When there is a panel of 3 different talking heads together, things tend to get especially dicey, particularly when the guests are allowed to interact with one another. Being effectively a Zoom call among 4 people who don’t know one another, it can easily turn into a talking-over-one-another or even a one-guest-fighting-with-another problem. This author has seen this outcome all too often. This may be why news sites are now limiting talking heads to one at a time. This guest limiting means producers have determined that these talking-head segments are more of a burden than a help.
Still, the fundamental problem remains. How useful are these talking-head segments to imparting quality news? The short answer is, these segments absolutely are not necessary! News can be imparted without the need for these pointless superfluous pundit segments. The time is now to rethink the use of these segments and finally get rid of them. Let the news speak for itself. We don’t need pundits regurgitating the exact news we’ve already heard several times over.
Closing Statement
If you have questions about a specific media company not included, please leave a comment below. This author is willing to update this article for a limited time to add new companies that may be of interest to readers. A comment will be added when update submissions are closed. Until then, requests for updates remain open.
Media bias exists in just about every news network out there. Every journalist employed holds an opinion. It can be near impossible to extract all of that opinion from the written word. Only with careful editing and consideration of the written and spoken word can bias be removed from news reporting. The first step is to remove the useless opinion pieces from newspapers and television news programs. The second step is to accurately require fact checking and verification of sources. Only by reintroducing both steps back into news reporting can media outlets get back to reporting news accurately.
The third and final step is to reintroduce separate political segments or pages. These clearly labeled “Politics” segments or printed areas specifically confine politics to a single TV program and/or a single printed area of a newspaper. There is no need for news programs and newspapers to continuously and constantly report on politics as front page news every single waking moment. It’s time to put politics back into its own designated corner, leaving headline and front page news to news other than politics.
Linkification of Sites
This article has intentionally refrained from linking to any of the above named media sites. If you wish to visit any of them, it is on you to head to a search engine like Google or DuckDuckGo to find and visit them yourself. This article is here to provide who owns what site and to disclose their trustworthiness and bias levels. It falls on you to decide if, based on these ratings, you wish to find out more about any specific site.
If you enjoy reading Randocity articles, please like, follow, comment and subscribe by email so you never miss an article.
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#bias #news #opinion #ratings #reporting #trust #trustworthiness
