Sign in

Keith Plocek

@keithplocek.com
173 followers 93 following 156 posts

USC Annenberg professor. Independent journalist. Huckleberry. links.keithplocek.com

PostsRepliesMedia
Keith Plocek @keithplocek.com · 08/07/2026
020
Keith Plocek @keithplocek.com · 17/06/2026
OK, Jean Paul Sartre. Sure.
Opening text of The Devil & The Good Lord
020
Keith Plocek @keithplocek.com · 08/06/2026
Mary Pickford deserves some of the blame! (From Jared Farmer’s book, Trees of Paradise)
Pickford recommended slender palms for business streets so that drivers like herself could window-shop from their seats. She seconded the chamber of commerce’s proposals for a reconstituted office of city forester and a citywide tree-planting program. The most photographed woman in the world even spoke at city hall in favor of the palmification of one of Hollywood’s thoroughfares, Sunset Boulevard.
110
Keith Plocek @keithplocek.com · 23/04/2026
excellent hed and subhed combo. just swatting away stupidity from go.
NYT headline refuting RFK Jr. claim
030
Keith Plocek @keithplocek.com · 10/03/2026
Shoutouts to @lukeoneil47.bsky.social for editing the story (and thinking along with me) and to @sonjadrimmer.bsky.social for her insights on AI and permission structures
In writing about (and railing against) artificial intelligence, the art historian Sonja Drimmer has returned again and again to the phrase “permission structure.” The phrase was popularized in the early 2010s by the Obama crew, and it referred to the rhetorical strategy of giving an opponent enough reasons to change their mind while also allowing them to save face. In Drimmer’s usage, the meaning seems to slide into giving someone an excuse to do what they already wanted to do, and I like that connotation.

If a newspaper publisher wants to lower headcount, they can now use AI to replace reporters while telling themselves they’re riding the wave of the future. No matter that the product will suffer. No matter that other humans will suffer too. If some DOGE shitheads want to hurt people just because, the “because” can be justified by AI; computer says no. This is the kind of ethical slippage that’s easy to spot in others, but I can feel it happening to me too.
172
Keith Plocek @keithplocek.com · 22/02/2026
Replacing Matthew McConaughey’s head with a Matthew McConaughey bobblehead, vol. 3
000
Keith Plocek @keithplocek.com · 20/02/2026
Should I be working on an article? Yes. Am I making RFK Jr. memes instead? Maybe.
RFK Jr.’s iconic nevernude style
121
Keith Plocek @keithplocek.com · 10/02/2026
Some personal news:
000
Keith Plocek @keithplocek.com · 04/02/2026
Replacing Matthew McConaughey’s head with a Matthew McConaughey bobblehead, vol. 2
100
Keith Plocek @keithplocek.com · 03/02/2026
Replacing Matthew McConaughey’s head with a Matthew McConaughey bobblehead, vol. 1
100
Keith Plocek @keithplocek.com · 29/01/2026
Here's a billboard I saw this morning
618478
Keith Plocek @keithplocek.com · 25/09/2025
instantly recognizable as that refinery in Carson off the 405
Carson refinery on NYT homepage
010
Keith Plocek @keithplocek.com · 19/05/2025
Just submitted grades like
010
Keith Plocek @keithplocek.com · 10/03/2025
Great anecdote from the web's early days in this @wired.com story from @tcarmody.bsky.social. www.wired.com/story/html-i...
010