Rupert Murdoch’s media have been a key source of moral panic about the internet and technology — see, for example, this from his Times declaring that phones are “dope” that imprison us all in an epidemic of addiction causing cognitive decline: On the latest episode of This Week i … | Continue reading
It is as if the editorial department at The Washington Post woke up one morning asking, in headlines I will quote below, “What are we doing wrong?” I will start by trying to answer the question for them, The New York Times, CNN, and the rest of incumbent journalism: You have refu … | Continue reading
As Nicolle Wallace exclaimed on her show Friday, Liz Cheney and Dick Cheney, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Bernie Sanders have all gathered together around a cause. That cause is democracy and its standard bearer is Kamala Harris. This is a momentous time in the United States, unp … | Continue reading
I’ve long said that Rupert Murdoch is the single most malign influence in English-speaking democracy. He executes his strategy in small ways that add up. Here is an example: how a trope is born across Murdoch’s worldwide empire. Here is the editorial board of #MurdochJournal with … | Continue reading
A deal has just been struck in California by Assembly member Buffy Wicks that averts what could have been, in my opinion, disastrous legislation written by lobbyists to benefit primarily incumbent, investor- and hedge-fund-controlled news media in and out of the state. I am grati … | Continue reading
Margaret Sullivan — whom I greatly respect and with whom I almost always agree — wrote a Guardian column asserting that “Kamala Harris must speak to the press.” Go read it first. I disagree. That resulted in a thread on the socials I duplicate (with mended typos) here: What “pres … | Continue reading
On MSNBC this morning, I watched Elise Jordan’s focus groups from Green Bay, Wisconsin — the first after the nomination of Kamala Harris. I was honestly shocked that, after the start of this unprecedented presidential campaign by a Black and Asian-American woman, the first voices … | Continue reading
The New York Times et al wish Joe Biden would go gentle into that good night. I wish mass media would instead. Here is a post from a thread: In this defensive New Yorker reaction to Joe Biden (finally) criticizing the press that has been criticizing him, Jay Caspian Kang shares a … | Continue reading
Here are two attempts to redraw the binary political taxonomies of today: Yet he offers a balm for the nerves: “But liberals should not panic. Dismantling American or French democracy would be no simple task. The hopes of a decisive victory over nationalist populism — stirred by … | Continue reading
There is still hope that California’s perilous, protectionist legislation for news could be reformed, but not without effort. I just returned from Sacramento, where I was invited to testify (video below) in opposition to an Assembly bill by Buffy Wicks, which I analyzed in depth … | Continue reading
I’ve just started using Perplexity’s Discover news application and have to say it is impressive, compiling multiple news reports on a topic and producing a well-organized summary and explanation, giving users the opportunity to query the topic — and providing citations and links … | Continue reading
California legislators have amended a bill written by newspaper lobbyists — and made it worse. New York has enacted a law pushed by newspapers to give tax dollars to newspapers — excluding some broadcasters and the true future of news: digital and not-for-profit newsrooms. And Ca … | Continue reading
This paper in Science on “managing extreme AI risks amid rapid progress” with 25 co-authors (Harari?) is getting quick attention. The paper leans heavily toward the AI doom, warning of “an irreversible loss of human control over AI systems” that “could autonomously deploy a varie … | Continue reading
I recently wrote an extensive analysis and criticism of a proposed California link tax, offering many alternatives. A state senator just proposed his own alternative — and it is even worse. Sen. Steve Glazer’s SB1327 would tax the collection of data for advertising by large platf … | Continue reading
It gives me no satisfaction to say this — indeed it fills me with trepidation for the nation — but The Times is broken. I know some of you are thinking, “You only now realize this?” No, I’m only now saying it. I have been criticizing The Times for its willful credulity in the fac … | Continue reading
There has been much praise in human chat - Twitter - about Ted Chiang's New Yorker piece on machine chat - ChatGPT. Because New Yorker; because Ted Chiang. He makes a clever comparison between lossy compression - how JPEGs or MP3s save a good-enough artifact of a thing, with some … | Continue reading
Even with the cringes induced with a few maddening memories, I thoroughly enjoyed reading Anne Helen Petersen's history of Entertainment Weekly's life --... | Continue reading
I wrote this in preparation for joining Pete Dominick on his podcast today to talk about the need to schedule a daily show in prime time. Then the Wall... | Continue reading
https://youtu.be/l3D6aSU-mNY?t=3 I just had a delightful conversation with the voice behind Steak-umm’s Twitter, Nathan Allebach, who — from the... | Continue reading
Too many momentous decisions about the future of the internet and its regulation — as well as coverage in media — are being made on the basis of... | Continue reading
Around the world, news industry trade associations are corruptly cashing in their political capital — which they have because their members are... | Continue reading
Around the world, news industry trade associations are corruptly cashing in their political capital — which they have because their members are... | Continue reading
Around the world, news industry trade associations are corruptly cashing in their political capital — which they have because their members are... | Continue reading
In journalism, we think our job is to “get the story.” We teach the skill of “knowing what a story is.” We call ourselves “storytellers.” We believe that... | Continue reading