I got off the plane from Florida (thank God) and went to the lounge for a call and to post this. On the way out, four middle-aged, white Bruces were sitting at a table, maskless. I gestured to tell them to our it on. They laughed at me.... As loud as I could, I told them:
"MY VACCINATED, 95-YEAR-OLD FATHER JUST GOT BREAKTHROUGH COVID BECAUSE OF SHITHEADS LIKE YOU. PUT ON YOUR DAMNED MASKS." They didn't. Of course. But we must shun and shame them. Enough.
Whitelaw Reid 1912 on newspapers "loaded down w/such feculence that it should only be handled in your homes w/a pair of tongs, not because its proprietor really prefers to minister to men's baser instead of their better wants, but because he has found the one way of making money"
Reid: "Cursory & thoughtless skimming of a number of newspapers every day has w/large classes almost displaced the reading of books, & become a species of intellectual dissipation on which many fritter away their time, damage their powers of attention, & befuddle their brains."
Reid--a newspaper editor himself, of the NY Tribune--said reading too many papers led to "arrested thinking, an an intellectual state of oyster-like consciousness." He made early calls to establish journalism schools. He was, by the way, a horse's ass.
Good reporting here. I worry the Atlantic got too big; overwhelming. Having too much money can do that. This is a cautionary tale, then, about white knights' money + about the cost of acquiring & maintaining subscriptions (costs rarely discussed in sub-supported businesses).
Of course, the Atlantic has done stellar work, leading with @edyong209's phenomenal COVID reporting. I finally couldn't keep up with the magazine as a whole. Focus from financial realism might help there.
Years ago, when I was on the board of one of Nick Denton's companies, I said one of the best things he had done before the Y2K crash was raise lots of money. @nicknotned characteristically disagreed, saying too much money lets bosses try too much. He as, as usual, right.
Listening to criticism of social media on Morning Joe now, I hear media's projection: Media, like FB, depends on driving engagement (sensationalism, conflict). Media, too, as @JoeNBC accuses FB, set fires & then claim credit for putting them out. We need self-examination, too.
There's plenty to criticize at FB. But when that criticism comes from un-self-aware media guilty of similar sins, the criticism is devalued.
Joe says FB refuses regulation. In fact, FB is advertising, begging for regulation: a classic case of regulatory capture: They can afford compliance competitors can't; regulation also shifts blame to regulators. I worry its impact on freedoms for all. about.fb.com/regulations/?u…
.@mmasnick: "This is the former President of the US arguing that private companies violated HIS 1st Amendment rights by conspiring with the government HE LED AT THE TIME to deplatform him. I cannot stress how absolutely laughably stupid this is." techdirt.com/articles/20210…
Newspaper could and should have started Nextdoor. They left a huge gap into which this startup grew to $4.3b.
Neighborhood social network Nextdoor is going public axios.com/neighborhood-s…
Here's the Nextdoor deck. It is in one third of American homes. Or more properly put, one third of American homes are in it.
Years ago, I tried to broker a connection with a newspaper company & Nextdoor. It fizzled. Nextdoor didn't need the paper. s28.q4cdn.com/517578190/file…
Interesting that Nextdoor tries to portray itself as the un-social-network, just like Google keeps saying: Stop calling us a platform. We're not all the same. It's a case of social cooties.