Study Hall Digest 1/2/2018

Hi

OMG! It’s 2018! That’s weird! Last year was trash! Here’s hoping this year is better. Will it be??? Probably not!!! But let’s hope it is!!!! Please!!!! I at least bought a new winter jacket that is very warm!!! Stay warm out there!!! Don’t die!!!!!!!!!!

But starting off the year with some good news: Unions in the media seem to be on a sustainable upward trend. Most workers at Vox now appear to be pro-union (ahem recognize that union Vox!), and there are already unions at Thrillist, The Intercept, MTV News, Huffington Post, Vice, Gizmodo/Fusion and The Daily Beast. That union just won a cost-of-living increase for its lowest paid employees and a company credit card for work expenses. And (fingers crossed, knocking on wood), it seems like the LA Times will vote to unionize in two days (hopefully Tronc’s hilariously boilerplate propaganda won’t work).

Meanwhile, BuzzFeed is using the same union-busting tactics as other, less friendly-faced corporations: treating its employees like shit and then insisting they are well-treated by giving them meaningless tokens of gratitude like free caviar. BuzzFeed also let go of one of the only good things it produced, Another Round. I can’t tell if BuzzFeed is successfully changing its content strategy or just cutting corners until it collapses. I guess we’ll see!

More good news: A Washington D.C. jury acquitted the first six defendants in the J20 case (the government’s insane attempt to charge 200 people, including journalists, with felony rioting because of a few broken windows). But there are still over a hundred defendants with charges against them, and the government seems intent on moving forward with those cases, even though one juror told Unicorn Riot (which, btw, has been the best source of reporting throughout this whole debacle) that the government essentially has no evidence to convict people. Kinda scary that the feds are going after people in this way, but the fact that the jury saw the case as ridiculous gives me some hope!

Everyone here has read about problems at VICE, but if you haven’t read Robyn Kanner’s piece and tweet thread, it’s worth a go. The thread is also a good reminder that journalism comes in many forms, and that many stories go untold because they can only be told anonymously, not triple-verified by the NYTimes (it’s, uh, interesting, how the Times will base entire political stories on one anonymous source (that’s how we got into the Iraq war lol) but for sexual harassment stories everything needs multiple sources on record :/).

I think the national fake news story is overblown, but this is kinda scary: In Maine, an illegitimate news site slandered a local progressive politician, which was then picked up by right-wing groups in the area, and probably tipped a local election.

The Atlantic is getting a paywall. It’s a good start to putting the publication on stable footing. Next step, IMHO: fire its war-mongering senior editor.

Hey important topic but, uhhhhhhhh, why did this need to be a 360-degree video????????? (h/t to Harron Walker)

Final Thoughts

I am a writer, a person who keeps words safe.