Study Hall Digest 8/5/2019

By Study Hall staff writer Allegra Hobbs (@allegraehobbs)

Why is writer/editor Twitter extremely lit these days? First it was the dumb controversy over writers making jokes about painful edits (because, you know, precarity-induced anxiety). Then, this past week, features editor at the Guardian Jessica Reed tweeted out this question to writers: “Have you ever deliberately put stuff in pieces that will be cut to make sure your editors are paying attention and also as a diversion to protect the stuff you actually don’t want cut?” The majority of respondents said they had never done this, but 34 said “yes,” which is not an insignificant amount!

The overwhelming consensus among writers seemed to be that such behavior was unhinged or at least manipulative, showing an unnecessarily antagonistic relationship between writer and editor, who are supposed to be partners in a collaborative process. Many expressed shock at the relatively high percentage of respondents who said “yes.” Others, meanwhile, admitted they had done at least the second part — attempting to protect material they wanted to keep — and some said they did so as a defense mechanism when working with difficult editors.

But to me, the question posed was totally incapable of soliciting an accurate reflection of writer/editor dynamics, which is why the ensuing dIsCoUrSe was such a mess. Right off the bat, it lumps two verrryyy different incentives together — making sure your editor is “paying attention” and trying to protect words you love from being cut — and then poses a “yes” or “no” question. What are the poll respondents responding to? We don’t know!

Plus, “stuff…that will be cut” is tremendously vague, which explains why some respondents interpreted it as slightly pushing the envelope on edgy but passable material and others interpreted it as making shit up or deliberately writing bad copy. Frankly, I’ve never done either and am amazed anyone has the emotional energy to make such calculations, but the former could range anywhere from “manipulative and weird” to “weird but benign” depending on the circumstances (or even “understandable” if you’re working with a bad editor!), while the latter ranges from “bad” to “extremely unethical.

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The media company formerly known as Gizmodo is under siege by incompetents. After a prolonged internal battle with new management over the acceptability of a company reporting on itself, Deadspin published a roughly 7,000-word deep-dive on what exactly is going on over at G/O. Here are the main takeaways, in case you don’t have time to read 7,000 words:

• New CEO Jim Spanfeller, formerly the longtime CEO of Forbes.com, repeatedly placed white men he’d worked with at Forbes in positions of power, with no public hiring process, often over experienced, competent women at the company.
• These buds he hired are laughably incompetent, including a sales executive who by several accounts is incapable of a good sales pitch. Another has no clear job description despite having a corner office and still writes content for Forbes.com. One was hired over a female Gizmodo employee who seemed far better suited for the role.
• Part of the problem seems to be that Spanfeller doesn’t really know what’s going on, admitting that in one case he skipped over hiring a woman because he literally didn’t understand what she did.
• According to former employees, Spanfeller is an abusive boss who is prone to screaming and intimidation.
• My personal favorite: In response to accusations of misogyny, Spanfeller stepped right into Twitter meme territory, saying, “That is absurd. I am a father of three wonderful women. Two are now successfully navigating careers in the digital advertising space. The other is still in college.” Very savvy, self-aware response, absolutely indicative of someone qualified to head a media company.

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It seems like media outlets are becoming more circumspect about how they cover both mass shootings and the alt-right — the Dallas Morning News did not put the shooter’s name on its front page, and most outlets that I saw did not share the full text of the manifesto. But something I find baffling — and this is maybe a broader complaint — is that outlets still send reporters out to talk to people on the periphery of a mass murderer’s life and then print utterly meaningless quotes. Like this story at ABC, which quotes a neighbor who sometimes saw the Dayton shooter mowing the lawn and walking his dog as saying he seemed like a “good kid.” How could a quote like this possibly serve the story? How could it do anything but paint a distorted picture?

Tom Scocca in Slate took on the problem of “polite media outlets” publishing defenses of racism under the guise of attributing those sentiments to others. These polite outlets and polite writers, like Bret Stephens, think it’s important to be aware of these views — not to be confused with their own views!! — and to give them serious consideration, despite the fact that these views are not even held by the majority of Americans. It’s a way of sneaking xenophobic, anti-immigrant sentiment into the mainstream while denying culpability.

Longread of the Week: Excerpts from Jia Tolentino’s debut essay collection “Trick Mirror” have been popping up here and there. This week, an excellent essay about barre, the “ideal woman” and the constant need to optimize is in the Guardian: “Women are genuinely trapped at the intersection of capitalism and patriarchy – two systems that, at their extremes, ensure that individual success comes at the expense of collective morality. And yet there is enormous pleasure in individual success. It can feel like license and agency to approach an ideal, to find yourself – in a good picture, on your wedding day, in a flash of identical movement – exemplifying a prototype.”

EVERYTHING ELSE

— Analysis from Voices found that two out of three summer interns in top newsrooms came from the most selective colleges in the country. Dispiriting, but not surprising! It also found that NPR paid its interns $530 a week, and that nearly all interns surveyed had to dip into savings or get help from their parents. And of course, getting financial help from parents is not an option for everyone!

— Joshua Benton at Nieman Lab took a look at print and digital subscriptions across national and local outlets and found — surprise! — national outlets like the New York Times are absolutely trouncing local outlets when it comes to digital subscriptions. This is because, essentially, national outlets have a broader reach — not many people outside Houston are looking for quality reporting on Houston, but a lot of people outside NYC read the New York Times, so digital subscriptions scale better. It’s near impossible for local news to compete, which is bad for publications and worse for communities.

— Rewire News is laying off four members of the Rewire Union, including every editorial staffer with the title of “reporter.” Since the staff announced its intention to unionize, Rewire has laid off nine union-eligible staff, according to the union, though only one manager has been laid off. To make matters worse, one of the reporters being laid off is being told she should not receive severance because she had been given six months’ notice her position was being eliminated due to an expired visa (Editor in Chief Jodi Jacobson has said this is a lie and has also claimed five reporters will remain on staff, though a glance at the site’s “staff” page shows only three staffers with the title of “reporter.”)

— The Gatehouse/Gannett merger is imminent, meaning one company will soon own more than one sixth of all daily newspapers in the country. The impact of this will likely be an increased focus on regional over local coverage which is…not good!

— Taffy Brodesser-Akner, in an interview with The Rumpus, talked about the $4/word controversy and said that although she understands it wasn’t about her, people could have been nicer and it made her feel bad. I didn’t see anyone being personally mean to her, but ok! She also had this to say about rates-sharing: “I think discussing rates is important. I don’t regret it. I don’t think anyone will ever do it again, though.”