Study Hall Digest 5/15/2017

Hi

What’s up everyone??? The Freelancing Isn’t Free act goes into law in New York today. It requires businesses to pay freelancers 30 days after an agreed-upon task is completed. 30 days seems like the short side of payment in this industry. How many people plan on using this? I’ve definitely been waiting longer than 30 days for payments for most of my work these days.

In less good news: the media seems to keep sliding into right-wing fact-less proto-fascism. Sinclair Broadcasting, which just bought Tribune Media, can now reach 70 percent of all households via its TV stations, and has done things like run stories about why Democrats are worse than Republicans because they were the party of slavery.

Final Thoughts

So like when will the media stop hiring bad people? George Will, the ultra-conservative who doesn’t believe in climate change or uh…rape…was just hired by MSNBC. And the Times continues to defend its decision to hire all-around idiot Bret Stephens, saying it wants to challenge readers’ assumptions—but like Stephens assumptions are not based in truth (this is a big way conservatives win BTW – it’s impossible to debate fantasy, especially fantasy that is incredibly appealing—i.e. don’t worry about global warming everything is fine). The Times also published certifiable conspiracy theorist Louise Mensch two months ago, and a slate of other terrible pieces. I dunno. Was it always this bad???