Study Hall Digest 5/22/2017

Hi

It’s grim and raining outside this well-designed coffee shop in Philadelphia where the barista is playing ambient music too loudly. The thought of Roger Ailes—a truly terrible human being who nearly single-handedly gave us the media and politics shitstorm we’re living in today—rotting in hell gives me some solace as I try to find motivation to write.

The personal essay boom is over. I think it’s mostly a good thing. There were way too many personal essays, most of which functioned like cat gifs: making the internet seem warmer and more inviting than it actually is while providing us no real warmth or substance. So many queer kids and women I know felt the only way they could make it in the writing world was to exploit their insecurities and most intimate thoughts for a largely straight and cis and male audience. It felt really icky. Still, it’s not good news for those who relied on that kind of writing to make $$. How is it affecting you?

The Washington Post is doing really well. Its digital revenue is over $100 million. WaPo, to me, looks like it’s going the direction news organizations should be—experimenting, funding weird stuff, and seeing what works. That’s in contrast to a place like the Times which has doubled-down on its stodginess.

A new study out of Harvard shows that the media almost universally despises Trump. Conservatives have taken that as a sign that the media should nicen up. But I think it should do the opposite. Imagine if the media hated Obama as much as they do Trump. Imagine if we were as skeptical of every politician. I feel like that would be more useful than the usual almond-counting fawning we usually do when liberals are in charge.

Final Thoughts

What’s your career path like these days? It used to be you could get a job at an alt-weekly somewhere, get scouted by somewhere bigger, and eventually make six-figures. That seems pretty impossible these days, so how are people planning their futures? I’ve just kind of been thinking I’ll be relatively broke forever. Is there another vision I’m missing???