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New York, 11:59 AM
Thu Dec 17
60 posts in the last 24 hours

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    Dsmvwl  Admin  Promote to frontpage Approve user Ban user ×
    Image of Nick Denton Nick Denton
    11/18/09

    100 best quotes from The Wire. (Oh how I still miss that show.)

    #tips #video #thewire
     Reply
    Nick Denton was starred Nick Denton was unstarred
    Image of Novaload Novaload
    10/31/09

    In reply to Nobody Loves Weepy VP Joe
    Biden was the most inscrutable choice, ever, for VP. Instead of "change" Obama brought out an old hack, who had trouble with both truth telling, even during the campaign, and with inserting his foot into his mouth. Oh, to know what kind of negotiation that was, to get him on the ticket---except, perhaps to allay terrified old white guys who feared a woman and a (half)black man on the ticket would bring on the apocalypse. #joebiden
     Reply
    Novaload was starred Novaload was unstarred
    Image of Thistledew Thistledew
    10/30/09

    In reply to Nobody Loves Weepy VP Joe
    apparently I am in the minority, but I love Joe Biden! I think he's like the lovable Steve Urkel of the White House. He comes in, says stupid stuff, knocks shit over, and is like "Did I do that?" Oh Joe. #joebiden
     Reply
    applejuice promoted this comment Thistledew was starred Thistledew was unstarred
    Image of ModestProposal ModestProposal
    10/30/09

    In reply to Nobody Loves Weepy VP Joe
    Joe Biden is everything thats wrong and fucked up with congress. This dope won his seat in the Senate when he was 29 and has never had another job until being VP. He has learned about as much about how the country works from his perch in DC as Palin learned about Russia from staring at it. He is walking proof we need term limits.

    And he doesn't drink. I don't trust people who don't drink, unless they've already been alcoholics. #joebiden
     Reply
    ModestProposal was starred ModestProposal was unstarred
    Image of Motoko Kusanagi Motoko Kusanagi
    10/30/09

    In reply to Nobody Loves Weepy VP Joe
    Why is it that I feel compelled to defend Gawker's subject matter against the editors/writers at least once a day lately?

    Either this new crop of staff writers is utterly fucked, or the editorial direction has taken a nosedive, or both.

    Is there some negative correlation between the quality of stories and the quality of AJAX/CSS? #joebiden
     Reply
    Motoko Kusanagi was starred Motoko Kusanagi was unstarred
    Image of romulus romulus
    10/30/09

    @Motoko Kusanagi: From where I'm standing, it would appear to be a positive correlation. It's a good day when I get tripped up by fewer than five unresponsive scripts, infinite waits for comments to load or what have you. #joebiden
     Reply
    Motoko Kusanagi promoted this comment romulus was starred romulus was unstarred
    Image of Motoko Kusanagi Motoko Kusanagi
    10/30/09

    @romulus: The site gets prettier, and the content gets lamer. Just callin it as I see it. #joebiden
     Reply
    Motoko Kusanagi was starred Motoko Kusanagi was unstarred
    Image of romulus romulus
    10/30/09

    @Motoko Kusanagi: Oh yeah, I didn't mean to quibble. I agree that the site gets fancier all the time, but features seem to break often. I should have added before that it could well be my OS and browser causing headaches most readers don't experience. And in all fairness, I haven't been reading long enough to judge contemporary content against the past. #joebiden
     Reply
    romulus was starred romulus was unstarred
    Image of meerkat meerkat
    10/30/09

    In reply to Nobody Loves Weepy VP Joe
    Not sure what point you're trying to make, Amrita... that you think Cheney's worldview makes some sense? That Cheney was initially popular, before everything he did brought his popularity rating to a low of 28%? I love it that Biden is willing to call a moron a moron. This is a ridiculous post. #joebiden
     Reply
    meerkat was starred meerkat was unstarred
    Image of sfBirdie sfBirdie
    10/30/09

    In reply to Nobody Loves Weepy VP Joe
    Oh, and if you're trying to poke fun at Vice Prez Biden for weeping during the debate when he spoke about his first wife and baby daughter who died, well then, that's just messed up. #joebiden
     Reply
    sfBirdie was starred sfBirdie was unstarred
    Image of Novaload Novaload
    10/31/09

    @Conchie Birdie: One might argue that it was the worst kind of political hackdom for him to bring them up expressly to show his "empathy" side and try to squeeze a tear out of his plastic-surgeryized eye slots. #joebiden
     Reply
    Novaload was starred Novaload was unstarred
    Image of sfBirdie sfBirdie
    10/30/09

    In reply to Nobody Loves Weepy VP Joe
    I'm absolutely NOT a supporter of ANYTHING Dick says... but, Good Lawwd, Biden, Bin Laden will always BE a part of the issue. I'm sorry, I guess if you had the prez saying this I could understand... but, uh, Joe? Nope.

    That being said, why are we posting crap from Fox News anyway - I thought we weren't supposed to take this stuff seriously?
    #joebiden
     Reply
    sfBirdie was starred sfBirdie was unstarred
    Image of germane germane
    07/22/09

    In reply to David Simon Still Dead-Wrong, Now Encouraging Newspapers to Commit Federal Crimes
    So, okay, you are comfortable getting your news from multiple "observers" who are not bound by any communal or professional standards of how to report and how to redact or order what they report. Can I just ask: are you also comfortable BEING one of those "observers"? Do you think that the quality of life that a career of web journalism can offer is comparable to that which print journalism offered when free informational digests weren't an option? I'm talking about a living wage, paid vacation, insurance, relative job stability. It seems to me that this concern is also motivating Simon's hostility to the internet as a substitute instead of a supplement.
     Reply
    Cynical Media Bitch promoted this comment germane was starred germane was unstarred
    Image of Motoko Kusanagi Motoko Kusanagi
    07/22/09

    In reply to David Simon Still Dead-Wrong, Now Encouraging Newspapers to Commit Federal Crimes
    "free to subscribers only"
     Reply
    Motoko Kusanagi was starred Motoko Kusanagi was unstarred
    Image of John Thompson John Thompson
    07/22/09

    In reply to David Simon Still Dead-Wrong, Now Encouraging Newspapers to Commit Federal Crimes
    While I don't think Simon's Plan to Save Newsmedia is sound, I think his greater point about the difference between blogs and journos is valid.

    I'll cite an example that's being consistently reported on by one of Gawker's many satellite sites, Valleywag. The blog Techcrunch was given leaked documents that are quite embarrassing to Twitter (http://gawker.com/5316432/techcrunch-supresses-its-best-scoops-at-twitters-request), and the response from the tech blogosphere at large to Techcrunch's publishing of the documents has been nearly unanimous in its contempt and outrage over otherwise unremarkable scoop journalism, the sort that one would think ought to be enthusiastically pursued by traditional outlets (Simon's own portrayal of newspapers doesn't seem to give the idea much credence, I have to say).

    This is the exact sort of cozy, incestuous relationship between journalists and public figures that citizen journalism was supposed to do away with. Isn't it troubling that these journalists of the not-so-distant future are running screaming from the things that journalists are supposed to be doing, the things that make the fourth estate "vital to our democracy"? Even if there was a blog niche for investigative journalism that the leaked documents would have been welcomed in, the tech blogs wouldn't have run the story on principle and thus the selective readers who might be most interested in the news would likely never be aware of it. Isn't that bothersome?
     Reply
    The Cajun Boy promoted this comment John Thompson was starred John Thompson was unstarred
    Image of John Thompson John Thompson
    07/22/09

    @John Thompson: Sorry, I found a more relevant Valleywag link that directly addresses the problem: http://gawker.com/5316975/
     Reply
    John Thompson was starred John Thompson was unstarred
    Image of Hunter Walker Hunter Walker
    07/22/09

    In reply to David Simon Still Dead-Wrong, Now Encouraging Newspapers to Commit Federal Crimes
    I don't entirely get the Simon hate on here. It's hard to get riled up about newspaper publishers setting online sub rates together when news aggregators and blogs have been doing so many questionably legal things with copyrighted content. Also, antitrust laws are intended to prevent businesses from getting too large and newspapers are essentially a failing industry.

    What Simon is proposing might be a violation of antitrust regulations, but newspapers hardly seem to be a threat to people or their competitors.
     Reply
    Hunter Walker was starred Hunter Walker was unstarred
    Image of skt.smth skt.smth
    07/22/09

    @hunterw: I honestly feel like a lot of hatred toward aggregators is unfounded, though. Of course there are egregious examples of people posting entire excerpts of news articles entirely without analysis, etc. But the old media people who rail against aggregators act like even linking to the material on their sites is some sort of copyright violation. I'm sorry, but a link, in and of itself, is exactly the same thing as saying to somebody verbally "You can find this in the New York Times! Check it out!" If they intend to turn all suggestions into copyright violations, then they'll need to get rid of their book, movie, and music reviews while they're at it.
     Reply
    skt.smth was starred skt.smth was unstarred
    Image of sloanish sloanish
    07/22/09

    In reply to David Simon Still Dead-Wrong, Now Encouraging Newspapers to Commit Federal Crimes
    God bless you Cajunboy, but you couldn't be more wrong if you were the wrongest. Newspapers have to change, but if they don't change and simply die off, we will all suffer from it. Gosh it was fun, but "free" is fucking us.
     Reply
    The Cajun Boy promoted this comment sloanish was starred sloanish was unstarred
    Image of The Cajun Boy The Cajun Boy
    07/22/09

    @sloanish: Man, I agree. Perhaps I need to go back and add that I agree with the notion that some sort of pay model needs to be introduced. Where I split with Simon is in his ongoing hostility towards the net. It's just so damned tired at this point and kind of painful to be honest with you.
     Reply
    The Cajun Boy was starred The Cajun Boy was unstarred
    Image of Hunter Walker Hunter Walker
    07/22/09

    @The Cajun Boy: I see what you mean here. I think Simon and others tend to lump good blogs that do real reporting in with the aggregators and sites that just comment on news that's already out there. Still, it's hard to fault them for it since web outlets that actually make news are so few and far between.
     Reply
    Hunter Walker was starred Hunter Walker was unstarred
    Image of sloanish sloanish
    07/22/09

    @The Cajun Boy: I hear you. He's definitely not being constructive in his campaign and if he's turning people like you off, he's probably doing just as much harm as good.

    Man, we're fucked. But I guess I already knew that from watching The Wire.
     Reply
    sloanish was starred sloanish was unstarred
    Image of skt.smth skt.smth
    07/22/09

    @sloanish: Change is fine, but if they need to break antitrust laws in order to make that change, then they're sort of fucked anyway.
     Reply
    skt.smth was starred skt.smth was unstarred
    Image of RandomLunatic RandomLunatic
    07/22/09

    In reply to David Simon Still Dead-Wrong, Now Encouraging Newspapers to Commit Federal Crimes
    David Simon needs to LET GO. He has found his thing, what he does best. He tells stories. Gripping, gritty, good stories. I'd watch just about anything with his name attached. But he's so thoroughly out of his depth when talking about this kind of thing (for the reasons you pointed out, Cajun, and more) that he comes off diminished, in my mind.

    David Simon, I don't need your punditry based on a p.o.v. that's 20 years out of date. Let go of that side of your brain, man, and just keep telling stories. Jeez.
     Reply
    RandomLunatic was starred RandomLunatic was unstarred
    Image of HarmonyArgeius HarmonyArgeius
    07/22/09

    In reply to David Simon Still Dead-Wrong, Now Encouraging Newspapers to Commit Federal Crimes
    You should include less of Simon's quote. When you include as much as you have he is much more persuasive than you.
     Reply
    skt.smth promoted this comment HarmonyArgeius was starred HarmonyArgeius was unstarred
    Image of skt.smth skt.smth
    07/22/09

    @HarmonyArgeius: Hmm ... well here's what I see in Simon's screed:

    1. Either you define "value" in a black/white way that denies the existence of the internet (and, by extension, the technological realities that must change how we think about this term), or you don't believe in "value" at all.

    2. News publications shouldn't consider any subscription plan other than one which locks away all content behind a pay gate.

    3. News publications which, by the way, have very little leverage these days, should issue ultimatums to wire service consortiums that ultimately don't need them.

    4. News publishers should put together a common legal defense fund presumably so they can sue anybody involved in aggregation, which in Simon's mind probably amounts to anybody who links to a news article in any way.

    5. News publishers should engage in flagrant violation of antitrust laws because it is the only way they can weather the storm. Since they're newspapers, and not, say, pharmaceutical companies, this should be allowed.

    6. Online news outlets don't stand a chance of ever offering good reporting any time in the near future.


    Maybe it's just me, but I don't think there's a good idea in the bunch.
     Reply
    skt.smth was starred skt.smth was unstarred
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