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Slave Labor: The New, New-Media Profit Model
Why Did the Huffington Post Censor the Jewish Obama Hate Speech Video?
New York, 6:33 PM
Fri Dec 4
58 posts in the last 24 hours
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Editor-in-Chief:
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06/22/09
I am now picturing the future of internet re-bloggers/news aggregators/gossip sites as a whole lot of puppies spinning around, chasing their own tails, briefly interrupted by the odd publicist wielding a rolled up media release to be used as copy by the dizzy puppies.
06/22/09
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06/22/09
I think when we label writing and journalism (even sad 'party journalism') as useless and not labor intensive, well, that's exactly the kind of product we are eventually going to get.
You always need to pay for quality work. I don't go to a doctor who does it just for the "exposure" or the "experience" of being a physician, and I don't want to read publications staffed by people there for the free food or the guest list.
06/22/09
Dave,
I agree completely, I think honest work deserves honest pay. My point is about accuracy. Gawker doesn't pay their video interns and they're explicated told not to have editorial aspirations. So Gawker, like GofaG has a staff that is "largely unpaid." as well. Are they both running businesses based upon slave labor? It would be difficult for Gawker to exist without the help of unpaid or underpaid workers.
Gawker pays their writers, but how much, and is it enough to not be considered slave labor?
The devil is all in the details. The details, which when left out can allow you to spin a story in any direction you wish.
06/22/09
06/22/09
My original post in this thread was meant to be sarcastic. I actually think the video interns do important and difficult work. Having to sort through tons of video to find things worth posting is as valuable as actually curating posts for Gawker, in fact it is almost the same thing. Granted you don't need to have the writing skills to write a narrative around it but it is still valuable work that is, as I understand it, unpaid.
06/22/09
06/21/09
Foster, did you actually bother to interview Rachelle? I'm sure she's not very hard to reach.
06/21/09
#boomroasted
I kid, I kid.
I can confirm independently that GofaG is both largely built on free labor AND does arrange paid freelance gigs for some of their contributors on particular occasions.
Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go line up for some free bread before it's all gone.
06/21/09
Either way, though, good post!
06/21/09
...?
06/22/09
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06/22/09
Because you're making assumptions about how and why Rachelle runs her business rather than asking her yourself. Also, because you've got questions for her, which you could easily ask. Like why can't she pay her people, and if she can, why won't she?
As for getting paid, I hope they are paying you and paying you well. I enjoy your posts here, even if I wished you had contacted the subjects for a quote.
06/22/09
06/21/09
But an entrepreneur should be embarrassed to have to beg around for free work. It's like bouncing paychecks.
And a worker should be embarrassed to accept an ongoing arrangement, un-negotiated, where their work has zero value. Even more embarrassing if you're someone who's parents built a fortune, and you repay the kindness of their financing your education by continuing to live off their teat while you are a professional unpaid scenester.
But then again, we are all embarrassing!
06/21/09
06/08/09
Think for a second that these guys have been in a non-stop war for the last 60 years or more, have a decaying middle class and rising poverty. Most of their morale is based around what we here would consider racism. Plus the influx of russian jews doesn't helps, since russians are knows for their extreme views on race.
Not that arab muslims are any better: they call black africans "cochroaches" and most of them hate non-arab muslims (although not as much as they hate christians, jews and anybody else).
Problem with this behaviour is that it could eventually lead to an anti-israel sentiment in the US, therefore cutting all aid from DC, and triggering a panic attack from the Likud and other israeli conservatives.
Add almost 100 warheads to the equation and you have World War III
06/07/09
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06/07/09
Second, I myself have been suppressed whenever I have sought to break into major blogs with my own hysterical hyperbole of attention-whoring devices.
Third, just what precisely is "newsworthy" about stray assinine jerkoffs acting up after ODing on narcissism and booze? It is more common than all the cats not lost this day, and is happening somewhere in millions of dorms even as I write.
06/07/09
Is it agit-prop? Sure. Does it have a point? Yes, it does. I'm actually pretty shocked HuffPo took this stance. I mean, it was shot the night before a major speech in the region; you can't argue that it's not newsworthy, no matter how much you want to attribute the attitudes expressed to alcohol. I mean, I know it's self-selecting, but since I graduated from high school eons ago, I've never spent time with people who spew this kind of racial bile, no matter how drunk.
06/07/09
So...mostly liberal. Except for this one issue.
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06/08/09