These Days

Does anyone else

think that Bill Maher is a total turd and just an all round horrible public face of liberalism? I mean, he just strikes me as being unnecessarily and unjustifiably smug and self-satisfied.

I initially liked his cool demeanor and biting candor, but at this point I feel like he’s regressed into a caricature of a ‘liberal media pundit’; a self appointed representative of a vast, diverse demographic that may or may not, actually, identify with him.

Am I alone here?

Ugh.

3 months ago 18 notes

On the decline of newspapers:

britticisms:

The model of “old media” has come to an end as massive lay-offs and closings around the United States are now regular operating practices for traditional media outlets. The largest number of these lay-offs occur at newspapers and the most prominent rhetoric being reported by such news outlets about the decline of their industry is the prevalence of the digital market as a means of usurping profit margins.

However, when taking into account the fall of the newspaper, it is important to not only account for the rise of online platforms for news distribution, but also the decline in accessibility, responsibility, and accountability within the pages of the old newspaper and the business owners who run them. Working at one of the largest newspapers in the country has shown me that, as the value of the content within the newspaper has decreased, the value of the newspaper itself has decreased correspondingly with its audience. Media corporations’ lax practices regarding the type of content produced for the newspaper and the means in which they provided a profit for their reportage (a reliance on classifieds and especially advertisements from other businesses) coupled with the prominence of the internet as an information aggregator, has harmed the original democratic purpose of the newspaper and is directly responsible for the decline of newspapers nationally. Unfortunately, most members of the media are at a loss as to how to rectify this situation and the fate of the newspaper remains dire.

Clearly, the old model is not working and yet the corporations currently running the biggest newspapers in the country are barely making any significant changes to address the issues. Most of their energy is spent firing the one factor that makes journalism work: the journalists. This obviously does not affect relieve their woes and it makes no sense, especially at a place like the Tribune where the company is still making a profit.

As a young person trying to somewhat make it in the industry, I feel frustrated. As a reader, I feel disappointed and angry.

I was JUST saying this very thing last night, albeit less eloquently.

5 months ago 9 notes

Newspapers are an important part of our lives, not to read, of course, but, when you’re moving you can’t wrap your dishes in a blog.

–

Stephen Colbert

andeventhis : 12minds : glynnis : A Photo Editor

(via jjae)

6 months ago 30 notes

isay:

yankeegirl:

Winona Ryder Shoplifts Robert Pattinson’s Haircut

Winona gets sexier as she gets older.

She really can’t act her way out of a wet paper bag, poor thing, but MY GOD isn’t she GORG!? Lookit the geometry of that face!

6 months ago 5 notes

Bloodcopy

Has anyone even TRIED to read ‘Bloodcopy’ Gawker’s new acquisition? It is satire right? Bad, poorly executed, unfunny satire, but still, satire right? I mean, people don’t actually think they’re vampires right? Can anyone tell me what in the FUCK possessed (HAH!) Gawker to do this? Oh nevermind, I just remembered the moronic/offensive Cajun Boy posts. Clearly zombie robots are now running that place.

edit: I guess I’m a square. It’s some kind of shiteous attempt at a viral marketing campaign for TruBlood. I’d feel like an idiot if the whole thing wasn’t so fucking LAME.

6 months ago 1 note

Gawker - Meet Michaelle Jean, the Sarah Palin of Canada - Michaëlle Jean

alohanico:

First, no she’s not, not even close, and second, I’ve never really understood the issue with the seal hunt.

Yes, seals are kinda cute, but if you’ve eaten any other kind of meat, ever, you can’t really get all judgey pants over an activity that’s carried out by our indigenous people.

What was she supposed to do, upturn her nose and icily state that it’s gross? Please.

HAH! Isn’t Cajun Boy the one who just wrote a vile and violent rape scenario and compared it to screenwriting? What a fuck hole this one is. Good job Gawker!

6 months ago 3 notes

alohanico:

Still one of the best.

(via forceofjuggernaut & randygrskovic)

i need my own ceeb shirt. In these exact colors.

7 months ago 9 notes

delicraig:

matthewb:

Gorgeous cover for Uppercase, a magazine for the creative and curious. First issue is out in April. (via Johno Boardley)

9 months ago 64 notes

Defamer waves buhbye....

Is it just me or is the Denton media crumble (doesn’t that phrase just beg it’s own dance) pretty much a definitive handbook on how NOT to run an online media company? This dude. He had the blogging world by the balls back in the day and while I realize the economy has tanked for everyone…what the hell man? This gradual decomposition (which we’ve been led to believe is intentional) has been ongoing for a while now, ostensibly even before said crisis. What was he DOING with all the ad revenue before? Does the man have a separate room devoted to ceramic Dalmatians? By all accounts the actual writers/editors weren’t seeing any of the money…so WHERE DID IT GO?

An equally valid point is: Does he even care? Does he sit around in the ‘Dalmation Room’ and cackle whilst rubbing his hands over his giant pile of money, while the writers whose backs he rode sit Bob Cratchit style by lamplight in their overpriced Brooklyn rooms feasting on stale bread?

At this point he’s managed to turn a family of at least 8 separate niche-based, relatively highly regarded (and trafficked), well written blogs into what amounts to little more than ONE hoity-toity, elitist, self important Perez Hilton. Ronn (sic) Torrosian=Paris Hilton, no? Oh and Jezebel.

I don’t know, maybe I’m up my ass, but I’ve been watching this slowly slide into the ocean for a while and it just seems like those sites had so much potential and that the whole thing was just so ill-managed.

Whatever. Ignore me. I’ve probably A) spent too much time on the internet 2) had too much wine and 3) think I’m far more clever than I actually am. Probably a combination, really.

9 months ago 2 notes

Can I just get something off my chest here?

-Gate.

it is meaningless when used in an attempt to label something a scandal and here’s why: Watergate is not a compound word. It is a proper name of a Hotel in D.C. It was called the Watergate scandal because said scandal happened AT THE HOTEL. Which hotel? That’s right, The WATERGATE hotel. It did not happen in the water. It did not happen in the pool. It did not happen on a boat.

You cannot just chop off the end of a proper name and tack it onto a word of your choosing to indicate scandalous behavior i.e.: Nipplegate, Octogate, Bonggate, whatevergate.

It doesn’t freaking work that way and I want every supposedly legitimate news agency that keeps repeating these stupid stupid words, to stop using such idiotic descriptors right effing now. Do it, if not because of what I’ve just mentioned, then because linguistically drawing a comparison between Janet Jackson’s nipple popping out of her top and the biggest political scandal in American history is fucking RETARDED. OK?

Thankyou.

9 months ago 19 notes