Gov. Ralph Northam (D-VA) acknowledges and apologizes for “clearly racist and offensive” yearbook photo of him from 1984. Oddly, the statement from the governor doesn’t say whether he’s the one in KKK garb or the one in blackface.
President Trump just gave one of his conference table press availabilities in which he said a bunch of weird stuff. One example below: he said he thinks part of the problem with the pre-Trump border barriers (a mix of walls, fences, etc.) was that they weren’t beautiful enough. Bizarre. But for all the fireworks, what seemed clear was that President Trump has realized that he’s lost the budget stand off with Nancy Pelosi and will try to create a narrative in which the defeat is actually a victory. Read More
This morning we have news that VICE is the latest digital media powerhouse to announce major layoffs: 10% of the workforce, apparently around 250 people. They of course join Buzzfeed, Huffpost (as part of Verizon), Gannett and others in recent weeks. With the digital media companies the key thing to consider is why people own media companies in the first place. Does anyone want to own these companies for longterm and consistent, if modest, profitability (or ‘synergy’ within a larger media company)? None of these companies have ever lived in that world. And none of them have those kinds of owners. Read More
Most of us have been listening for years to Ron Fournier preach the gospel of post-partisanship and bothsidesism. In fact, he was on Meet the Press Tuesday night doing just that. But it turns out he now works for a Republican PR firm and … well, it gets weirder from there. Matt Shuham has the story.
From TPM Reader AS …
I was skeptical about AF. I don’t see many ads with Prime and I just pulled the trigger on AF just to support all of you. But having been an AF member for all of 15 minutes, the enormous speed increase with AF membership (presumably because there is no linking to other sites / services with each page load) makes TPM way more of a joy to visit. Feel free to quote me on this.
Ready to join or upgrade? It’s super easy. If you’re already a Prime member, it’s just a simple button click. Click here.
Howard Schultz is no longer CEO of Starbucks. But as de facto founder (he took it over as a small coffee roaster and developed it into what we know as Starbucks) I imagine he is still a major shareholder. Really he and Starbucks are inseparable. But I don’t think he’s really considered how vulnerable the company is to a boycott or simply enduring brand damage tied to this effort. Read More
I cannot say I’ve hung on every word of ex-Starbucks CEO (and de facto founder) Howard Schultz’s 48+ hour pre-campaign. But I’ve seen most of the public statements. What’s most notable is that the main theme of his campaign so far is hostility to Democrats. And as he gets criticized by Trump critics that pattern appears to be intensifying. Read More
President Trump is the best marketing director for anti-Trump books. A short while ago, former staffer Cliff Sims was on CNN pushing his tell-all book when Trump tweet attacked him in real time. He even got a chance to respond in real time: “Nice. There it is.”
So some encouraging signs from our roll out of Prime AF (the new Ad Free version of Prime). In the first few days 2,090 readers have either joined or (in most cases) upgraded their existing Prime memberships to Prime AF. To all of you, thank you for being part of this. Subscriptions are the way an independent media organization can remain vital and alive and as little subject as possible to industry storms that have no inherent connection to its journalism or the dedication of its readers. We all see the scythes cutting through the staffs of other digital media organizations. This strategy has protected us from that fate. So if you have a moment, please join or upgrade your existing Prime account.
In late December I recommended one of my favorite recent books off my reading list – recent in this case meaning when I read them, not necessarily when they were published. That was Empires of the Word: A Language History of the World by Nicholas Oster. (You can see my review and recommendation here.) I’ve been casting about since and in the last week I’ve finally found a book on a related topic that has captured my interest: The Writing Revolution: Cuneiform to the Internet by Amalia E. Gnanadesikan. But what really prompted me to write this post was this poster I saw on Jason Kottke’s site.
