Media
Facebook Is About To Destroy Local News
I write this as a veteran of dozens and dozens of Facebook news feed algorithm changes over the past few years: local news publishers beware, Mark Zuckerberg and the news feed team are about to wreck your business. Today, Facebook announced that users will start to see more ...read more
DAILY BANTER EXCLUSIVE: Interview with 'Russian Roulette' co-author David Corn
I had the good fortune of talking to David Corn this week, who, with Yahoo! News's Michael Isikoff, has written what is sure to be remembered as one of the best books on the 2016 election, Russian Roulette: The Inside Story of Putin's War on America and the Election of Donald ...read more
If Sanders Runs in 2020, He Must Answer Hard Questions Concerning His Finances
Yesterday, Politico reported that Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders has made his first overture to run for President in 2020, holding a meeting with his top political advisers last week. In attendance at the meeting were Our Revolution President Nina Turner, former campaign manager ...read more
MEMBERS ONLY: The Strongman And The Conman
It's telling that this comparison to Stalin was laughed off by commentators on both the far right and far left, once again proving the usefulness of Jean-Pierre Faye's horseshoe theory that political extremists on both sides tend to resemble one another. After the comparison was ...read more
Brits Reject the Stupidity of Fox News Forcing Executives to Take it Off the Air
The first time I watched Fox News, I genuinely thought it was satire. Having moved to Los Angeles as a teenager from London, England, I had grown up watching the BBC, ITV and Channel 4 for news. While incredibly dry and often off putting, they all had serious presenters ...read more
Let's All Guess Why Trump Staffer Responsible For Finding Positive Stories Quit
The news broke yesterday that Andy Hemming resigned from the Trump administration as the White House communications team’s director of rapid response. Hemming's role in the administration was to find positive stories about Trump and distribute them as widely as possible. ...read more
BECOME A MEMBER!
Ten Twilight Zone Episodes to Watch Right Now
With neo-Nazis marching in Charlottesville and Boston, a President who grows more insane by the day, and a peninsular totalitarian state finally creating successful nuclear weapons, it’s time to have another look at possibly the most influential dramatic TV series of all time, ...read more
This is How Kellyanne Conway Lies
Over the weekend I sat down to watch 20 painful minutes of George Stephanopolous "interviewing" Kellyanne Conway about the disastrous week the president had. Conway is growing more sophisticated as the weeks go by, and has learned that blatant lying creates more trouble than ...read more
A Crash Course in Humanity
My epiphany wasn’t the baseball practice shooting in Alexandria, Virginia. Two weeks ago I had an epiphany of my own. When you have to brake that fast on the Garden State Parkway during evening rush hour, you know it's not going to be good. My Subaru Impreza missed hitting the ...read more
Cringeworthy Fox News Interview With Trump Was an Embarrassment to Journalism
For American journalists, interviewing the President of the United States is a big deal. Or at least it should be if you believe your job is to hold officials accountable. It’s a rare opportunity to sit down one on one with the leader of the most powerful country in the world. ...read more
Advertisers Are Abandoning Breitbart at a Truly Astonishing Rate
A recent report from Digiday doesn't bode well for the Alt-Right's favorite cesspool of misinformation and hate, Breitbart.com: Today, Breitbart is facing traffic declines, advertiser blacklists, campaigns for marketers to steer clear and even a petition within Amazon for it to ...read more
Anthony Weiner's Personal Life is None of Your Business
Let's be upfront: the latest Anthony Weiner Sexting scandal is none of your business. By now, everyone with eyes and ears has heard the story of the former US representative sending provocative photos of himself to another women who wasn't his wife, Huma Abedin. Yes, they were ...read more
Gawker Files For Bankruptcy, Sends a Chilling Message to Independent Publishers (UPDATE: Gawker Ending Operations)
UPDATE: In a truly shocking turn of events, Gawker will shut down next week, days after its parent company was purchased by Univision for $135m. Gawker founder Nick Denton told staff late yesterday, and it was officially announced on the site itself. For anyone remotely ...read more
Alright, Enough Already with the Damn "Chewbacca Mom"
I'm a misanthropic prick. I won't deny it. It might be a good idea for me to acknowledge that right off the bat in the hope of maybe stemming the inevitable tide of criticism in the same vein that's sure to follow what I'm about to say. And what I want to say is this: That woman ...read more
An Open Letter to the Washington Post: Please Stop Doing Clickbait
To the Editors of the Washington Post, As the founder and editor of an independent media outlet, I know just how hard it is to build a sustainable business model around content in the digital age. I know this because I have tried, failed, tried again, failed, then after a good ...read more