Media Bits and Bytes - The Times It's Not A-Changin' Edition

Times tells tales I; Times tells tales II; Cable coup in Philly; Work 2.0; Sports bubble

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No Longer Pretending to be Objective, NYT Turns 3rd Debate into “The Hillary Clinton Show”

By Ben Norton
December 20, 2015
Salon
“Hillary Clinton largely looked past her Democratic rivals in Saturday night’s debate, instead repeatedly assailing the Republican field, led by Donald J. Trump,” the Times began its article, effectively writing off Sanders and O’Malley as if they were insignificant.
“As in the first two debates, Mrs. Clinton was the focal point throughout,” the Times boldly opined, decidedly non-objectively insisting she “emerg[ed] from another debate unscathed.”
Amy Chozick, one of the co-authors of the piece, almost exclusively covers Clinton for the Times, often in a positive light. Jonathan Martin, the other co-author, devotes most of his time to covering the Republican presidential campaign.
Virtually every time Sanders is mentioned in the 2,000-word article about the debate, he is discussed in terms of Clinton, not on his own terms.


NYT Rewrites Scalia to Make Him Sound Less Racist

By Jim Naureckas
December 10, 2015
Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting
New York Times Supreme Court correspondent Adam Liptak (12/9/15) recounted a startling moment in the Court’s oral arguments over the University of Texas’ affirmative action plan:
    'In a remark that drew muted gasps in the courtroom, Justice Antonin Scalia said that minority students with inferior academic credentials may be better off at “a less advanced school, a slower-track school where they do well.”
But part of the reason that the remark drew “muted gasps,” surely, is that that’s not what Scalia said–he didn’t say minority students “with inferior academic credentials” would be better off at worse schools, he said African-Americans in general would.
 

RELEASE: Communities Across Philadelphia Praise Historic Comcast Cable Franchise

By Hannah Sassaman
December 10, 2015
Media Mobilizing Project
Today, the full City Council of the City of Philadelphia overwhelmingly passed a 15-year Comcast communications franchise with far reaching public benefits for low-income communities, and for all Comcast customers, now and into the future.  The franchise now goes for final signature to Mayor Michael Nutter.
The Comcast franchise that Council passed today is already recognized across the country as historic in its gains for low-income communities.  

Designing a New Operating System for Work

By Marina Gorbis
December 9, 2015
Medium
The battles between Uber and taxi companies and the 1099 vs. W-2 debate are just the first signs of the upheaval emerging with the rise of the on-demand economy. We are at the beginning of an historic transformation in the nature of work and structure of American jobs. A host of technologies — from automation to digital platforms for coordination of tasks, from Lyft to Gigwalk to HourlyNerd — are reinventing not just what people do to earn a living but at a much deeper level how we organize to create value.
 

The Sports Bubble Is About to Pop

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By Dave Maney
December 6, 2015
The Daily Beast
The popping and cracking noises emanating from the key support beam in our Temple of Athletics—the TV sports business—foreshadow wild disruptions ahead for the world of sports.
No amount of wishing upon a star at the Disney offices in Burbank or the ESPN offices in Bristol, Connecticut, can hold back the forces of consumer choice that the Internet has unleashed.