Media Bits and Bytes - Radio Wherefore Art Thou Edition

Media displaces voters; Deadly president; The gift that keeps on taking; Rahm's emails (and everybody's); Tech, work and organizing; Radio vs on-demand

Portside
Printer friendly  

Perfect End to Democratic Primary: Anonymous Super-Delegates Declare Winner Through Media

By Glenn Greenwald
June 7, 2016
The Intercept

Last night, Associated Press – on a day when nobody voted – surprised everyone by abruptly declaring the Democratic Party primary over and Hillary Clinton the victor.

Although the Sanders campaign rejected the validity of AP’s declaration – on the ground that the superdelegates do not vote until the convention and he intends to try to persuade them to vote for him – most major media outlets followed the projection and declared Clinton the winner.

The nomination is consecrated by a media organization, on a day when nobody voted, based on secret discussions with anonymous establishment insiders and donors whose identities the media organization – incredibly – conceals.

The New President of the Philippines Says Many Slain Journalists Deserved It

By Elahe Izadi
May 31, 2016
Washington Post

Many slain journalists in the Philippines had been corrupt and had "done something" to warrant being killed, the country's president-elect said.

"Just because you're a journalist you are not exempted from assassination if you're a son of a bitch," Rodrigo Duterte said Tuesday, Agence France-Presse reported.

The brash, tough-talking former mayor, who will be sworn in as president on June 30, was responding to a question about how he would handle the killing of journalists.
The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines condemned Duterte's "crass pronouncement" as disrespectful of journalists who have been killed.

"He has also, in effect, declared open season to silence the media, both individual journalists and the institution, on the mere perception of corruption," the organization said in a statement.
 

Your Data Is Forever

By Kaveh Waddell
June 2, 2016
The Atlantic

If you like this article, please sign up for Snapshot, Portside's daily summary.

(One summary e-mail a day, you can change anytime, and Portside is always free.)

The internet is in a constant state of flux. Websites come and go, logos are redesigned, and advertisers find new ways to track people. Even the pages that appear most set in stone—like, say, a Pulitzer-finalist series of investigative journalism—may one day disappear. “Link rot” has riddled blogs, news websites, and even the Supreme Court with dead links.

Despite this online transience, one type of data does have a deceptively long lifespan. User information—usernames, passwords, profiles, and related personal data—can endure for years, in part because it’s commercially valuable for companies to hang onto it.

And those details can survive even long after a website changes ownership or goes dark. That means that a social-network or shopping-website account you created as long as a decade ago can still come back to haunt you.
 

Judge Rejects Emanuel Assertion that Emails are Exempt from Disclosure

By Patrick M. O'Connell
May 31, 2016
Chicago Tribune

A Cook County judge ruled in favor of the Chicago Tribune on Tuesday by declaring that Mayor Rahm Emanuel's emails, texts and other communications are not exempt from disclosure simply because they are transmitted over private devices.

The judge denied Emanuel's motion to dismiss the Tribune's lawsuit, which alleges the mayor violated the state's open records laws by refusing to release private emails and text messages about city business.

The Tribune asked a judge to order the mayor's office to comply with a state Freedom of Information request and produce the documents. The lawsuit, filed in September, also seeks to have Emanuel declared in violation of the Illinois Local Records Act if he failed to preserve emails and texts he sent or received relating to city business.

In Quest To Organize Gig Economy Workers, Unions Sometimes Clash

By Sarah Kessler
May 24, 2016
Fast Company

Like many unions, the SEIU is grappling with how to best organize workers as work becomes more decentralized and independent. "Workers' ability to influence their wages has been deteriorating for the last 40 years in the U.S.," says SEIU president Mary Kay Henry. "I think what is different is that technology gives us a leg up in being able to connect people to each other and activate them."

Technology has also allowed employers to hire workforces spread throughout the country and the world; automate jobs; and dole out task-by-task contracts on hiring platforms, a strategy often referred to as the "gig economy." Some traditionally independent jobs, like house cleaning, child care, and home care, have also moved onto gig economy platforms.

Some of America's most important labor laws were created in a very different labor landscape—one in which workers gathered in the same physical locations at the same time, and were likely to work for a single employer, as an employee. Virtually all government-mandated labor protection programs are attached to this conception of a full-time job: social security, workers compensation, disability insurance, minimum wage, overtime, and break laws.
 

The End of All Things Considered

By Steve Lickteig
June 2 2016
Slate

Today, radio consumption is frictionless. You get in the car, push a button, and there it is. People listen to the radio without thinking, which is what radio stations count on.

Listening to on-demand audio takes a little more determination. You have to scroll through your podcast aggregator or subscription audio service, like Spotify or Audible, then tap a few buttons to create a playlist and wait for it to connect to whatever device you’re carrying to your car’s Bluetooth.

While listening to the radio remains easier than the alternative, it’s not very satisfying for the generation of people raised in an on-demand culture. People Keith Olbermann’s age (he’s 57) feel an obligation to consume news as it’s served. Tell a bunch of 19-year-olds that it should be up to the professionals to determine what news is most important, and they’ll laugh until their earbuds fall out.