There was a long period where journalists writing about failing media ventures loved to imply that these collapses meant online journalism was no longer profitable. In reality, the industry had simply become overly infected by waste and mismanagement at the hands of unqualified, affluent incompetents. Smaller worker-owned outlets are now trying to reverse the trend […]
In the battle between Elon Musk and Brazil, there are no heroes — only two sides engaged in an epic display of hypocrisy and overreach. You may have heard that Brazil is threatening to ban ExTwitter from the country, possibly by tonight. This comes after Elon said that it was shutting down all operations in […]
Whew. Not a great look there, Mr. Senatorial Candidate. Wisconsin Republican Senate candidate Eric Hovde has launched a lawsuit against several Wisconsin television stations and a Democratic Party aligned PAC for running ads that he claims defamed him. The ad states that Hovde, the CEO and chairman of the board for Sunwest Bank, and his […]
Step aside Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, there’s a new contender in town for who will give us the most batshit crazy opinions regarding the internet. This week, a panel on the Third Circuit ruled that a lower court was mistaken in dismissing a case against TikTok on Section 230 grounds. But, in order to […]
For years, the cable industry has dreamed of a future where they could use your cable box to actively track your every behavior using cameras and microphones and then monetize the data. At one point way back in 2009, Comcast made it clear they were even interested in using embedded microphones and cameras to monitor the number […]
Some stories just don’t end the way you expect, and the way this one supposedly might is fairly surprising. Earlier this year, we discussed how the creator of the Superbabies comic, Scott Richold, filed for cancellation for the trademarked term “Super Hero” and several variants, all jointly owned by DC and Marvel with the USPTO. […]
Just a quick post to note an amazing (to me!) milestone. At some point last week (on Wednesday basically), this site passed over two million comments. That is since the site’s commenting feature launched in 1999. If you want the quick history: we started a newsletter 27 years ago on August 23, 1997, and it […]
The Chicago Police Department continues to give the city, its residents, and its oversight the finger. Officers just want to do what they want to do, without having to respect rules, regulations, state laws, or civil rights. Much like the NYPD, the Chicago PD got itself in Constitutional hot water by indiscriminately stopping pedestrians. Its […]
Last month, we shared the details of a really good “Dear Colleague” letter that Senator Rand Paul sent around urging other Senators not to vote for KOSA. While the letter did not work and the Senate overwhelmingly approved KOSA (only to now have it stuck in the House), Paul has now expanded upon that letter […]
The FBI has been pulled right up to the national security table for years. Having switched from regular law enforcement agency to being a major player in the counter-terrorism field has seen it avail itself of vast collections of data obtained by the NSA. While its own contributions to combating terrorism have been questionable at […]
Two bits of news came out of the letter Mark Zuckerberg sent to Rep. Jim Jordan this week (and how people responded to it), neither of which are what you’re likely to have heard about. First, Donald Trump seems to be accusing himself of rigging the 2020 election against himself. And, second, Mark Zuckerberg has […]
The FCC’s Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP), part of the 2021 infrastructure bill, provided 23+ million low-income households a $30 broadband discount every month. But the roughly 60 million Americans benefiting from the program are now facing much higher broadband bills because key Republicans — who routinely dole out billions of dollars on far dumber fare — refused to fund a $4-$7 billion […]
I’ll admit, when I’ve been able to witness some of the fuckery around the use of artificial intelligence in stupid ways, some part of me has always gotten some amusement at those being fooled. I’ve gotten to witness most of this from afar, after all. It feels a bit different when you write about a […]
The fallout came fast and hard for New College of Florida and its administrators after multiple videos were posted of books dealing mainly with sexual identity and race found filling a dumpster behind the school library. The immediate reaction from the school’s spokesperson, Nathan Marks, was nonsensical. Marks claimed two things, neither of them believable. […]
There’s been plenty of conversation over the past decade about how unprepared the mainstream media was for the shifts that have happened in politics and political discourse, especially when it comes to finding… well… the truth. As we move towards the 2024 election, the challenges of reporting and fact checking are once again in the […]
Elon sure seems to enjoy making employees humiliate themselves on his behalf. After massively overpaying for Twitter, firing most of the staff, and then making bad decision after bad decision, Elon did promise remaining employees that they would get equity in the new Twitter, now renamed X (even as its valuation kept dropping). Quite some […]
More and more politicians have decided the only way to make America great is to abandon the things that made America great in the first place. The free and open exchange of ideas is getting shut down. The First Amendment is being remade and remodeled to only protect the ideas those in power are in […]
The Ninth Circuit appeals court seems to have figured out the best way to “reform” Section 230: by pretending it doesn’t apply to some stuff that the judges there just randomly decide it doesn’t apply to anymore. At least that’s my reading of the recent ruling against YOLO Technologies. Now, let’s start by making something […]
For many many years now we’ve noted how internet-connectivity (and greed) have changed the consumer equation sometimes for the worse, resulting in people no longer truly owning the things they buy. Expensive gadgets can become less useful (or bricked completely) in an instant due to an inconveniently timed merger, company closure, greed, or just rank […]
It’s no secret that Peloton, one of the corporate darlings of the pandemic, has since been viewed as a company in serious decline. While the company has had to contend with several IP disputes, it has also been subject to cybersecurity incidents and product safety recalls due to its treadmills occasionally deciding to eat human […]
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