The Chompsky Weekly #26
I've interviewed Gary Younge, now I can die happy! Jokes, I will never die.
Hello!
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This week I interviewed award-winning journalist and activist Gary Younge for the ‘Praxis Makes Perfect’ series. He spoke on his work at the Guardian, the personal ramifications of “not trashing Corbyn”, and the wider UK journalism landscape. Importantly, he also assured me that energy put into activism is never wasted:
READ: Praxis Makes Perfect: Gary Younge
Combining two of my favourite things - the media industry and workers’ rights - the Daily Beast Union announced a huge win last week: for more than a year, beginning before the pandemic and through May 2021, it has negotiated and won a historic contract for its staff. The outcomes they’ve achieved are quite stunning:
READ: The Daily Beast Union Just Won a Game-Changing Contract (For All Media Unions)
It’s Friday May 28th, 2021
Media News
It’s been an intense week for Amazon: officials in Washington D.C. began the process of suing the company on Tuesday. The primary accusation is the company artificially raises prices on products around the web by abusing its monopoly power. The next day, it was announced they are paying a premium for film studio MGM, apparently to boost the prospects of the Prime Video platform, and Bezos MC’d his final shareholder meeting. Investors voted down eleven proposals concerning whether the company should “take action on issues including climate change, labor conditions, use of facial recognition technology and racial and gender disparities in the workforce.” (NYT/BBC/CNBC)
Amazon’s advertising unit continues to undergo major growth, as competitors such as Apple make it easier for users to block ads and tracking. Amazon’s revenue from ads is now “2.4 times as large as Snap, Roku, Twitter and Pinterest combined” and growing 1.7 times as quickly. (CNBC)
The Chair position at Ofcom remains open after all applicants were rejected by the board, including former Daily Mail editor Paul Dacre who the Prime Minister had made clear was his favourite. (The Guardian/Chompsky)
Owner of the MailOnline, Associated Newspapers, has paid substantial damages and publicly apologised to a French actor for revealing her identity in an assault case against director Luc Besson. The actor said “To this day, many people still believe that I chose to go public myself. I am pleased that MailOnline has apologised, that this distressing matter has now been brought to a successful conclusion, and that the record has been set straight.” (The Guardian)
The EU is opening a formal antitrust inquiry into Facebook. It’s seeking to understand whether, by promoting its Marketplace services for free to its 2 billion users, it is engaged in anti-competitive practices. The Financial Times says that “EU officials have already sent at least three rounds of questions to Facebook and its rivals.” (Financial Post)
Facebook in Canada has followed the Australian example of striking deals with publishers for news stories on its platform. But experts say the move is an attempt to divert attention from forthcoming regulation efforts in the country regarding misinformation, privacy concerns, and “non-cooperation with authorities”. (Yahoo Finance)
Hedge fund Alden Global Capital is in the process of completing its acquisition of Tribune Publishing, one of the US’ major daily newspaper publishers, for $633 million. Two days after the announcement they offered all newsroom employees a buyout. (Chicago Tribune)
The UK’s largest news publisher Reach has performed a U-turn on its decision not to pay back employees who took pay cuts at the start of the pandemic. They had originally said they were “not considering it“, but have now agreed to pay back £4m. The board and executive committee will not be reimbursed for their temporary pay reductions. Staff have been told there will be other spending cuts within the company as a result, but that no salaries would fall below the living wage. (Press Gazette)
The BBC will conduct a formal review of its editorial practices and an investigation into how journalist Martin Bashir was rehired. Following the Dyson Report, which found the BBC covered up "deceitful behaviour" on Bashir’s part to secure the famous Diana interview, the BBC board has “accepted the findings in full and reiterated its apology”. In the House of Commons, culture minister John Whittingdale said the BBC had "damaged its reputation" internationally. (BBC)
Axios Local is projected to bring in “up to $5 million” by the end of 2021. The programme is building on the success of its initial launch by expanding into 8 new cities, including Atlanta, Chicago, and Austin, and has gained 350k subscribers in 4 months. (AdWeek)
Vimeo Inc. has gone public, but saw its share price drop almost 13% on its first day of trading. It still has a market cap of $8.5 billion. (Variety)
Tennis seed No 2. Naomi Osaka has refused to partake in “mandatory” media assignments at the French Open, saying it’s detrimental to players’ mental health. A statement on her social media said “I’ve often felt that people have no regard for athletes’ mental health and this rings true whenever I see a press conference or partake in one. We are often sat there and asked questions that we’ve been asked multiple times before or asked questions that bring doubt into our minds and I’m just not going to subject myself to people that doubt me.” (The Guardian)
Google has rolled out its new ‘Google News Showcase’ for desktop. (Google)
Campaigns + Content
Alex Danco has developed this handy guide to explain that “The higher you ascend the ladder of the Educated Gentry class, the more you become Michael Scott.” | The Michael Scott Theory of Social Class
Documentary makers: read this thread! 👇👇👇
You can contribute ideas to the Peace and Justice Project’s ‘Pandemic Solidarity’ campaign, to offer “practical solidarity to communities hit by the triple whammy of austerity, coronavirus, and the new recession.” | Pandemic Solidarity - Contribute Your Ideas Now
Raising Films, a nonprofit dedicated to supporting parents and carers in the screen industries, is running the ‘How We Work Now’ survey, which “offers you the opportunity to outline how COVID-19 has affected your work, and in turn to inform and influence what we hope will be lasting change in our industry.” | How We Work Now - Take The Survey
The BFI has released a new set of principles and guidance, developed with organisations across the screen industries, in response to urgent and systemic issues of bullying and harassment | Bullying, harassment and racism prevention for the screen industries
The journalists who broke the Noel Clarke harassment story ask: | After Noel Clarke can the UK film and TV industry bring an end to on-set bullying?
This New Yorker long read about the ‘collapse of the neoliberal order’ gives an overview of the generation of young activists “trying to insure that it’s replaced by progressive populism, not by the fascist right” | Are We Entering a New Political Era?
Press Gazette has done an investigation into website tracking software, finding that “news websites have, on average, 17 third party reader tracking tools – and Google trackers are on nearly all of them” | Reading news is not private: How news media websites help Big Tech to track you
“More than a year after the global pandemic became official, local journalism still grapples with the fallout — not only from the coronavirus but also by an intense nationwide racial reckoning, regional disasters including fires and storms, and ever-present gun violence and mass shootings. […] More than 65 news organisations have closed permanently” | How local news organizations are taking steps to recover from a year of trauma
I loved watching this strange and lovely intertextual feed from Dom Whiting: drum and bass, livestreamed, from a bike. Very dangerous, fun to watch.
Jobs + Opportunities
Entry-level
Underrepresented screenwriters! Netflix and Sky have teamed up to offer up to six successful applicants the opportunity for a year-long programme of professional development. They’re offering a considerable bursary for a spec script, and a paid placement in a writers room. (Remote, £22,568)
One of my favourite publishers, Verso Books, has a Marketing and Publicity Internship going! (London, living wage)
QI is looking for a full-time Research Intern. (London, £450/week)
SeeSaw, producers of Widows, Lion, and The King’s Speech, have an internship going for a Production Trainee. (London, living wage)
Seymourpowell, the creative agency, has a Creative Internship for twelve months. (London, living wage)
We Are Social has an entry-level position for a Writer for social platforms.
Creative agency Four Communications is looking for a Filmmaker to contribute to the full production process across their creative client work. (Remote/London)
Viking, an imprint of Penguin RandomHouse, has a position open for an Editorial Assistant. (London, £24k)
ITV has a talent pool open for 3rd ADs and Location Runners for Emmerdale. (Leeds)
Established
The FT is hiring a Graphics Journalist and a Visual Storytelling Reporter. (London)
Lifted Entertainment wants an experienced Production Runner in (London, £475/week) and a Runner in (Bournemouth/Poole - ‘competitive’)
Reach has a local Content Editor position open in Dorset. (Dorset)
Charity OKRE seeks a Head of Communications. (Remote, £50k)
Theatre company Charcoalblue is looking for a Training and Development Co-ordinator. (Remote, £30-40k)
Manchester International Festival seeks a Senior Learning Manager. (Manchester, £36-39k)
Will someone PLEASE take this Pop Culture Editor job at Newsweek? It’s been listed for months. (London)
Aardman is looking for 2D Matte Painter & Background Artists to become part of their first fully in-house CG/mixed medium series Lloyd of the Flies. (Remote/Bristol)
Wanna work with Phil and Holly? Production Manager at This Morning is up for grabs. (London)
Weird/Cool Job of the Week: Puzzles Sub Editor at Bauer publications. (London/Remote)
