The Chompsky Weekly #50

The golden anniversary of the newsletter! (That's how that works, right?)

Hello all, and welcome to my 50th Chompsky: Power and Pop Culture newsletter!

Whaaaaaaaaaat?! Surely this warrants a series of eye-melting gifs!

I know, I know, I’ve had ANOTHER hiatus… but turning 50 is very stressful, plus you know, the global pandemic, etc. etc. - feel free to pick any excuse, whichever you like best.

The point is, I got to the end of my 2021 media unions list! And published the results in full:

The 34 Media Teams That Unionised in 2021

I also FINALLY got round to watching last year’s Dopesick, which is phenomenal. Not only is it an excellent bit of storytelling with stellar performances, but it’s an unbelievable true story of, essentially, what’s wrong with capitalism and how that wrong happens.

I first became aware of the story when I read Patrick Radden Keefe’s investigation for The New Yorker, and ended up making a short documentary about it with my animator friend Jon, who now runs Counterstate Films:

Journalist Beth Macy, who wrote the book the series is based on, shared this picture of all of her research. I am in awe.

Beth Macy @papergirlmacy

Before I put it away, here are the ingredients that went into #Dopesick, my forthcoming book on the #opioidcrisis — notes, books, court cases, #OxyContin beach hats, portraits of grieving mothers, an outline that only an editor could love. Read. Listen. Weep. Write. Repeat.

It’s Friday 14th January, 2022.

Media News

• More than 250 medical professionals have signed an open letter to Spotify, demanding the company takes action against their most popular podcast, The Joe Rogan Experience, for creating “mass-misinformation events”. Rogan yet again promoted misinformation about vaccines in an episode featuring discredited doctor Robert Malone. (Tech Policy Press)

• Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp et al, is being sued for billions of pounds in a class action lawsuit brought by Dr Liza Lovdahl Gormsen, a competitions expert. She alleges Meta "abused its market dominance" and exploited the personal data of UK users. A similar case against Google last year failed. (BBC)

• The entire staff of BBC’s Istanbul bureau have gone on strike after negotiations concerning below-inflation pay collapsed. The BBC were offering a 20% pay rise, while official statistics put Turkey’s inflation rise in 2021 at 36%. Some independent economists put it as high as 82%. (Middle East Eye)