The Chompsky Weekly #69
Nice. (And I'm kinda bailing from the newsletter for a bit, soz.)
Hello - this week, I’ve been mostly… working at my local newspaper, The Bristol Cable!
I’m excited to be there, to learn the ropes in a new job for the first time in years, and to deliver local news in an ethical, sustainable, in-depth way.
What it does mean, however, is that freelance work is going to take a backseat, at least while I settle in.
I plan to keep The Chompsky Weekly media news roundup each week, but I expect articles/analysis to be few and far between, if at all. We’ll just have to see what happens, and how much time/mental space I end up with.
Thank you so much for continuing to support the newsletter, I hope you find it useful and interesting. If you have any feedback, this interim period would be a good time for me to reflect.
Please take a short moment to comment below on why you subscribe to Power and Pop Culture, and what you’d like to see change, and stay the same, as I take it forward.
Thanks everyone,
Eliz (Writer and Comms Lead, The Bristol Cable)
It’s Sunday 21st Aug, 2022
Media News
A group of journalists and lawyers have sued the CIA over allegations the agency spied on them when they visited Julian Assange at Ecuador's embassy in London. (Reuters)
While maintaining criticism of its existing problems, Poynter has collected stories outlining the positive effects of Australia’s News Bargaining Code, the law that requires Google and Facebook to pay newsrooms for the traffic that their links bring the platforms. The report says that the Code delivered around AUD$200m (£116m) to newsrooms in its first year. (Poynter)
Mexico’s hostile environment for journalists continues. Already in 2022, 18 journalists have been killed (13 and 14 were recorded in total for 2021 and 2020, respectively). A human rights organisation has said this year could be “the worst year in a century” for journalists’ safety. (Reuters)
Plans to collapse the BBC’s domestic and global rolling news channel into one ad-funded ‘BBC News’ channel broadcast from Washington DC has been criticised by the NUJ and top BBC presenters. Martine Croxall has urged license fee payers, who would still be able to access the channel for free, to protest the plans. (iNews)
Though Netflix plans to introduce adverts to maintain its financial dominance, it’s reported that the streamer will not place ads in kids shows and movies. (Bloomberg)
A short time after the launch of both its flagship streaming services, Warner Bros. Discovery is to merge Discovery+ and HBOMax, losing a number of lower-profile items of content but saving $3bn in the process. (Engadget)
Reliable Sources, CNN’s influential liberal news show fronted by Brian Stelter, has been cancelled. Vanity Fair’s media reporter Joe Pompeo has chronicled the rumours that its lib-lean was out of step with the politics of the company executives, which they’ve denied. (Vanity Fair)
Publishing giants Simon & Schuster and Penguin Random House are seeking to merge, something which the US Justice Department is trying to block. Their main argument is that it will make a huge dent in author royalties. (Bloomberg)
Award-winning journalist Saeed Taji Farouky was arrested and his devices confiscated at a Free Palestine rally by UK police, something he says has not happened before in 18 years of global conflict reporting. (@saeedtaji)
The New York Daily News Union has spoken out against the hedge fund that recently bought it, Alden Global Capital, saying it’s created unsustainable work conditions and driven an exodus of journalists:
Campaigns + Content
SUPPORT XR’s MEDIA CAMPAIGNERS
If you needed any more reason, check this out:
What happens when an oil company ‘benevolently’ steps in to serve a news desert? Molly Taft of Gizmodo went to find out:
Chevron Jumps Into Texas' News Desert With Stories About Puppies, Football, and Oil
And another chronicle of the ways in which local news is suffering at the hands of big business:
“How a Soviet-born developer and a West Virginia billionaire destroyed a 141-year-old Colorado newspaper”
End Times in Aspen: How to Kill a Newspaper
In the face of tightening belts and increasing competition, the streaming market has become the monster it purported to replace, says Axios media reporter Sara Fischer:
“The streaming era was supposed to give consumers more choice, but streaming options increasingly resemble the bloated cable bundles they sought to replace.”
This is cute, please enjoy it:
That’s all folks.
Love.Eliz
Congratulations on the new job! Looking forward to seeing your face more :)