Make whatever you want out of this substance of this article ("Journalists + eBay Billionaire = Chaos. The Troubles at Pierre Omidyar’s First Look Media") in the Daily Beast.
I just find it hilarious that at the heart of journalism's most conspicuous and lavishly funded attempt to pry open everything, everywhere... (emphasis added):
...Even New York University journalism professor Jay Rosen—who in October ended an 11-month paid consultancy with Omidyar and First Look Media—tweeted that Cook’s departure is “bad, bad news.” (Rosen declined to comment further.)..."We obviously knew some media types would try to link John's departure to Matt's as a means of depicting us as unraveling, sinking, etc.,” a source at First Look Media emailed The Daily Beast....The Daily Beast reached out to a number of First Look Media figures—some of whom are not on staff but are independent contractors—and none would comment on the record....Cook, who didn’t respond to a message left on his cell phone, is returning to his longtime professional home at Internet entrepreneur Nick Denton’s Gawker Media, overseeing investigative projects ...Other than saying he’s “sad” at the way things turned out, the normally voluble Taibbi has consistently refused to discuss his defenestration. “I really can’t talk about it, unfortunately,” Taibbi told Huffpost Live—suggesting that he’s constrained by one of the strict non-disclosure agreements that Omidyar is said to insist upon for First Look employees (unusual for an operation ostensibly devoted to the journalistic values of openness and transparency). ...“It sounds like he’s a terrible manager,” says a knowledgeable digital media maven who spoke on condition of not being identified. ...
-- ain't nobody talking about nothin'.
I'm not mad, I'm proud of you. You took your first pinch like a man and you learn two great things in your life. Look at me, never rat on your friends and always keep your mouth shut.
-- Jimmy Conway, Goodfellas
1 comment:
One point about Gleenwal and his plan to revolutionize journalism by smacking down every rule in the business: it suffers from the same flaw as every scheme by every disruptive innovator who ever got his hands a bundle of sweet sweet billionaire cash.
The curse of the free riders.
One irresponsible bullshit artist can chisel out a great living as a parasite on a functioning system. A fleet of irresponsible bullshit artists will suck the system dry, no matter how formerly robust. As you get big, as your little empire grows, you have to grow up as well and take responsibility for your operation and the way it fits into the larger system of systems.
We all know about the oil barons and the railroad tycoons. As greedy and destructive as they were, their organizations at least delivered infrastructure of real value - not the toys and destructive geewgaws of today techno-utopians and NSA paranoiacs.
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