The New York Times / Lauren Hirsch and Benjamin Mullin
Vice, a decayed digital colossus, files for bankruptcy →“A group of Vice’s lenders, including Fortress Investment Group and Soros Fund Management, is in the leading position to acquire the company out of bankruptcy. The group has submitted a bid of $225 million, which would be covered by its existing loans to the company. It would also take over “significant liabilities” from Vice after any deal closes.”
The Verge / Adi Robertson
Google’s AI pitch is a recipe for email hell →“Good writing can delight us with an intriguing turn of phrase…But Google’s onstage ideas were almost impressive in their ability to serve precisely none of writing’s core purposes. Its examples of ‘Help me write’ calcify the worst tendencies of ‘professional’ communications. They’re bland, bloated boilerplate that turns a human prompt into something that uses more words to say less.”
Press Gazette / Bron Maher
The Washington Post / Marc Fisher and Naomi Nix
Raw videos of violent incidents in Texas rekindle debate about graphic images →“Newspaper editors and television news executives have long sought to filter out pictures of explicit violence or bloody injuries that could generate complaints that such graphic imagery is offensive or dehumanizing. But such policies have historically come with exceptions, some of which have galvanized popular sentiments.”
The Wrap / Rosemary Rossi
CNN CEO Chris Licht reprimanded a reporter for making his coverage of its Trump town hall “too emotional” →“Strongly contradicting his own network’s full-throated defense of the event, [Oliver] Darcy slammed the town hall as a ‘spectacle of lies’ that, he implied, did harm to the country. ‘It’s hard to see how America was served by the spectacle of lies that aired on CNN Wednesday evening,’ Darcy said in his Reliable Sources newsletter, which was released just 15 minutes after CNN released a statement touting the event’s success.”
The Philadelphia Inquirer / Jonathan Lai
Associated Press / Sonia Pérez D.
Press Gazette / William Turvill
The Guardian / Stephen Marche
The apocalypse isn’t coming. We must resist cynicism and fear about AI →“Remember when WeWork was going to end commercial real estate? Remember when crypto was going to lead to the abolition of central banks? Remember when the metaverse was going to end meeting people in real life? Silicon Valley uses apocalypse for marketing purposes: they tell you their tech is going to end the world to show you how important they are.”
Press Gazette / Charlotte Tobitt
Fast Company / Jared Newman
Are you ready for a free flatscreen TV — with ads you can never turn off? →“Telly has designed a 55-inch 4K HDR TV with a built-in soundbar and a second screen mounted underneath. On that extra screen, users will see a mix of informational widgets and advertisements, which can’t be disabled…’We’re giving the device away for free, and the entire business model is supported by our advertising, data, and affiliate revenue streams…'”
The Washington Post / Lori Rozsa and Elahe Izadi
The New York Times / Connie Wang
Generation Connie →“What gave [the author’s mother] some comfort, though, was seeing Ms. Chung on TV. Here was a woman with a face like hers, with great taste in clothes, who wore beautiful makeup and had stylish hair, yet asked aggressive questions of powerful people, most of whom did not seem to treat Ms. Chung any differently because of her appearance.”