bloggers

Politico's Most Respected Writer Leaves for Wacky Video Site

Hamilton Nolan · 12/12/11 09:12AM

Political blogger Ben Smith's career is a series of progressively wackier job moves. He was at the NY Daily News, covering state politics, and was more respected than the average tabloid writer. He moved to THE POLITICO, where he's been blogging about politics and media for the past five years, managing to stay more respected (by us!) than his micro-horse-race-obsessed paper as a whole. Now, he's off to an even weirder destination!

Bloggers Don't Count as Journalists (In Oregon)

Adrian Chen · 12/05/11 06:30PM

Oregon's shield law, which protects journalists from being forced to reveal a source, doesn't apply to independent bloggers, a court ruled. Sucks to be you, Oregon bloggers. Try printing out your blog posts and pretending to be a newspaper.

Blogger Gets Staggering $250,000 Retention Bonus

Ryan Tate · 11/21/11 03:02PM

Newspapers, magazines, TV networks and online conglomerates are laying off journalists left and right, but even the sad crumbling world of professional news delivery has a fortunate one percent. This elite group now includes Ben Parr, whose employer Mashable, the tech blog, paid him a $250,000 retention bonus only to turn around and fire him. Meet the happiest unemployed journalist in the world!

The Oversharers Win

Hamilton Nolan · 10/12/11 10:32AM

We are now living in a time in which the first generation in history that never experienced life before the internet is coming into cultural power. And it is awful.

The Right-Wing Version of 'We Are the 99 Percent': Heartbreaking

Max Read · 10/10/11 11:23PM

Did you know that if you are uninsured or jobless, you should just suck it up? That if you're overworked or underemployed, you should be thankful? Learn all that—and more!—at "We Are the 53%," the right wing's incredibly depressing response to Occupy Wall Street!

The Insane Temptations of Two Tech Bloggers

Ryan Tate · 10/03/11 08:54PM

For TechCrunch's MG Siegler, temptation came from the clubby world of venture capital. For the New York Times' Nick Bilton, the lure was in the blindingly lit studios of a TV network. The writers made different choices—one took the money, the other turned it down—but the scope of their offers alone is the sign of a world gone mad.

ConAgra Forced to Apologize for Tricking Bloggers Into Eating ConAgra Food

Hamilton Nolan · 09/07/11 08:35AM

Food conglomerate ConAgra, maker of all remaining food, hired the PR firm Ketchum for a fun promotional stunt: it would invite a bunch of food bloggers to a fancy dinner at an Italian restaurant, then reveal that they'd actually been served frozen ConAgra food-like products instead of real food. Mirth and delight would ensue! Alas, ConAgra and Ketchum should have watched the old Chris Farley skit more closely.

Larry Flynt Writes Shortest, Orneriest Essay on Online Privacy Ever

Adrian Chen · 08/16/11 03:05PM

Did you know Hustler publisher Larry Flynt has a Huffington Post column? Whereas most celebrity Huffington Post columnists say nothing in as many words as possible, Larry Flynt says nothing in as few words possible. His post today on online privacy is a strange masterpiece of brevity.

Blogger Arrested Over Threat to Joe Lieberman

Max Read · 08/09/11 07:51PM

There are a few guidelines to being a successful blogger: Update frequently. Promote your posts on social media. And don't describe Sen. Joe Lieberman as "one Jew, who we absolutely must shoot in the face (many times), ASAP."

Bloggers and Other Nerds Are Renting All the Fancy Apartments Now

Hamilton Nolan · 07/19/11 09:39AM

In the olden days before the U.S. economy devolved into a pure gold-and-canned-goods bartering system, Wall Street guys were the ones who rented all the gaudy, overpriced good apartments. Now that Wall Street's been decimated, who will the real estate industry turn to, to unload all those new condos with "Wii rooms?" Oh, they will sell these pricey spaces to "bloggers," it says here. Hahaha.

Sex Writer Says Murdoch Reporter Hacked Her Computer

Adrian Chen · 07/11/11 06:32PM

It's not just murder victims and government officials who have been hacked by Rupert Murdoch's minions. A once-pseudonymous sex writer claims a writer for the Murdoch-owned Sunday Times installed a trojan on her computer in an effort to out her.

Richard Dawkins Torn Limb From Limb—By Atheists

Remy Stern · 07/07/11 05:37PM

Biologist, philosopher, and atheist prophet Richard Dawkins really put his foot in it. The New Statesman says Dawkin's career as a public intellectual is kaput. The Atlantic Wire has him losing a flame-war against his very own fan base. In the blogosphere, the most devoted Dawkinsians—people who've spent their adult lives in adoration of his every utterance—are boycotting his books and calling him a buffoon. A classist, male chauvinistic, and potentially racist buffoon. And why?