This is one of history's great with-little-more-thans pic.twitter.com/m5w19X4Cvx http://t.co/EOM7QUfYel (via @BigMeanInternet)
— Tom Gara (@tomgara) September 11, 2014
Where are the godsdamned tumbrils?
From the NYObserver article:
PolicyMic had over 1 million uniques a month by July 2012, according to internal company metrics. As successful as the model was in bringing in content and readers—particularly young 20-somethings who were used to discussing political issues on Facebook rather than reading The New York Times—it did not ensure quality, a gap that was highlighted when PolicyMic invited contributors to apply for writing fellowships and realized that none had the chops to make it as writers.
Without a consistent voice and with big-name media including BuzzFeed and Gawker ramping up their own contributor models, PolicyMic struggled to gain traction as a brand. By 2013, the founders decided to pivot away from the contributor model and hire writers to report and repackage news of interest to millennials, a lucrative demographic that has become the brand’s defining characteristic.
“Our value proposition is we understand smart millennials, we can help reach them on a deeper level,” he told the Observer over watermelon lemonade coolers at a Le Pain Quotidien near the former Mic offices (they left Midtown for hipper Hudson Street last month). In multiple conversations, the Mic team was quick to cite the spending powers of the 80 million millennials, half of whom are college-educated and most of whom are addicted to smartphones.
In March, the start-up raised $10 million in a Series A round of funding, led by Netscape’s Jim Clark. Venture capital firms like Lightspeed Ventures, Lerer Ventures, Advancit Capital, Red Swan, the Knight Foundation and Digital News Ventures again invested, bringing the total funding to $15 million since launch.
Following the most recent cash infusion, the company dropped the ‘Policy’ from its name. Rebranded the snappier Mic, the site got a bold, approachable new look along with verticals such as sports, culture and gender identity…
“While I don’t buy a lot of arguments made about millennials vis-a-vis our purported apathy, entitlement, and so on, it’s common sense that we know a different set of facts about the world than our parents do,” Identities section founding editor Samantha Meier, Harvard ’12, said in an email (she left in December for The Public Goods Project). “We’ve only been alive for so long.”…
Why does the NYObserver find these people so meaningful, and also charming? Here is the publisher’s Wikipedia entry:
Jared Corey Kushner (born January 10, 1981) is an American businessman and investor. He is the principal owner of Kushner Properties, his family’s real estate holding and development company, and The New York Observer, a newspaper publishing company which he purchased in 2005. He is the son of American real estate magnate Charles Kushner and is married to Ivanka Trump, the daughter of American business magnate Donald Trump…
At least the robber barons of the original Gilded Age left behind some pretty mansions. This crew, not so much.
beltane
The robber barons at least built actual industries although usually with the blood and broken bodies of their workers. This new batch of plutocrats acquire their wealth through nothing more than vapor and theft. They remind me of fungi growing on a decomposing log.
Melissa
@beltane: I have no respect for the plutocrats, but miss the libraries and art galleries and schools (Stanford, Rice, Cooper Union, Carnegie Mellon, etc.) financed by Gilded Aged.
srv
It just leaves me breathless.
Old age is realizing that all those bad guys in comics you thought were chariactures were actually not.
James E Powell
I have to say no to the tumbrils because I oppose capital punishment. I’d prefer Mao-style re-education camps. I want to see the 1% – especially the 0.1% – cleaning the streets, scraping the gum off the floor of bus stations throughout the land, etc.
Scamp Dog
Good lord, is that guy wearing a monacle? Is he a member if the Col. Klink fan club?
JordanRules
@Melissa: Yes!! That is a particular pain point for me too amid the general fuckery and evolution of empire evilness.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Who isn’t?
Adam Lang
HahahahaHAHAHAhahahahaHAhaha oh my god my sides. No, seriously, this got a good thirty seconds of outright laughter out of me.
My grandfather, as much of a bastard as he was (and may he rest in piece), came from a family of subsistence farmers, and rose to become the CEO of a troubled company, which over his 30-year career he steered into being a Fortune 500 company. These sorts of stories would have him rolling over in his grave.
A Humble Lurker
Rachel’s driving me nuts tonight, man.
srv
@Scamp Dog: No, it’s a hipper google glass – Monoculus.
Mandalay
When did “uniques” become a word?
Well I’m just guessing here, but it may be highly relevant that the author’s name is Kara Bloomgarden-Smoke.
MattR
Watching a replay of the Colbert Report on a bit of a delay and just saw a commercial for Koch Industries. I thought it was interesting that they feel the brand has been damaged enough recently that they need to run a feel good advertising campaign about the all-Americanness of their subsidiaries and I thought it was hilarious that they were airing the spot during the Colbert Report. I don’t think they are going to influence anyone in that audience.
Mike E
@MattR: Mere pocket change for them, and the spot seems to blend with that execrable “we believe in _____ because we’re Republican” ads, so, win/win.
Did you catch the Nova on vaccination? It did such a fine job quieting the antivaxxer argument that I had to wait for the sponsor credits to see if D. Koch hadn’t funded it (yep, he did). I usually can’t stomach the show knowing it’s affiliation with that asshole, but I was glad I watched this one.
Bobby B.
“At least the robber barons of the original Gilded Age left behind some pretty mansions.”
Unlike the ancient pharoahs, the one percenters have found a secret way to take it with them.
Elizabelle
Insomniac. Catching MSNBC’s rebroadcast of their 9/11/2001 Today show broadcast.
Alway impressed at how cool and composed Katie Couric stayed throughout; how careful NBC was to report what they’d confirmed and how they emphasized what they’d not yet confirmed. Very professional reporting in the early hours.
About an hour in, NBC brought in big gun Tom Brokaw, who began beating the drums for a military response and intoning the America under attack from terrorists, over and over.
Brokaw’s the most excitable and talking about a major terrorist attack against the strongest country in the world; emphasizing the attack on the nation’s financial center.
Looking at it from 2014, Brokaw sounds like Fox News sitting amidst more soothing (and more professional) morning anchors.
“It goes without saying this is the most serious attack in over 100 years …” Yes, it’s Brokaw. The others are still news-gathering.
Elizabelle
@Mike E:
Yeah, the vaccination NOVA was very well done.
NYTimes op ed today by Michael T. Osterholm (director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota) on Ebola.
What We’re Afraid to Say about Ebola.
Namely, what happens when/if it reaches a major (3rd world) city (in this telling), and what if it mutates to respiratory transmission?
Tragic to think how destabilizing ebola is in Liberia, which has been through so much already.
Watching President Obama, I think he realizes ebola is the bigger existential threat at the moment. Much more serious than ISIL.
They do not have a handle on this, and Liberia is down to 250 doctors for a population of 4 million.
Osterholm suggests the UN take the lead in coordinating the response, and that more resources are needed.
Chris
@beltane:
This.
At least developing railroads, oil, steel, etc is USEFUL. Fuck, even the cotton plantations of the original 1% produced SOMETHING, however horrifically.
What did Bain Capital produce? Today’s 1% increasingly build their fortunes on destruction – of the businesses they abandon in golden parachutes, of local economies, of entire economic sectors.
They’re not robber barons. They’re Auric Goldfinger without the scenery chewing awesomeness.
NotMax
tumbrels
Not a solution. Look at the post-Revolution history of France.
Liquid
I just realized why “THEM” is such an awesome and enduring film:
(1) – No racism (that I’ve ever noticed but…)
(2) – A semblance of feminism (The nest is no place for a broad // Blow me)
(3) – Makes me fucking happy to be an American! Once drain 267
is the target area and the troops are sent in those ants are fucked.
Liquid
What is it with you old-timers? Sure I’m 32 and starting to fall asleep around 2 p.m. w/wo lunch but still!
NotMax
@Liquid
There comes a point when sleep (other perhaps than naps) is more of a suggestion than a requirement.
Botsplainer
@Elizabelle:
The places I fear for most are Dakar and Lagos. Both are ripe for it, and major vectors for a spread.
Liquid
@NotMax: I remember some documentary talking about sleep habits for people several hundred years ago. There was one bit about a siesta and how it would be totally natural to nap during the afternoon.
By that point you would have found something to eat and since it’s coming up on the hottest part of the day you’d want to retreat to the shade and digest.
Or some such.
Goblue72
@NotMax: universal healthcare, high speed rail, generous maternity support, and great cheeses. I could use some of that.
? Martin
@Liquid: THEM is one of my favorite films. Has been since I was a kid.
Liquid
@? Martin: It really is THE 50’s monster movie. The only other movie that (I can remember) could hold a candle to the genre would be “The Thing” or “Tarantula.”
Mike J
@Liquid: The Blob is right up there with Them for me. It includes one of my favorite movie lines:
(wooofwoof)
Girl: There’s a house somewhere!
Steve McQueen: It doesn’t sound like a house. It sounds like a dog!
Liquid
I do remember my father said “The Blob” scared the hell out of him. Even the cheap reboot is pretty damn good compare to most of the cgi garbage these days.
NotMax
@Liquid
It’s bothered me from day one of Maddow’s TV show that they employ a sort of an angled wavy red swoosh across the bottom of the graphics shown behind her.
Always looks as if the Blob is creeping up the screen and devouring the graphic.
Liquid
Then we can remember her whole intro with red this and blue that.
I always thought the Abrams were a bit much-too-much.
Cervantes
Well, I liked the double entendre.
Cervantes
Oh, and the phrase you were looking for is Tahkeh a metsieh, meaning “Truly a bargain!” or “Really a steal!” — meant sarcastically.
Shakezula
That’s hilarious. I wonder if the people who are banking on the spending power of 20-30 yos are working to protect and shore up that spending power?
Ha ha haha haaa!
BruceFromOhio
@Elizabelle:
The only defense is strict quarantine. It’s so nasty it literally burns itself out, like a wildfire on a dry ridge in California – put some firebreaks around it, and let it burn until gone.
If it goes airborne, find a way to hole up for about 90-120 days. If you survive, you’ll pretty much have the place to yourself.
Southern Beale
Wow another 9/11 came and went without an attack. And yet, some notable national news outlets were telling me that ISIL “might” mark the day with an attack. My FB friends were all freaked out about it too.
So fucking irresponsible. Sick of it.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Southern Beale: I sometimes wonder, how some people(primarily conservatives) manage to leave their house without soiling themselves. They’re afraid of EVERYTHING.
danielx
Now see, fine young men like these are exactly the sort that the Marquis du Mittens was speaking of when he said all you need to do to start your own company is borrow $50,000 from your parents.
@BillinGlendaleCA:
Well, there’s just SO MUCH to fear! Brown people, poor people (redundant I know), Ebola, ten year old illegal immigrants, ISIL, Kenyan imposters, IRS bureaucrats…the list is endless. As to how they manage to leave their homes without soiling themselves, think concealed weapons and Depends. Or maybe weapons concealed in Depends.
Chris
@BillinGlendaleCA:
Quite obviously by carrying guns everywhere with them, the same way superstitious people in ancient times sometimes wore amulets to ward off the evil eye.
@Southern Beale:
I’m actually not in the U.S. at the moment. Was the parade of 9/11 imagery any more subdued this year than last?
Your Facebook friends are quite right. At some point in the future, they COULD be killed in a terrorist attack carried out by ISIL trained citizens exercising their Second Amendment rights. They could also be bitten to death tomorrow by a badger with rabies. If I worried about that sort of thing, I’d never get up and go to work in the morning.
Warren Terra
So, this claims to be a political opinion/reporting/bloviating site that has had over 1 million page views/month for over two years, and has secured $15 million or more in capital (not to mention that’s probably the annual bar tab of its founders) – and I’ve never even heard of it? And I’m basically an internet politics junkie?
Either they’re targeting millennials with a laser-like focus (possibly by sticking to Facebook, which I completely avoid) or they’re blowing a lot of smoke with their traffic claims.
Chris
@danielx:
Yeah, I think “so many things to fear” is the great accomplishment of the 24 hour round the clock hate radio that is Fox News and the rest of the echo chamber – and a big part of the reason why conservatives are so hysterical and intransigent today, even compared to just twenty years ago.
In the old days, if you were a true dedicated right winger, you could get the National Review or its equivalents, what, twice a month? Less even than that? Enough to feed you a steady diet of right-wing bullshit, but nothing comparable to today, where that diet arrives daily, 24/7. (Not as accessible, either, as today when all you have to do is turn on your computer and get that stuff for free).
You know that endless stream of stories since Obama was inaugurated – Benghazigate, IRSgate, FastAndFuriousGate, HealthCareDotGovGate? If you think THAT’s excessive, try this: those are just the stories that’ve gone mainstream. Dedicated right wingers find out about several stories like that per day through their various media outlets. From that, you get a state of hysteria that’s become permanent and been cranked up to eleven.
Cervantes
@danielx:
Not really. While percentages are higher for “brown” people in the US, still roughly 10% of all so-called “white” people here live in poverty. As of 2010, half of our impoverished people were so-called “non-Hispanic white.”
Cervantes
@Chris:
Since you asked: it started out as a weekly.
evodevo
Hey! I got an idea! Let’s put on a show !!!
danielx
@Cervantes:
Yeah, but wingnuts aren’t usually afraid of poor white people. Generally speaking they don’t like to talk about them or even admit they exist, because then they might have to concede that yes, guvmint programs are occasionally of benefit to people beyond welfare Cadillac grandmas and strapping young bucks buying t-bone steaks and malt liquor.
C.V. Danes
And yet you have all the answers! How truly remarkable!
Cervantes
@Chris: Julian Sanchez famously mis-used the term “epistemic closure” but he had a point:
Not saying it offers a great deal of hope, but it’s something.
Cervantes
@danielx: Yes, which is one reason we should mention it — heck, belabor it — at every opportunity.
C.V. Danes
@Elizabelle:
I do truly wonder if this slow-moving tragedy is going to reach critical mass, at which time we will be well and truly f’ked.
Cervantes
@C.V. Danes:
How do you get that from what she’s actually quoted as having said?
Southern Beale
And it’s not like they’ll be put to good use: New York’s priciest apartments sit empty.
dopey-o
@Chris: leave “Eleven” alone! it was a great joke and to associate it with those people is just too…. too….