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from the Retaliation?-or-Post-hoc-ergo-propter-hoc? dept.
DNAinfo and Gothamist Are Shut Down After Vote to Unionize
A week ago, reporters and editors in the combined newsroom of DNAinfo and Gothamist, two of New York City's leading digital purveyors of local news, celebrated victory in their vote to join a union.
On Thursday, they lost their jobs, as Joe Ricketts, the billionaire founder of TD Ameritrade who owned the sites, shut them down.
At 5 p.m., a post went up on the sites from Mr. Ricketts announcing the decision. He praised them for reporting "tens of thousands of stories that have informed, impacted and inspired millions of people." But he added, "DNAinfo is, at the end of the day, a business, and businesses need to be economically successful if they are to endure."
[...] in the financially daunting era of digital journalism, there has been no tougher nut to crack than making local news profitable, a lesson Mr. Ricketts, who lost money every month of DNAinfo's existence, is just the latest to learn. In New York City, the nation's biggest media market, established organizations such as The Village Voice, The Wall Street Journal and The Daily News have slashed staff or withdrawn from street-level reporting. The Voice stopped publishing its print edition in September.
What about The Daily Planet and Gotham Globe?
Gothamist's NY Writing Staff Votes to Unionize; Owner Shutters All *ist Sites
Deadspin reports:
Joe Ricketts, TD Ameritrade founder, billionaire, and father of Chicago Cubs chairman Tom Ricketts, shut down the local news network of DNAinfo and Gothamist sites today, a week after the writers voted to unionize.
[...] With the sites' articles functionally locked, the reported 115 newly jobless writers now have no clips [to which they can refer potential employers] as they search for work.
Deadspin has scathing comments about Ricketts's explanation for his action.
The Los Angeles Daily News reports:
Angelenos hoping to read the latest local reporting from LAist.com [on November 2] were instead greeted by a letter from the news site's CEO, announcing he had shuttered the parent media company and all of its local news sites.
[...] [Ricketts bought news company DNAinfo in 2010 and, in March 2017, DNAinfo] purchased Gothamist, which ran news sites in New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, and Washington D.C.
[...] Julia Wick, editor-in-chief at LAist, [...] said she and her Los Angeles team supported the New York staff's decision to unionize. Originally, she said, all five Gothamist sites planned to join the union, but the Chicago newsroom dropped out, ending the collective effort.
(Score: 1, Troll) by aristarchus on Tuesday November 07 2017, @06:54AM (4 children)
The uninformed, commenting on what they do not understand, to the ill-informed, or the Russian informed. Buzz, you have lost it again! How can anyone take you seriously? You are just a large bag of right-wing talking points, with only enough intelligence to squirt at the right key-words. Mr. Plow does better. So, here is a bit of advice, a "pro-tip", if you will. Always understand your opponent's position better than they do them selves. That is what we Social Justice League of Warriors do, and guess what? We RTFA! And we read your insipid response. And you know what, you do not come off so well in the comparison. I am going to take your property, Oh Mighty Buzzard! Behold! What are you? You nothing but a collection of skhandas, five of them to be exact. Here:
http://www.dharmanet.org/coursesM/HSMS/HSMS8.htm [dharmanet.org]
So, you see, property of a non-existent entity does not exist. You are a heap, an aggregate, a collusion of feelings that desparately wants to be something, and only property can fill that void, provide you with the existence which you lack but so desparately want to, um possess. First Noble Truth: Dukkha.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by The Mighty Buzzard on Tuesday November 07 2017, @11:38AM (3 children)
There's no particular need to understand the nuances of one instance of whiny socialist parasites getting bitchslapped by reality to talk about the overarching issues. You used many characters in that response but very little wisdom.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 07 2017, @08:44PM (2 children)
I don't think any of those wards are accurate in this case.
The one I will address here is "socialist".
Had they been Socialist, they would have formed a worker-owned cooperative.
The fundamental element of Socialism is the worker-owned cooperative (or perhaps the individual worker-owner.)
...and these folks couldn't even pull off the "solidarity" thing among all the workers at all of the owner's holdings.
Pretty sad bunch of workers.
It reminds me of a film I saw of a pack of hyenas preying on a wildebeest and her calf that had strayed from the herd.
The predators used a series of constant attacks to keep drawing the mom away from the kid until they could kill the kid and have lunch.
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 3, Insightful) by The Mighty Buzzard on Tuesday November 07 2017, @09:38PM (1 child)
Yeah, this is a pretty good example of why I think socialism is never going to work for the majority of humans. Socialism requires a fundamental change in human nature whereas capitalism is nothing but human nature as applied to economics.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 08 2017, @12:34AM
Our species doesn't have big teeth, powerful jaws, or giant claws.
We're pretty slow runners too.
The way we survived for over 100,000 years was by cooperating.
Those groups who wouldn't work together didn't survive.
Any narrative that avoids this stuff is bullshit.
capitalism is nothing but human nature
Greed, selfishness, and exploitation is human nature at its WORST.
If change is to be made, the logical direction that would take is toward cooperatives and for Joe Average to no longer volunteer to be a rent payer|easily-disposable wage slave to an Aristocratic Ownership Class.
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]