Mammon category archive
All That Was Old Is New Again 0
Brian Greenspun, publisher of the Las Vegas Sun, considers a piece by the Smithsonian Institute’s Jon Grinspan and suggests that it should be required reading. Here’s a bit of Greenspun’s article:
The Alumnus 0
Thom talks with Art Cohen about his experience in exposing the Trump University con.
Spin City 0
Afterthought:
The worst of this is that persons believe uncritically stuff they read on their computer screens when they would not believe the same stuff if it happened right in front of their faces.
Facebook Frolics 0
Methinks “metastatic” would have been a more appropriate choice.
Carrion Crows 0
Shirley Smith describes how a private equity firm purchased her employer, a long-established Detroit furniture retailer, picked its bones clean, than cast it and its employees aside.
It is a chilling tale of greed and rapacity.
The Privatization Scam, Maskless Marauders Dept. 0
A maskless marauder drops the (figurative) mask. (Warning: short ad at the end.)
Fly the Fiendly Skies 0
The Register investigates a plane truth.
It’s All about the Algorithm 0
Bryan Greenspun, publisher of the Las Vegas Sun, remembers a chance encounter:
They happily explained that the law did not find them to be publishers in the traditional sense. Since they did not ”curate” the information — meaning no humans made decisions about what to publish on their sites — they could not be held responsible for truth, falsity, defamation, lying, incitement and a whole host of other proscriptions that applied to traditional publishers.
I told them I didn’t agree; the way they disseminated information and news to their users was no different that what we did for our readers. And, I asked them, if you are not responsible, who is? They laughed as in they didn’t care.
More memories at the link.
Plus, here’s some more thoughts about the algorithm.
All the News That Fits 0
John Oliver reacts to the news that AT&T is the primary funder for the far right One America Network.
Video via C&L, which has commentary.
Aside:
The company that now calls itself “At&T” can change it name as often as it wants to (remember Cingular?), but it’s still Southwestern Bell, arguably one of the worst of the “Baby Bells.”
Facebook Frolics 0
Writing for the EFF, Katherine Trendacosta argues that Facebook, like Crabby Appleton, is rotten to the core. A nugget:
Ms. Haugen told Congress that she thinks Facebook should be reformed, not broken up. But Facebook’s broken system is fueled by a growth-at-any-cost model. The number of Facebook users and the increasing depth of the data it gathers about them is its biggest selling point. In other words, Facebook’s badness is inextricably tied to its bigness.
Facebook Frolics 0
Leonard Pitts, Jr., offers a solution to the toxicity of Facebook (and of “social” media in general).
