In the old days, you'd occasionally run into somebody totally normal who had one utterly insane belief, like a co-worker who just causally says he thinks the sun is alive. Social media is like if we extracted all of those individual bits of madness, cooked them into a stew and ate it for every meal.

i've subscribed to: rolling stone WIRED 404 media defector the handbasket chicago journalism i subscribed to: unraveled block club it's time to support media directly so they don't fall into the hands of fascists, the replies to this post have additional great news media i recommend supporting

If you’re rich and not a coward, this is what you’d refer to as a “market opportunity” to dominate a media ecosystem that’s about to be covered in grotesque government slop. To be a pop of color in a sea of beige will be easier than ever. People will flock to it. You gotta be a little brave, though.

I am so ready to care about digital comics again. Time to explore @neonichiban.bsky.social (No pressure @chipmosher.bsky.social & David, but we all need this.)

Peach Strawberry pie (that has now somehow vanished, heh).

Everyone In 200-Member Media Softball League Unemployed

Travis county redraw is INSANE! The sections they’re gerrymandering don’t even connect.

Easily the LEAST believable thing in Fantastic Four: First Steps isn't flying cars or super powered people. It's that Little Cesar's Pizza is a popular enough chain to advertise in NYC... No one in NYC is eating Little Cesar's in any reality. C'mon son.

Love that @wired.com is doing stuff like this.

Ted Cruz is the literal worst Senator ever. How is he still in office???

And might I add, Do It Anyway.

Y’all, @marisakabas.bsky.social has cracked the code for journalism’s onlyfans moment, literally by telling the truth, and we’re all better for it. 🤣 🙌 👊 🙏 Now go sign up for The Handbasket if you haven’t already: www.thehandbasket.co

The latest bait and switch offered to news publications, who are desperate because Google made them that way. Great explainer by @sarahp.bsky.social

Was very excited when Last Week Tonight asked @404media.co to help out with research/fact checking for an AI Slop segment that ran last night. I thought it turned out very good! Here's a few mentions of our reporting, and the full segment: www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWpg...

I see people saying stuff like "why criticize Substack but give other problematic platforms (like, say, YouTube) a pass? Which is a fair point. Thing is, YouTube is a quasi-monopoly for sharable video. Substack wants to have a newsletter monopoly but *isn't there yet*. And it should never happen.

Psyched to see @chipmosher.bsky.social still innovating in digital comics, waitlisted for @neonichiban.bsky.social ! Invite: neonichiban.com/ref/JECEOC

"Every single American's safety is at risk until Congress cracks down on this sleazy industry," @wyden.senate.gov tells @lhn.bsky.social www.wired.com/story/minnes...

This is a superb speech by @governor.ca.gov just now. Clear. Strong. Simple. Direct. Angry—in a way that appeals to the best in people, not the worst. Seven plus minutes of the most effective rhetoric in response to Trump. This is how you want a leader to talk. www.youtube.com/watch?v=linJ...

Roughly the equivalent cost of decent healthcare for about 89,000 people.

Hey Austin, this is why we need you out in the streets documenting Tesla's dangerous and irresponsible self-driving experiment! If you see Teslas with manufacturers plates, take photo and video (or descriptions of behavior you see) and post them with the hashtag #fauxbotaxi. Public info is key!

"On Tuesday, a Palantir employee threatened to call the police on a WIRED journalist who was watching software demonstrations at its booth at AI+ Expo." New from @carolinehaskins.bsky.social www.wired.com/story/palant...

All political coverage should be sorted into two feed categories: Important / Distraction (until which point the reporters all figure out how to identify a distraction rather than covering it.)

Recently switched from Google Docs (which crawls everything you type into them to some degree...) to Proton Docs... Absolutely LOVE it, despite the lack of a word count tool built in. Well worth the money for the whole platform of apps & email if you've been on the fence.

It almost feels like subtext bending over backwards to explain what we already know about human brain computers: why we don’t remember every single memory and sensory stimulus encountered, and how that would lead to essentially the same conclusions of rot.

And to achieve this moment, Sam’s company (cosplaying as a Nonprofit) stole all the printing presses, and every piece of content they ever printed, to build his “AI Printing Press” — don’t forget.

Meta is a defense contractor. "The company announced on Thursday that it will work with defense technology start-up Anduril to offer the U.S. military and its allies technology for soldiers involving augmented reality and artificial intelligence software."

slate.com/technology/2... my latest for @slate.com

Very cool to know Sam's dear friend is the national security advisor for the United Arab Emirates!

New from 404 Media: authors are getting caught leaving AI prompts in their novels, telling the AI to follow someone else's style. We bought a copy to confirm. www.404media.co/authors-are-...

they can just subscribe to the handbasket thehandbasket.co/subscribe

Done! Reconnecting to @ssavaart.com has easily become the highlight of my retreat to Bluesky. Really talented, thoughtful creator and I can’t wait to read his latest.

Q: worst board/CEO in media? —5 rebrands in 5 years; —Shares down 63% since merger; —Paid CEO $348.2m A: Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc.

What is art without any human connection to the creation? Someone got $4M to convince you it’s this thing — a startup producing unironic GenAI tv shows about blood sucking parasite monsters.

Holy shiitake! Trump fired Shira Perlmutter, the Director of the US Copyrights Office apparently because she refused to let Elon Musk raid the place to steal author’s intellectual property rights democrats-cha.house.gov/media/press-...

Oh look at that, NPR finally woke up… for (probably only) this specific post. That’s nice.

And it does. Thoroughly articulated example here by @marisakabas.bsky.social

Unsure how he’d interpret it, but @edzitron.com’s brand of well-deserved shit slinging ridicule feels like the resurrected spirit of Valleywag — but w/ most broligarch ai investor types ignoring or dismissing his existence like a case of hype-eating bed bugs they confidently declared eradicated.

Springtime baking is calling my name. Or maybe just a version of those cinnamon rolls ( …using Lemon Blueberry this time?) #FlashesApp

I’ve worked in media too long to find this surprising, yes even (especially?) from a player like Vox, which regularly and loudly preaches church of journalism ideals as a guide stone. On the upside, newly spunoff Gamesbeat has a bright future under @deantak.bsky.social to make up the ground. 👊

I want to be clear about this: Fighting for art and speech and jokes and generally not being a piece of shit is good for the soul, obviously. But it's also good for business. The places that abandoned their values to get in line and kiss the ring are fading. The Onion is growing.

I somehow binged Andor S2 this weekend, it’s good! www.engadget.com/entertainmen...

Wise words that feel applicable to plenty more than science Via @leebillings.bsky.social - www.scientificamerican.com/article/brea...

So it begins, again... @kevinrose.bsky.social & @alexisohanian.bsky.social have the right idea: Building something for people like myself who've pulled way back from contributing to online communities because of how they're crawled by marketers/feds/GenAI training. Excited to Digg back in.

I'm Painting 100 Mini Album Covers and Today I Painted Boston

It always boggles my mind that I, a journalist, am expressly forbidden from trading stocks, but members of Congress, with vastly greater knowledge of market-moving news, are allowed to profit by front-running markets, and so may profit by in essence stealing from the public they represent.

Holy shit this is frightening.

If you’ve read her book Careless People, it’s easy to see how accurate this is. Utterly convinced Facebook clearly knew everything that was happening by Russians in the 2016 election. It goes back a decade+

This is the right idea, provided it’s entirely a PEACEFUL protest devoid of damage or destruction.

Bill Gates appears to have done some reading. quantum computing was baffling to him back in 2017 www.wsj.com/articles/a-r...

For anyone who needs it right now…