brb making her my profile picture literally everywhere

REMINDER: eat the bosses’ pizza, then unionize anyway.

NEW — My first true foray into AI haterdom is about how those of us not convinced by AI’s inevitability are a real constituency worthy of a voice. Give it a read:

AI-generated child sexual abuse material rocked this Pennsylvania high school. I've been following the fallout for five months: www.404media.co/radnor-high-...

just open contempt for the united states as a pluralist and secular democracy. and a reminder that the function of the fiction that the united states was founded as a fundamentalist christian nation is to establish a hierarchy of human worth with white christians at the top

Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt was booed throughout this commencement speech at the University of Arizona for his praise of AI. This comes just a week after another commencement speaker who mentioned AI was booed at a school in Florida. Read more: www.404media.co/ucf-ai-comme...

🆗 @hellgatenyc.com is a worker-owned NYC news site that puts out a constant flow of news and culture reporting and a podcast and three newsletters and giant side projects and cool events and it’s subscriber-funded and today is the last day of our sale, so: Act now! www.hellgatenyc.com/membership

saw my trauma therapist who got me through The Horrors of 2023-2024 for the first time in more than a year — telling! — and at one point went, "and then I started writing again because David Lynch died" with no further explanation and she didn't even blink 😭

still not quite over the fact that i watched 15 year olds get sued for millions of dollars for downloading twelve songs and now we all have to accept AI slop because every tech company in the known universe decided that IP laws don't exist now that they're inconvenient for them

Even from miles away, people understand the importance of shining light in Mississippi communities. A retired scientist in the Southwest is matching the next $3,000 donated to support our work. Support inclusive journalism: givebutter.com/mfpvip

I’d be red-faced if I didn’t catch that.

My primary thought, as southern Republicans drop all pretense and scramble to grab more power, is that if the rot runs deeper than we thought, so must the needed reforms.

My biggest conspiracy theory is that telling working class people that engagement in the arts is a middle / upper class thing and to do so makes you a class traitor is a psyop to make them disengaged with themselves and the world and the beauty of being human, so that they accept worse treatment.

I need everyone to listen to the end of this episode for the most damning condemnation of this entire situation and the anti-union people inside who thought they’d pulled one over on @pghguild.com — because it’s coming from a 72-year-old grandmother and college professor. That’s Pittsburgh, baby!

Listen to our full conversation on @therealnews.com podcast feed or the Working People feed anywhere you listen to podcasts: open.spotify.com/episode/0h5u...

Just as the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette was set to shutter, it was purchased by the Venetoulis Institute, which also owns the Baltimore Banner. Then, they fired most of the @pghguild.com union workers who participated in the recently ended strike at the PPG.

OurPaperNow.org has received more than 700 donations already. Successful news co-ops have been launched with less. "... I’ve seen us do the impossible before, and I know we can do it again.” www.cjr.org/feature/vene...

That’s all I’ve got. Random thoughts. and I haven’t even gotten to how race / gender play into it— But as I said, I’ve been thinking a lot about nostalgia for the old days. And I don’t think the old ways of journalism — or America, really —are coming back any time soon. *hops off soapbox*

Corporate journalism was able to exist because it either: 1) aligned with a rich owner’s views 2) Kept advertisers happy So say you want to opt out of that and be fully independent. But then, you become a slave to either your audience’s whims, algorithms, or funders with their own agenda.

DING DING DING! How can we trust journalists who show that they will acquiesce to power to protect themselves, which is increasingly required for survival under legacy U.S. media outlets owned and funded by billionaires?

It's been a weird week, but I'm thankful reporters nationwide like @riddhisetty.bsky.social are covering what's happening at the Post-Gazette. It's a shame the @thebaltimorebanner.com execs have already disrespected the city's people, history and culture in their approach to this transition.

every trans person has been effectively drummed out of the mainstream media but you can be a pulitzer finalist if you look around the situation that your fucking newspaper helped create and go “wow so this is pretty interesting huh”

new york times pulitzer finalists for their podcast series about trans youth where they don't really talk to any actual trans people. good shit....great shit!

“The people who held power to account, the people who fought back against one of the most lawless union-busting operations in the country, are precisely who the PG’s new owners prioritized discarding.”

I'm leaving aside what I think of the truth value of the claims, or their significance, or whether I think the opinions were the right ones. I just don't think a newspaper's editorial page should be getting out ahead of its own reporters.

I think editorials are NOT a great place to present breaking news, because their "voice of God" tone, the "trying to convince the reader of something" mission and the absence of the "show your work" ethic of a news page made claims difficult to assess. In the long run, this is good for the PG.

Actually, I'd argue this was a big problem at the Post-Gazette.

Some things never change, huh?

I totally understand why people had enthusiasm for the sale but non-profits hate unions just as much as the for profit sector. Sad, but truly unsurprising.

"No department has been spared, apart from upper management." Funny how that works! (And not funny at all how an agreement to preserve the union can somehow include firing almost everyone who struck to empower it.)

I'm just totally shocked and appalled by this. I thought the Baltimore Banner folks who bought the P-G were good human beings. I was wrong

Happy May Day ✊

This May Day, I’m thinking of the workers at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette who have once again suffered betrayal.

The new owners of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette are cutting at least 40% of staff and 80% of former strikers. Thread. ⬇️

We had some hopes for Venetoulis. But we didn’t wait on a savior. Our joint project, PAPER, has announced plans to launch a worker-and-community-owned daily outlet. It’s clear that we need to own our news together. Will you donate today to help claim it? ourpapernow.org

Everyone who regularly published in our strike publication, with one exception, was dismissed. The Institute got rid of all but one of our Local officers. That includes multiple members of the team that won the Pulitzer Prize for coverage of the Tree of Life shooting.

More than 1,400 of you signed a petition cautioning against such a move. Many of your local elected officials did too. Unfortunately, the Institute has retained the leadership that executed one of the most lawless union-busting operations in the country, and purged union members.

The Venetoulis Institute for Local Journalism (@thebaltimorebanner.com) has begun its ownership of the @post-gazette.com by cutting at least 40% of staff, and 80% of former strikers. It is sad, vindictive, and does not bode well for what we’ve fought and hoped for, including the success of the PG.

Last night, like most of my talented formerly striking colleagues, I wasn't offered a job at the Venetoulis-run Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. I guess a front page I designed hanging on the newsroom's Pulitzer wall doesn't mean much to people who just wanted to cut strikers. triblive.com/business/sta...

From the News Guild. Deep cuts over at the Post-Gazette yesterday, including some 80% of strikers:

my latest for @theverge.com is about something i’ve been hearing constantly: Gen Z hates ”AI”, and many young people are deeply resentful of the jobs, schools, and institutions that are now pressuring or forcing them to use it.

I published my book about the labor movement with Hachette so I am very excited to see the announcement that Hachette workers are unionizing. Publishing should be a union industry. Learn more and support them here: hachetteworkers.com

Eight years ago I argued the White House Correspondents' Dinner should end. After this weekend, the case is stronger. And Saturday wasn't even the worst part. www.readtpa.com/p/a-bad-look

It’s a beautiful day in the neighborhood when the @pghcitypaper.com crew is back at it

Today, workers at Hachette Book Group launched the largest unionization campaign in trade publisher history! Hundreds of employees signed unions cards in support of forming a union at HBC. Workers now join @wbng.org and fight for recognition. newsguild.org/hachette-boo...

Are you a PNC employee with strong feelings about RTO next week? I'd love to hear your take. Hmu via DM or the contact info in bio.

Happy @pghcitypaper.com Is Publishing Again Day to all who celebrate!!!!

A pretty good rule of thumb is any journalist who consistently makes the story about them is really not worth your time.

“Everybody needs to turn down the rhetoric.” -supporters of a guy who threatened to destroy an entire civilization of 90 million people