salon vs. slate vs. atlantic

Do they do investigative stuff or is it opinion or ?

yeah they're absolutely killing it

http://www.salon.com/2013/12/06/brian_is_returning_to_family_guy/
http://www.salon.com/2013/12/04/the_top_10_oral_sex_scenes/
http://www.salon.com/2013/12/09/the_10_rules_of_homeland_story_telling/

salon the worst of the 3 - pretty much only good for hate-reading in 2013

yeah they publish a lot of dreck too but in terms of political columnists/reporters i think they're way ahead of slate -- alex pareene, natasha lennard, etc are all great.

pareene is far from the worst thing at salon but even he isn't doing any original reporting, just snark + salon in-house political style + sprinkle the word privilege liberally throughout

some of the best hate-reads i've ever had have been on salon

i will always come back to this one http://www.salon.com/2011/02/02/my_fake_facebook_profile/

sites like these 3 are basically why I use RSS feeds. There's the occasional thing which will interest me, but if I had to actually go to the sites to check out the content I would never read anything by them.

yeah they really don't do a lot of investigative stuff (none at all that i can remember for years tbh) but i do prefer them to slate's toxic mix of reader-baiting "this is why i'm glad the beatles broke up" articles and hilariously inane 'in-depth' pieces (from today: "did i ruin my third-grade classmate's life when i told her the truth about santa? a slate investigation...")

ok then i'm ok not reading it -- that is all basically bs as far as i'm concerned. people who need to produce words (in order to eat?) but aren't interested in doing the work to have something worth saying. it's like being stuck in a conversation with a verbose person who won't stop talking about themselves and also gets paid by the minute.
generally i pretty much only want to read investigative journalism. no personal shit, no opinion, absolutely no trolling.

i realize that there is always opinion in one form or another, but i mean Opinion as Opinion

investigative pieces on these sites usually mean that the author found a study online and had e-mail exchanges with a few experts.

yeah that is super lame

it's like the junk food of journalism

WHITEWASHED TV IS BORING
Perpetuating stereotypes isn't just immoral -- it's bad TV. That's why shows like "Sleepy Hollow" are so crucial

Solid tv that

MY LOVE WITH A SALON COMMENTER
I read hundreds of letters on my story, but his struck me. When I reached out, I learned how much we already shared

A bit on Slate's "Dear Prudence" advice column and its rather, well, let's say _unfortunate_ view of rape victims, and how it lines up with Dave Ramsey's blame-the-victims economic blurtings

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/slacktivist/2013/12/10/dave-ramsey-and-dear-prudence-when-good-advice-goes-bad/

oh nice a thinkpiece on 'dear prudence'

The Lesson from the Christie Scandal: American Politics Should Be More Corrupt

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/12/business/media/thomas-frank-author-and-historian-will-join-salon.html

Good signing

pretty good i thought:
http://www.salon.com/2014/02/16/the_matter_with_kansas_now_the_tea_party_the_1_percent_and_delusional_democrats/

http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/02/up-for-polyamory-creating-alternatives-to-marriage/283920/

logical conclusion of their wonkocentric editorial perspective

http://www.theatlantic.com/features/archive/2014/03/the-dark-power-of-fraternities/357580/

^ fantastic

looks good. i would suspect the ilxor fratboy rollcall is low?

I have no beef with polyamory in and of itself, but right now I'm not sure that polyamory is conducive to stable, long term relationships. If I were shown that it is, then I could be persuaded that extending marriage rights to polyamorous unions could be a good and useful social policy. The divorces would be a bitch, though.

http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/02/up-for-polyamory-creating-alternatives-to-marriage/283920/

logical conclusion of their wonkocentric editorial perspective

― j., Wednesday, February 19, 2014 6:28 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Maybe I'm just prudish, but I thought this person sounded very self-centered and maybe narcissistic. It seemed like the lifestyle for her involves her as the center of a solar system. I guess if others are ok with that, then why the fuck not? But as far as actually coming up with legal structures to accommodate it, I don't feel as convinced.

Even the arguments I hear from polyamorist for "rights" often seem kind of abstract, "why not us too?" etc. I haven't heard a lot of tragic stories of people somehow missing out on the rights and benefits conferred to others because of their polyamory (as opposed to with gay rights, where this was common). I don't really buy that it's an "orientation."

caitlin flanagan sux, but that is an a+ lead paragraph

i love the opening passages of that frat story so much. if i taught a journo class that would go in my list of all time ledes.

To be fair, how can you possibly write a passage about a frat boy drunkenly lighting a rocket up his ass, suffering a sphincter explosion and causing his compatriot to fall off a deck and get wedged next to an air conditioner in a way that ISN'T enormously engaging.

Get a lawyer to write it

:*|

yeah she was just picking up apples there and lots of people woulda picked them up better </bitterwriter>

yes making it look easy is definitely the mark of a bad craftsman!!!

"under the influence of powerful inebriants, not least among them the clear ether of youth itself"

^^ this is so good.

and its not just playful, it underscores the whole thematic undercurrent of the article, the disconnect between the image of college and youth and the idea of 'greeks' harkening back to greek ideals and then this comic shitshow.

the whole 2 paras on "falling" are also delicious.

http://www.theatlantic.com/personal/archive/2014/03/david-frum-named-senior-editor-at-the-atlantic/284510/

R.I.P. Atlantic

he seems like a good fit to me - at the very least not a worse choice than sullivan

the new Atlantic cover is a real beaut

Frum's novel sounds like the worst thing ever.

occasionally he writes like he can at least glimpse reality from wherever he is, but ugh. regrettably, he does seem like a not-bad fit.

cool do you think we'll ses an uptick in pieces about how marijuana and immigration are going to ruin America

http://www.niemanlab.org/2012/02/what-charlie-sheen-taught-salon-about-being-original/

i was surprised to see this linked to as a story about salon having a strategy to prioritize quality over quantity, since i was not aware that they had much interest left in the former anymore

grossest click-bait ever:

What I wondered after talking with all these experts is whether lice even need to be treated at all. Treatment’s expensive, it can expose your kids to pesticides, it takes forever, and all it does is rid your child of a basically harmless pest—and then only until the inevitable next time it shows up. ... My kids need to be in school to learn, and to play with their friends, and to build their bright futures, and to stay out of my hair. I don’t need them sent home because of the harmless things crawling in theirs.

http://www.slate.com/articles/life/family/2014/03/lice_in_school_let_em_stay.html

I'm waiting for Slate's "Let's Stop Burying Dead People" article

http://www.slate.com/articles/slate_plus/pitch.html?wpsrc=sp_all_social_pitchshare

god all three of these are so bad now it's like a reverse sophie's choice.

vox butthoused by gizmodo sub-blog

http://paleofuture.gizmodo.com/no-tech-adoption-is-not-speeding-up-1565326373

that's such an evidence-nerd slight, calling out questionable argumentation with the word 'fun'