Media

Martin Di Caro, an award-winning transportation correspondent at Washington’s public radio news station from 2012 to 2017, was outrageous enough in hitting on junior employees at WAMU, local transportation advocates, and even staffers at the City Council and Metro that seemingly every woman in DC’s transport community had “a Martin story.” Many of those women are now speaking out. (And there are now calls at WAMU for the resignation of general manager JJ Yore for having kept Di Caro on staff for so long.) – DCist

“Making waves is what Hunan Broadcasting System does best. … That is striking for an outfit run by the government of a province that is better known as China’s largest producer of rice and the birthplace of Mao Zedong — ‘red tourism’ centred on Mao’s formative haunts draws devotees of the chairman from around the country. But Changsha, the provincial capital, has become a font of China’s popular culture. It is home to over 12,000 companies involved in creating it. … At their heart in Hunan is a broadcaster with a knack for cranking out programmes that are watched throughout China.” – The Economist

“To find out, we chose one reality dating show that debuted every year from 2000 through 2020 — shows that were particularly popular, controversial, influential or taught us something unexpected. … [And] we talked to dozens of people [involved with them]. … Sometimes, these series are surprisingly hopeful. But mostly, they are disturbing. Deeply disturbing. But no matter how many people decry that the shows are fake and/or feel like the downfall of society, the impact has been extremely real.” – The Washington Post

The Burbank entertainment giant posted a net loss of $4.72 billion for the three months that ended in June, Disney said Tuesday. That’s compared with the $1.43 billion in net income the company reported for the same period in 2019. – Los Angeles Times

“Beijing has sent a clear message to the filmmaking world, that filmmakers who criticize China will be punished, but that those who play ball with its censorship strictures will be rewarded,” proclaims the hard hitting “Made in Hollywood, Censored by Beijing” report. – Deadline

What remains powerful, writes Naomi Fry, is “the movie’s suggestion that no struggle can take place alone. Norma Rae is heroic, but she comes into her own, as a woman, because she is fighting for class solidarity — a struggle that, in turn, could not happen without a breaking down of long-standing ethnic and racial barriers.” – The New Yorker

David Mandel: “At the end of the day, this is why we ended the show. … Sometimes I have the horrible thought of if we had filmed a show last fall that was supposed to be on right now, and between when we were done filming and began editing, the pandemic and all of this stuff happened. I think you’d have to throw the show in the garbage.” – The Washington Post

Kjersti Flaa, a Norwegian journalist living in Los Angeles, filed a complaint Monday in California federal court alleging that the HFPA has adopted membership rules that exclude qualified applicants who compete with existing members. The suit alleges that applicants must pledge not to write for any rival publication claimed by an HFPA member and that foreign markets are allocated among the membership. – Los Angeles Times

Never mind the enormous catalogue of their incompatibilities and the exhausting ups-and-downs of their relationship. “The Muppeteers’ obsession with Piggy and Kermit has come at the expense of nearly every other character. Sure, Fozzie briefly dated a human. But we know so little about, say, the long-term love of Gonzo and Camilla the chicken, or Janice’s romances with various members of Electric Mayhem, or what is actually the deal with Dr. Bunsen Honeydew and Beaker. Share the spotlight a little, you attention hog (and attention frog)!” – Slate

The burning question, at this point, is whether this recommender system can reliably lead users down epistemically problematic rabbit holes. In other words, is it possible to discern a pattern in YouTube’s AutoPlay system that takes users from ABBA to lizard people? This becomes especially significant when you consider that 70% of all watch-time spent on YouTube is due to videos suggested by the recommender system. – 3 Quarks Daily

A couple of the filmmakers: “This is where our brains went. Instead of making bread, we were like, ‘what can we do with how we’re creative?'” – NPR

Some stations have meditation minutes, and some have other ways to fill all of that time when they’d normally have stories about events (the events that aren’t happening right now). Some 30-second promos “feature sounds like ocean waves and remind listeners to breathe and limit their screen time.” – Nieman Lab

Rupert Murdoch’s son James, who has championed environmental causes and helped force out Bill O’Reilly at Fox after the host’s past with sexual harassment came into the open, “abruptly resigned from the board of his father’s publishing company Friday, signaling an acceleration in family tensions over the tenor and politics of its far-flung media empire. “- Los Angeles Times

Whew: “If HBO’s Game of Thrones was the last great piece of TV monoculture, then the pandemic has popularized a series of forgettable productions that each offers a fleeting, miniature facsimile of communal attention. Absent the usual summer blockbusters, and with few prestige shows rolling out new episodes, the landscape of American entertainment is barren enough for C- shows and movies to rack up the viewership of B+ productions, if not the associated enthusiasm.” – The Atlantic

“These systemic barriers – no one seemed to notice, no one seemed to care, and so we felt like we had to say something,” says Jennifer Holness, who adds that even as the most senior Black filmmaker in the country, it’s hard to get any funding for projects. – CBC

Classic Hollywood movies are getting spitshined and put out again, so why not video games as well? “‘Nostalgia is the major driving force for the success of a remake,’ said Doug Clinton, managing partner for the venture capitalist firm Loup Ventures, which focuses on emerging technology and gaming. ‘Any game that doesn’t have meaningful nostalgic value isn’t likely to be successful.'” Give us anything but 2020. – The New York Times

When I pop around and listen to public radio streams from around the country, they almost universally sound like they did before the pandemic started. Same with the programs themselves. Things have changed topically, but not formatically. The audience dynamics have completely changed, so why hasn’t the stations’ sound? – Current

The video-sharing social media app said in a blog post Wednesday that it will give creators in the U.S. over $1 billion in the next three years, and more than double that globally. – CNBC

Wesley Morris: “What would an American version be? Court, theater, a hearing, a telethon, therapy, TV, church, Ken Burns, Anna Deavere Smith? Each perhaps — and more. Who would make it? I don’t know…. The production, however, is merely the second hurdle to clear. The first would be convincing executives that it’s worth doing in the first place. Here’s what to say about that: The entertainment industry itself has more than a century of harm to atone for and ameliorate. Any company that believes the solution to ‘systemic racism’ is The Help shouldn’t mind a surrender of its airwaves.” – The New York Times

Director and producer Oren Moverman: “The idea of independent financing, putting together films that have no home, taking them to festivals, trying to sell them — they’re going to have to take on a very different model, if they get made. A lot of producers I talk to are looking to set up projects with the streamers, the studios, whoever’s going to be left standing. Whereas the sort of grungy putting together of ten dollars here, ten dollars there to make a film — it’s possible from a financial standpoint, it’s just a question of where it will ever be seen.” – Variety

Who can blame voters for wanting to escape? The last year has been a wrecked clown car inside a dumpster fire that’s riddled with the plague. Series that deal with today’s ugly reality through a sci-fi or comic-book lens are a fine way of working through tough issues without subjecting oneself to the here and now. – Los Angeles Times

In a stunning reversal, AMC Theatres has struck a historic agreement with Universal that will allow the studio’s movies to be made available on premium video-on-demand after just 17 days of play in cinemas, including three weekends, the two companies announced Tuesday. – The Hollywood Reporter

“The sudden rise of calls for color-conscious casting comes after years of criticism about whitewashed roles. But while many Black voice actors are glad to see white actors leaving roles where they played characters of color … they believe more meaningful changes are needed for truly equitable hiring.” – Vulture

Netflix dominated the 72nd Emmy Award nominations on Tuesday, breaking the record for the most nominations ever, and a newcomer to the streaming universe, Disney+, scored a nomination in a big category for “The Mandalorian” in yet another sign of the growing importance of digital technology to Hollywood. – The New York Times

The move to Freeview, the digital network free to all UK residents, has been under discussion for years and is motivated by “a passion to get as much content to as many people as possible and make it more accessible”. But Sky Arts “isn’t a ratings-driving channel. We’re there to be a bit more experimental. We’re there to help nurture new talent and find new voices; new creative voices… The call out that we’re doing today, as we’re launched as free to air is: ‘Artists, what would you do if I gave you the channel for 24 hours to do with what you will?’ – The Art Newspaper