🧐Picks of the Week — July 3
Canada Day, July the Fourth, Facebook Ad Revolt, China Hong Kong, New Virus Found, Putin Referendum, Racist Football Commentary
Hello! We did it we did it. Time for another roundup of the world’s most interesting and weirdest news from around the world, this week featuring Canada Day and Fourth of July, the growing advertising revolt against Facebook, China’s latest suppression of Hong Kong, a new virus found in China, Vladimir Putin’s latest power grab, and systemic racism in football commentary. Before we get started, yesterday was the two-year anniversary of Inside The Newsroom. I started this thing as a result of finding out that my fellowship with The Texas Tribune was only 20 hours a week instead of 40 (a story for another day), and podcasted to fill the time. Two years on and the podcast has turned into a newsletter with more than 6,000 subscribers, then morphed into a journalism jobs page, while also covering every major world election. So thank you for joining me on this journey, here’s to the next two years and beyond!
Daniel’s Favourite Episodes From the Past Two Years
Job Corner
Almost 400 active journalism jobs, internships and freelance roles, with deadlines approaching for positions at Google, Newsquest, ITV and Yahoo News. Please spread the word. 🤜🤛
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Hello. Each newsletter takes a real long time to put together. It’s totally worth it, but if you could click the heart at the top of the page, I’ll receive additional dopamine that’ll carry me through the day. Please and thank you. 🙏
Canada Day/4th of July
Let’s begin in North America (where else?) as Canadians celebrated Canada Day on Monday and the States observe Fourth of July today and over the weekend. More often than not, I celebrate holidays without knowing what I’m actually celebrating. Having lived in America for three years, I naturally drunk a Desparados or three to welcome in Cinco de Mayo, the Mexican holiday that commemorates the Mexican Army’s victory over France on May 5, 1862, of which is a relatively minor day in Mexico itself. I sure as hell know I’m not the only one who thought it was to do with Mexican independence. Anyway, it’s important to know that human life in America began well before 1776, with the first wave of migrants arriving around 14,500 years ago, and new research suggests that DNA from the first group that arrived in the States — Paleo-Americans — still lives on to this day in some modern-day indigenous groups. Meanwhile in Canada, July 1 commemorates the merging of Canada’s three original provinces — Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and the Canada province (now split into Ontario and Quebec) — into one country, but life didn’t start in 1867, and largely excludes the history of the people that lived there well before.
Facebook Ad Revolt
Staying in America (where else?) and the number of companies boycotting advertising on Facebook is growing — according to the activists behind the boycott, that number has reached 500. The revolt against the toxic social media platform arguably started years ago over Facebook’s unwillingness to curb racism, hate speech and outright lies on its platform. Perhaps most notably was Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s crucification of Zuckerberg in Congress last year. The defection has now reached a tipping point, but the Zuckster isn’t worried. According to a leaked report published by our friends at The Information, Zuckerberg told his staff that advertisers will return “soon enough”. I wouldn’t be so sure. And thanks to my WSJ colleagues Stephanie Stamm and Yan Wu, we have context over how big of a deal this is to Facebook. As of July 1, the dent to Facebook’s overall revenue was relatively small.
Hong Kong Security Law
The controversial Chinese law that criminalizes secession, subversion and collusion with foreign forces was signed into law in Hong Kong this week. The move will also curtail protests and freedom of speech, amid more than a year of unrest in the “special administrative region”. The UK, which controlled Hong Kong as recently as 1997, offered three million Hong Kong residents the chance to settle and apply for citizenship as a result of China’s actions, but in a possible sign of things to come, China warned the British government that it has no right to offer an escape route. To think, after all that’s happened over thousands of years pertaining to empires and dictators, we’re still telling people where they can and can’t go. To be continued…
Another New Pandemic On Its Way?
Speaking of China, a new flu strain carried by pigs has been discovered, and scientists say it has “all the hallmarks” of having the potential of jumping to humans to become another pandemic. This of course comes at a time when much of the world is struggling to contain the current Covid-19 outbreak, and a decade since the Swine Flu pandemic, officially known as H1N1. Because asymptomatic cases were so prevalent, one study estimated that between 700 million and 1.4 billion contracted H1N1, or between 11 and 21 percent of the world’s population. While the infection rate was so high, fortunately the death rate wasn’t — there was an estimated 14,286 Swine Flu deaths worldwide, according to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control. Another one that we’ll keep an eye on…
Putin Vote
Russia went to the polls on Wednesday in a faux referendum on several constitutional amendments, most notably that would allow Vladimir Putin to remain as president until 2036. According to the country’s election commission, the amendments passed with 78 percent of the vote, but critics are already calling the vote rigged and a “total fraud”, in part because of irregular voting patters and little-to-no mention of the political implications leading up to the vote. The previous four-term limit for presidents has now been extended to a six-term limit, with very little stopping Putin from pulling the same antics in the future. This isn’t the first time a stunt of this nature has been pulled. In 1977, the Soviet Union adopted a new constitution under former president Leonid Brezhnev, who appealed to the heart and sovereignty of the Soviet public in order to extend his government’s dictatorial powers.
Racist Football Commentary
And finally, a groundbreaking study has yielded unsurprising results with regards to the language used by football commentators when describing light- and dark-skinned players. Danish research firm RunRepeat analyzed more than 2,000 statements from 80 games across the English Premier League, Serie A, La Liga and Ligue 1, and found that lighter-skinned players were far more likely to be praised for their intelligence and hard work, while darker-skinned players were more likely to be lauded for their strength and pace. Shameful plug time with regards to a similar story I did a couple years ago on NFL commentary. When describing NFL draft candidates, commentators are far more likely to describe white athletes as a “leader”, “smart” and “intelligent”, while “aggressive”, “discipline” and “disruptive” are more likely to be used for black athletes. Everyone has internal biases, which means that everyone must work hard to check and rid themselves from said biases.
