PART ONE
During my long chaotic career as a journalist, I periodically landed at the bleeding edge of new media, including late in 1995.
At that time, I had been helping a small team launch the web-based magazine Salon.com in an architect’s office down by the Bay after leaving a high-level position at public media giant KQED as executive vice-president.
I also was sort of looking for a new full-time job.
So one afternoon, at the invitation of a former student at U-C Berkeley (where I taught investigative reporting for 14 years) I took a tour of the warehouse headquarters of the award-winning Wired magazine down in Soma. I liked the feel of the office — it was open, casual, with lots of light rock music discreetly playing in some parts, and the occasional dog wandering around.
But the real attraction lay next door on the other side of a common kitchen area where HotWired was located. This was the online experiment created by Wired’s founders, and I knew it was already getting funding from some of the same corporations we had been unsuccessfully courting while I was at KQED.
HotWired’s headquarters presented a striking scene. Row after row of mostly 20-somethings were working on keyboards with large monitors perched on wooden doors balanced over sawhorses, with pink ethernet cables snaking everywhere, the Chili Peppers blasting overhead and a whiff of marijuana in the air. Two or three former interns of mine stood up to greet me and showed how they were designing content for a whole range of wild-looking websites.
The atmosphere of the place seemed to vibrate, pulsating with the beat. Right after I left the office, I made a call home to say, "I've just found the next place I want to work."
Several weeks later a call came in from a HotWired executive half my age asking me if I’d like to become the producer of what would be the web's first daily political news site, branded “The Netizen.”
Although the starting salary was barely half what I'd previously been making, and I did have the needs of a new family at home to consider, I accepted the offer without hesitation and said I could start the very next day.
On that first day, I was introduced to a small staff of very young producers and designers with little or no journalism experience. But they were smart, technically savvy, highly motivated and ready to invent something cool.
I quickly hired two of the brightest former journalism students I knew from Berkeley to the team and set out to work with the head engineer, whom I knew from our work together at Mother Jones, and we set a crash course to launch The Netizen.
It took us something like 28 days. And our timing was perfect.
1996 was a presidential election year, so we hired three semi-experienced political writers as our correspondents and they fanned out across the campaign trail to cover the re-election effort of incumbent Bill Clinton and his Republican challengers, including the eventual nominee, Bob Dole.
I had insisted on complete editorial independence for the operation, which quickly attracted a very large audience among the early adopters then flocking to the web. Day after day we published smart, snarky takes from all sides of the political spectrum.
New ideas for features sprouted daily; we quickly added audio, polls, photos, and interactive tools. We were able to generate controversy almost without trying.
Email was still relatively new and the messages from readers that poured in upon publication included some that were outright abusive, often misogynistic or racist, which disturbed me and was a harbinger of bad things to come. But other than that, I loved the chaotic two-way communication cacophony of the web compared to the old “voice of God” broadcast model.
Free to say whatever they wanted to us and each other, readers blasted off at our writers in a way that traditional journalists would never have tolerated. Traditional journalists were used to being the last word on a topic, not the first. We even decided which “letters to the editor” were to be published weeks later, furthering our control.
But it was immediately apparent to me that those days were dead and gone. There was absolutely no censorship at The Netizen and we quickly rocketed into position as a leading daily political news source on the web.
Another thing that was gone was the ability to charge for the content. We just gave it away for free. This was a harbinger of very bad things to come indeed for the traditional journalism world I had been a part of over the previous three decades.
Honestly I didn’t know where this would all lead. It felt like I was sort of trying to help co-pilot a runaway rocket ship headed toward outer space.
(To be continued.)
[NOTE: I first published a different version of this essay one year ago today on 6/30/21 on my personal blog and distributed it through Facebook. This is a new, updated version specifically for my Substack subscribers. It is the first in a series.]
***
TODAY’s NEWS LINKS (40):
NATO deal between Turkey, Sweden and Finland brings home wins for Erdogan — and a possible F-16 breakthrough (CNBC)
In Blow to Putin, Turkey Won’t Bar Sweden and Finland From NATO (NYT)
NATO deems Russia its ‘most significant and direct threat’ (AP)
U.S. to boost military presence in Europe as NATO bolsters its eastern flank (Reuters)
Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused Russia of becoming “a terrorist” state carrying out “daily terrorist acts” and urged Russia’s expulsion from the United Nations. “We need to act urgently to do everything to make Russia stop the killing spree,” Zelenskyy said in a virtual address to the U.N. Security Council. [AP]
Russian forces struck at targets in the Mykolaiv area of southern Ukraine and intensified attacks on fronts across the country as NATO members met in Madrid to plan a course of action against the challenge from Moscow. (Reuters)
War in Ukraine is driving demand for Africa's natural gas. That's controversial (NPR)
Taliban, US Plan to Meet in Qatar to Discuss Freeing Frozen Afghanistan Funds (Bloomberg)
Sudan’s military strikes disputed region bordering Ethiopia (Al Jazeera)
Fearing outbreaks of religious violence, police in the Indian state of Rajasthan banned public gatherings and suspended internet services a day after two Muslims posted a video claiming responsibility for slaying a Hindu man. (Reuters)
The pandemic may have forever altered the economy, Fed Chair Powell says (CNN)
Affordable housing in California now costs $1 million per apartment to build. (Cal Today)
Gas lines and scuffles: Sri Lanka faces humanitarian crisis (AP)
Sri Lankan doctors and other medical staff as well as teachers will take to the streets today to demand that the government solve a severe fuel shortage at the heart of the South Asian country's worst economic crisis in decades. (Reuters)
A journalist says the Philippines is shutting down her critical news site (NPR)
Reporter shot to death in Mexico, the 12th journalist killed there this year (Guardian)
Cassidy Hutchinson’s Testimony Highlights Legal Risks for Trump (NYT)
Trump’s had bad moments, but few worse than Cassidy Hutchinson’s testimony (WP)
Allies of Trump have tried to intimidate people with knowledge of what was going on inside the White House around the time of the Capitol attack, Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) said at the conclusion of Tuesday's shocking Jan. 6 hearing. Cheney said the committee is considering how to respond to the apparent intimidation. [HuffPost]
Opinion | The Effing President Gets His Comeuppance — Trump (Politico)
A President Untethered — Trump (NYT)
Another American woman just stood up to protect democracy from Trump (CNN)
Cassidy Hutchinson’s Testimony Should Be the End of Donald Trump
Regardless of the legal obstacles to convicting the former President, the testimony of a former White House aide reconfirmed that Trump must never again be allowed anywhere near power. (New Yorker)
The People v. Donald Trump — The evidence for a possible criminal case against the former president is piling up. (Atlantic)
Chesa Boudin says he won’t rule out running again for San Francisco D.A., in his first interview since the historic recall. (SFC)
The nosedive in cryptocurrency markets has wiped out millions of dollars in funds stolen by North Korean hackers, digital investigators say, threatening a key source of funding for the sanctions-stricken country and its weapons programs. (Reuters)
New turmoil rocks crypto as court orders hedge fund to liquidate (Politico)
Breyer makes it official: He's leaving the Supreme Court on Thursday at noon (CNN)
For Many Women, Roe Was About More Than Abortion. It Was About Freedom. (NYT)
Tech Giants Pour Billions Into AI, but Hype Doesn’t Always Match Reality (WSJ)
EU countries clinched deals on proposed laws to combat climate change, backing a 2035 phase-out of new fossil fuel car sales and a multibillion-euro fund to shield poorer citizens from CO2 costs. (Reuters)
Surprise solar storm with 'disruptive potential' slams into Earth (LiveScience)
The shrinking of Lake Mead is exposing a wide range of wreckage — even bodies (WP)
Record heat across Japan (NHK)
The west must work with Russia to save the Arctic (Financial Times)
How India taught the world the art of collecting data (BBC)
15 Years Ago, the iPhone Went On Sale (MacRumors)
Antidepressant Medication Label Reminds Users That Pill Should Never Be Mixed With Long Look In Mirror (The Onion)
***
TODAY’s LYRICS:
"Give It Away"
Red Hot Chili Peppers
What I've got you've got to give it to your mamma
What I've got you've got to give it to your papa
What I've got you've got to give it to your daughter
You do a little dance and then you drink a little water
What I've got you've got to get it put it in you
What I've got you've got to get it put it in you
What I've got you've got to get it put it in you
Reeling with the feeling don't stop continue
Realize I don't want to be a miser
Confide w/sly you'll be the wiser
Young blood is the lovin' upriser
How come everybody wanna keep it like the kaiser
Give it away give it away give it away give it away now
Give it away give it away give it away give it away now
Give it away give it away give it away give it away now
I can't tell if I'm a kingpin or a pauper
Greedy little people in a sea of distress
Keep your more to receive your less
Unimpressed by material excess
Love is free love me say hell yes
I'm a low brow but I rock a little know how
No time for the piggies or the hoosegow
Get smart get down with the pow wow
Never been a better time than right now
Bob Marley poet and a prophet
Bob Marley taught me how to off it
Bob Marley walkin' like he talk it
Goodness me can't you see I'm gonna cough it
Lucky me swimmin' in my ability
Dancin' down on life with agility
Come and drink it up from my fertility
Blessed with a bucket of lucky mobility
My mom I love her 'cause she love me
Long gone are the times when she scrub me
Feelin' good my brother gonna hug me
Drink my juice young love chug-a-lug me
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