This year’s Dylan Thomas Prize has been awarded to Bryan Washington’s short story collection, Lot.
Nieman Lab’s Sarah Scire talks to Atlantic executive editor Adrienne LaFrance about conspiracy theories and her recent reporting about QAnon. “Often we encounter absurdities and the impulse can be to wave it away and say, ‘Okay, if we ignore that thing that seems harmful or ridiculous, eventually it’ll peter out.’ But that was also something that people said about birtherism and now Donald Trump is the president. Anyone who can agree that conspiracy theories are harmful for democratic society should be engaged with these kinds of groups and not dismissive of them.”
Fox News contributor Lara Logan’s lawsuit against New York magazine and reporter Joe Hagan has been dismissed.
At Study Hall, Allegra Hobbs looks at blockchain company Civil’s attempt to create a network of independent news websites funded by blockchain. “Civil indeed helped launch a handful of publications, but it fell short on its promise to solve the media industry’s problems by finding a viable, alternative funding model,” she writes. “This might be because Civil’s mission was always more about investigating the viability of cryptocurrency.”
In Vanity Fair, a look at how the New York Times has been poaching reporters and staff from BuzzFeed. Former BuzzFeed editor in chief, Ben Smith, who moved over to the Times in January, said, “I’m still rooting for BuzzFeed and thinking of my friends there . . . and of course hearing their reporting footsteps all over the place.”
The Times reports on the anti-lockdown protestors who are making journalists a target of their anger. One demonstrator accused an NBC reporter of “trying to terrify the general public.”
Tomorrow night on Zoom, McNally Jackson is hosting a discussion between Palestinian novelist Raja Shehadeh and Adam Shatz.
