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We Have to Stop Pretending We Can’t Do Anything About Gun Violence

Jason Tate

Lauren Duca, writing for Teen Vogue:

Firearms are shamefully under-regulated in this country. While details of the Las Vegas shooting continue to emerge, the broader contours of the gun control problem have long ago been cast in sharp relief. It is not too soon to get political. Politics affects everything, from where you get your water to where the latest attacker purchased their assault rifle. There are regulatory policy solutions that would make it more difficult to acquire these weapons. For change to occur, our distraught energy must be translated into an organizational force that insists on an institutional shift in our national approach to violence.

The Night Game Sign With Interscope

Jason Tate

The Night Game have signed with Interscope records:

“The whole process has felt reminiscent of the music industry from another time, and has restored a bit of faith in launching this project through a major label system,” Johnson tells Billboard. “There is a deep connection to the music; not just to the metrics, algorithms, or play counts. It’s refreshing to be working with a company that has ears.”

Tom Petty Reportedly on Life Support

Tom Petty
Jason Tate

TMZ is reporting that Tom Petty has been put on life support following a cardiac arrest in his home.

Update: The latest report is that Tom Petty has passed away. He was 66.

Update #2: TMZ is now reporting that “[t]he singer is not expected to live through the day, but he’s still clinging to life.”

Update #3: Tom Petty’s manager has confirmed that Mr. Petty has passed away.

‘No Way To Prevent This,’ Says Only Nation Where This Regularly Happens

The Onion
Jason Tate

The Onion:

LAS VEGAS—In the hours following a violent rampage in Las Vegas in which a lone attacker killed more than 50 individuals and seriously injured 400 others, citizens living in the only country where this kind of mass killing routinely occurs reportedly concluded Monday that there was no way to prevent the massacre from taking place.

The Onion have been running this same piece, only changing the number of victims and the locations, since at least 2014.

Zuckerberg’s Preposterous Defense of Facebook

Facebook
Jason Tate

Zeynep Tufekci, writing for The New York Times:

In a largely automated platform like Facebook, what matters most is not the political beliefs of the employees but the structures, algorithms and incentives they set up, as well as what oversight, if any, they employ to guard against deception, misinformation and illegitimate meddling. And the unfortunate truth is that by design, business model and algorithm, Facebook has made it easy for it to be weaponized to spread misinformation and fraudulent content. Sadly, this business model is also lucrative, especially during elections. Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook’s chief operating officer, called the 2016 election “a big deal in terms of ad spend” for the company, and it was. No wonder there has been increasing scrutiny of the platform.

Facebook’s “if both sides are mad, we’re doing something right” defense is absolutely absurd.