Media Navel Gaze: May 31, 2016
Fed-hike creep is way upon us. With the economy showing a bit of a spark, Janet Yellen and her monetary squad is signaling (seems more than that journos with language like “in the coming months such a move would be appropriate.”). Money is on June 14-15, the next policy meeting, but then there’s July or September.
Elsewhere:
- The gloves are off: Gawker founder published an open letter to Silicon Valley billion-preneur Peter Thiel, challenging him to a public debate while calling him “thin-skinned” (among other things) on the role of journalism following admission that he helped bankroll the Hulk Hogan lawsuit; because media loves covering media, ink spewed, but no one suggested a Hulk Hogan style fight in the mud so real slinging can begin;
- Twitter upped its character count, bunking the less-is-more rule;
- Tribune Publishing sold 13 percent of the company to a health care executive, making more room for non-media types in the media arena (#trending, #seeGawkerabove)
- Stocks marched higher into the long holiday weekend with major barometers climbing more than 2 percentage points and the Dow ending at 17,873 amid expectations that global-growth concerns may spoil a summer rally – and then there’s those interest rates;
- Trump became presumptive;
- Hillary private-server emails called a violation by State Dept;
- The New York Times said more job cuts coming;
- Headline writers fought to out maneuver each other on this one when Dr. Henry Heimlich used his own technique to save someone’s life (and for the first time on a real live human) at a retirement community in Cincinnati, showing what goes around comes around;
- Adele signed a $130-million record deal with Sony, making the other side that much more welcoming; and
- Nyquist didn’t happen but Exaggerator did.