Archive for 2019

March 29, 2019

YASHAR ALI: “I realized that @DafnaLinzer, the head of all political coverage for NBC News and MSNBC wasn’t calling to advocate for her network, she was calling to advocate the DNC’s position. She wanted me to wait so they could call state party leaders.”

This is a Twitter thread about how Ali scored a small scoop on the dates of the first Democratic debates (my liver is already groaning at the forthcoming drunkblogs), and how deeply in bed the DNC is with MSNBC.

Or as Karol Markowicz tweeted, “I’ve had a few of these ‘this is how people think it works’ moments in the last week and those people turned out to be right. This is a must-read thread of egregious behavior by an MSNBC staffer helping out the DNC.”

You’ll want to read the whole thing.

Posted at 4:20 pm by Stephen Green on Mar 29th, 2019

I PREDICT SHE WILL CONTINUE TO MAKE TEN MILLION DOLLARS A YEAR AND BE FETED BY LEFTIES EVERYWHERE: Will Rachel Maddow face a reckoning over her Trump-Russia coverage? “The Mueller investigation was covered more on MSBNC than any other television network, and was mentioned virtually every day in 2018. No twist was too minuscule or outlandish for Maddow; every night, seemingly, brought another nail in the coffin of the soon-to-be-dead Trump presidency. . . . Maddow was not only certain that Russians had rigged the election. On air, she would talk about the ‘continuing operation’ – the idea that the Kremlin was controlling the Trump presidency itself. In more sober times, this brand of analysis would barely cut it on a far-right podcast. In the Trump era, it was ratings gold.”

Related: Reps. Green, Burchett Have Fun at Rep. Schiff’s Expense with Video Showing Empty Envelope.

Posted at 2:44 pm by Glenn Reynolds on Mar 29th, 2019

WEARABLE TECH: I Now Have a Cardiologist.

I want to encourage those of you with Apple Watch [Series 4] devices in those supported regions to go grab the update and try out the ECG. Not just because it’s extremely cool tech. But because, well, let me put it this way:

I now have a cardiologist.

That isn’t a statement I was planning to make in my forties. But there it is. And it’s only true because of Apple Watch.

There’s a little too much progressive virtue-signaling in this piece for my tastes, but the story is a good one — and illustrates that we’re going to get a lot of health benefits from wearable tech. Onboard ECG tests are just the beginning.

Posted at 2:33 pm by Stephen Green on Mar 29th, 2019

TASKRABBIT “HAPPINESS PLEDGE?”: Readers may recall that I had a negative experience with TaskRabbit. A “Tasker” broke my treadmill, and TR declined to pay for its repair or replacement. I thought about filing a small claims court action, but a friend suggested I file a complaint with the Better Business Bureau, and try to resolve it informally. So I did. TR responded:

TaskRabbit offers the TaskRabbit Happiness Pledge (pledge.tr.co) as a customer service offering to encourage continued use of the TaskRabbit Platform in the event that a user may have a negative experience. In this particular instance, TaskRabbit provided the Client with a resolution that was in line with our Happiness Pledge (pledge.tr.co), and the Client agreed to accept the offer. He later chose to retract his acceptance, and we are sorry that he did not want to move forward with the process. 

Let’s see. I didn’t “retract my acceptance.” I reluctantly agreed to a proposed resolution, until TR sent me the actual agreement to sign, and I discovered that (a) TR wasn’t actually agreeing that my treadmill would be repaired or replaced; and (b) the agreement had a severe “gag” clause that prohibited me from telling anyone about my negative experience with TR. Does TR understand that one can’t really “agree” to a settlement until one sees the actual, exact terms of the settlement? In any event, caveat emptor.

Posted at 2:15 pm by David Bernstein on Mar 29th, 2019