Rupert, Aziz and Babe.net
I really didn’t want to start 2018 writing about shady media funding. I promised myself that VICE piece would be the last one, and this year would be all about focusing on the positive.
But why does Rupert Murdoch have to have his fingers in absolutely every viciously tribal, anger-inducing, built-to-share story that takes over our social feeds?
I’m sure most of you have at seen the Aziz Ansari story, have a strong opinion on it, and given you’re on Medium right now, have read a number of thinkpieces on what it all means. This post is not to take a side in this debate, it’s simply to remind you to remember to consider how media is funded.
The Media Funding Rabbit Hole
On Monday, I was sent that the Humiliation of Aziz Ansari piece from The Atlantic, and very quickly started to see my Facebook feed fill up with angry messages. I clicked the Atlantic piece, which led me to Babe.net
I surf a good deal of media internet, but had never heard of Babe.net. My initial thought was how valuable a piece of internet property this must be— you’d think a porn site would’ve shelled out a good deal for the URL. Or maybe it was some awesome old school, counterculture feminist blog that’s been bringing down the patriarchy since snatching that domain in the mid 1990s.
This led to my official Follow-the-Money rule (maybe we can brand it the “highly aware reader” rule). If a news item has evokes an intense emotional reaction and I haven’t heard of the site, before I even read the piece, I scroll down until I hit the bottom of the page to see who is the owner. Sometimes with shadier sites you have to look in their Privacy Policy to see the legal owner, but Babe.net had a clear parent company.
I know…this is kind of weird. But I highly recommend this process, if for no other reason to allow you a deep breath before going down the social media anger-hole. It distracts you from the original distraction.
The next step was naturally to google “Tab Media”.
There it was, third Google result, from the NY Times, “With Rupert Murdoch’s Help, Tab Media Targets Young and Cheeky on Campus”. How did Uncle Rupert manage to find his way into a woke feminist blog? How did he once again find his way to corners of digital media I never, ever would’ve expected to him to pop up?
Reading the NY Times article led to a quick googling of Tab Media founder Jack Rivlin, who co-founded the company while at Cambridge University in 2009. It’s a media startup that just raised $6 million, leverages an always lucrative business model of using a large network of college writers, along with a dedicated editorial staff, to publish what Tab Media itself describes as (as per this Guardian piece):
“good news reporting, trash trends, personal stories” and stories about men with certain unappealing qualities and “the pettiest celebrity drama.”
He apparently pitched Murdoch himself, along with News Corp CEO Robert Thompson, while hungover and covered in glitter (again, per the Guardian piece).
Armed with the context that the site is a Newscorp-backed media startup founded by a few Cambridge guys, I went back to Babe.net.
Can you help me with the math?
Okay — serious question. How does this:
…..combined with this:
….lead us to this:
…..or this:
…..or this:
…..or this:
What I would give to have been in that room to hear how this was pitched…..
Why this matters?
Whatever side you are on, please remind yourself this story is playing out like a #RupertSpecial. It engenders tribalism and captivates your attention. It divides us along gender lines, racial lines, and even generational lines. It’s such a perfect #RupertSpecial that it cuts even deeper — rather than limiting itself to macro divisions, it splits open the micro. It pits feminist against feminist, brown man against brown woman, Jezebel vs. Cosmo. If I were going full tinfoil, it almost felt like there were just enough bread crumbs left to goad others into responding: that red vs. white wine line highlighted in both the WaPo and NY Times articles felt almost too easy to attack.
The most divisive viral stories are those with just enough nuance. They provide that little bit of room for us all to interject ourselves into the debate. The way Babe.net presents the account of Grace’s date allows us all to use it to justify some pre-existing belief. All the while, Tab Media sets up their Series B funding round (and it will most definitely happen after this).
This is an important discussion that needs to continue. But I can’t imagine this is the right way. Nuance certainly does not translate on social media, but the pursuit of nuance very easily transforms into rage. That’s what this entire infrastructure is built to do. The loudest voices, along with Rupert Murdoch and the media institutions he somehow continues to build, will always win.
Note #1: I’m assuming Rupert Murdoch is not sitting in Tab Media editorial meetings, and might even not know who Aziz Ansari is. This is a criticism of the tabloid-style of journalism that Murdoch perfected, and is now financially enabling to flourish in new, potentially more powerful digital forms.
Note #2: I have to bring this one up: The NY Times piece on Tab Media tells us, “Most of the 13 editors working out of the office are younger than Taylor Swift. A white picnic table strewn with Dunkin’ Donuts cups and magazines like Teen Vogue and The New Yorker doubles as a meeting hub.”
Do millenials really drink Dunkin’ Donuts? I thought they would’ve been on the 4th wave of coffee by now.
