Left-media Layoffs Spark #LearnToCode Meme, They Are Not Amused
“#learntocode is hilarious because just last year #journalists were hitting unemployed coal miners with the same energy, and now that the tables have turned they can’t take the banter”
There were more than a thousand left-stream media layoffs earlier this week. The cuts took place across the spectrum of left-stream media and included cuts at HuffPo, BuzzFeed, Yahoo News, among others.
The finger-pointing has thus far been aimed at Facebook and Twitter, but wounded leftstream media warriors are irked by a reminder of their own callous response to massive Obama-era coal industry job losses.
The DC Caller reported earlier this week:
BuzzFeed, Yahoo and other major outlets cut loose more than 1,000 jobs Wednesday in what analysts think is a broadside against journalists. There is also concern Facebook is indirectly responsible for the massacre.
Verizon Media, which owns Yahoo and the Huffington Post, is slashing roughly 800 jobs, or 7 percent, of its global workforce across the organization. BuzzFeed also announced a move to cut 15 percent of its workforce, including jobs in journalism. Other media outlets followed suit.
Digital outlets on the local, national and global level are struggling to keep up in an environment where information is shared for free across a slew of social media platforms, according to Eric Schiffer, the CEO of Patriarch Equity, which focuses on pre-IPO startups in Silicon Valley.
“Facebook and some of the other big tech agitators have acted like rat poison for journalist jobs. When you can get your news for free from a platform, it decimates the firms that are putting out high quality reporting,” Schiffer told The Daily Caller News Foundation. This wave of layoffs could be the beginning of something big, he said.
Personally, I don’t like to celebrate anyone losing a job . . . unless it’s Hillary Clinton and the job is one she expected was hers: President of these United States. But I am only human and do enjoy a dash of well-earned schadenfreude.
https://twitter.com/Oil_Guns_Merica/status/1088503786065330176?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
https://twitter.com/LDoren/status/1088615561364426752?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
— Legitimist LARPer (@Benevolentrwds) January 25, 2019
When our nation’s coal miners found themselves out of work, the left-media gleefully told them that they need to “learn to code.” After all, they were dinosaurs working, literally, with dinosaur fuels and needed to be reeducated for the global, technological economy. The condescending chant that rained down from the privileged ivory towers of the leftist elite: Learn. To. Code.
#learntocode is hilarious because just last year #journalists were hitting unemployed coal miners with the same energy, and now that the tables have turned they can't take the banter ? pic.twitter.com/J8lUTW2r1N
— Cranium Caper (@denythepooh) January 25, 2019
Having found themselves out of work, the leftstream media is less than happy to have their advice repeated to them and are blaming the “alt right” white supremacists for . . . trolling them on Twitter.
Have you thought about #LearnToCode
— TheDeplorableOneYourMomWarnedYouAbout (@yourmomwarnedyu) January 25, 2019
https://twitter.com/UZI4Y0U/status/1088925917877915649
Ever humorless and unable to turn their ever-vigilant eye for human imperfections upon themselves, the self-satisfied left-media is content to play victim.
Um, no. This is what you assholes told coal miners when Obama put them out of work, and now it’s being lobbed back at you. https://t.co/JOsylKa9gP
— American Journalists Publish Chinese Propaganda (@JohnEkdahl) January 25, 2019
They're really getting triggered by the #LearnToCode meme. ?
Learn. To. Code. pic.twitter.com/TnyjyHWnXt
— Annrhefn (@Annrhefn) January 25, 2019
https://twitter.com/HillaryKelly/status/1088499940383473664
And the winners of the interwebs: Ace of Spades and Iowa Hawk. Ace has some great thoughts about all this, and David Burge aka Iowa Hawk @iowahawkblog, set to music by @SixStringTweets (h/t Powerline blog):
Another @iowahawkblog work of art pic.twitter.com/BDhiXxUKRo
— SixStringTweets (@SixStringTweets) January 25, 2019
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Comments
“…and now that the tables have turned they can’t take the banter”
Most likely because they know they aren’t smart enough to learn to do something that’s actually useful.
Funny you should say this, the layoffs are tweeting about their availability to write about “marginalized communities” and “gender in health and pop culture” and “justice for black lesbian Hispanic males who identify as Native American transgender Muslims” (okay, I made that last one up). Their tweets reveal a narrow worldview that makes them singularly unfit for writing work that is not on a leftist site (and they can’t sustain them). These stupid people are so “specialized” that they can’t see anything except through their narrow, limited, SJW-bias goggles. “I do work on women who are men and feel black even though they’re Hispanic,” hire me! Pfft!
Fuzzy, how about we tweet to them that there are loads of high paying jobs for those subjects in Iran?
LOL Snark.
Thanks Fuzzy for the reporting on this serious, ok who am I kidding….on this HILARY-E OUS story!
As an ex-reporter who left the industry voluntarily before the bottom dropped out (and even 20 years ago when I was still in it I could see the writing on the wall and I was dumbfounded at how many print people could not see the digital tsunami coming), I assure you that a lot of them don’t have the skills to do something else besides leftist, political advocacy work, which is what most were doing to begin with and not journalism.
I have no sympathy, no empathy, no nothing for any of these snobs who have pretended for too long that they are the only arbiters of truth on the planet, who bitch and moan about how horrific all these layoffs are. Find a new life. Actually, for once, get a life. And stop trying to screw with everyone else’s.
Visceral anger – That’s what I have with these people. I value clarity and intellectual honesty over everything else when it comes to language and thought. Does that mean I want everyone to think alike? No. It means nothing like that. I don’t want full agreement, which is another term for Orwellian Newspeak, which is what too many of these unemployed clowns practiced. Once you toss all the integrity out of thought and speech, you move into tyranny. I want vibrant, different opinions as part of a shared culture. Clarity and intellectual honesty don’t exist in American journalism any more. What we have now is poison for a country built on freedom and liberty.
Erstwhile journalist here. I couldn’t agree more.
It has been a long time since I learned programming… punch cards and CoBOL on IBM 360s. It was great fun and got even better as the hardware improved. Teaching an interested learner how to do engage in the realm is very productive.
Can’t say much about the new era of computer science other than how much easier it has become to use high level compilers that make websites function, web pages and graphics readily available and the ready access of anyone to a superb set of communication and computational abilities.
As it were, I recall a time when there seemed to be some integrity in news reporting and editorializing or opinionizing could be clearly distinguished from actual reporting.
Hell, there once was a time when AP competed with UPI before AP became what it has become. Oooh, dat be so ugly!
“It has been a long time since I learned programming …”
Those were the days. For me, it consisted of IBM 407 accounting machine, 083 sorter, 029 card punch, 526 summary punch, 085 collator, 557 interpreter, and a 029 card punch converted for telecommunications use. Also, IBM 1401 using S.P.S. and Autocoder, followed by IBM 360/30 and 50 with COBOL and Assembly languages, and, lastly, IBM 370/158 and 3033 using COBOL and PL/1. Started as an EAM (Electronic Account Machine) Operator, then Computer Operator (DOS), Sr. Computer Operator (DOS, OS), Programmer/Analyst, and was a Systems Analyst when I decided to move to something else.
“Garbage In, Garbage Out,” data checks on tape or disk drives seem to happen at the worst times, and the creativity of dealing with limited main processor memory were few of the signs of the times. Those were the days.
Remember those humid days when the punch cards would swell?
Remember all those broad cryptic error messages, followed by trying to figure out what was wrong?
“What color should my database be?”
Jim Acosta, coder
The thinnest-skinned of all thin-skinned species – behold! The “journalist”
The laid-off subset of this species will now have plenty of time to study economics. If they’re lucky, they’ll turn their foci to Austrian economist Joseph Schumpeter, who popularized the notion of creative destruction in free markets. But that’s if they’re lucky.
A difference between accountants and economists is that, given a set of information or data, 10 out of 10 accountants will quite likely come up with the same report… and it they don’t those dissenting will absolutely understand the basis from which the others are operating.
In contrast… economists often have cats and know things that other economists are not aware of.
Also, female accountants are usually pretty and male accountants are usually manly. Whereas… Paul Krugman.
On the uptick, we are blessed to have Thomas Sowell and Walter Williams!
Haha, but let us not forget statisticians, lawyers and English majors.
When hiring I avoided pretty women. First that removed the likelihood that I would be tempted. Second, it lowered the likelihood of others being tempted (I.E., my paying for non productivity). And third, less likelihood of lawsuits.
“When you can get your news for free from a platform, it decimates the firms that are putting out high quality reporting”
High quality reporting?
>snort<
Double snort!
“it decimates the firms that are putting out high quality reporting,”
This culling is in large part do to the public not finding quality reporting.
I have been tied somewhat to journalism for about three decades. I still monitor journalism forums.
What I and most people want to see in articles are facts. By and large I do not like journalists trying to tell me what I should think. I expect facts, and I will make up my own mind concerning the issues.
Huffington Post actively censors and shapings commenting to promote their political agenda, therefore I no longer read anything they publish. The same is true of Buzzfeed.
Regarding turning journalists into coders, there are two problems. First is that most are going to lack aptitude. next is the fact that low level coders will be automated out of jobs in the near future.
I guess that all those propagandizing journalists will have to become PR hacks.
The problem with #learntocode as I see it is that the last thing the software industry needs is more social justice activists.
Right vs. wrong, that’s so…. binary. #LearnToCode
Actually, given the awful work load in tech with no comp time, I probably would have had a happier life if I had become a dentist or optometrist. Though the hashtag could also work for insurance codes 😉
My oldest grandson is 10 and already programming in several high level (IS easiest) computer languages. He is very smart, and even more stubborn.
I punish him based on binary:), Each infraction on a given day results in punishment assessed at a higher rate, 1-2-4-8-16 …., he was amazed at how fast the binary sequence adds up.
He can pay fines of a 1 cent per point, or he loses one minute of computer time per point, or he can receive swats, one swat per 25 points or fraction of 25. All but the last swat are not meant to sting, while the last one reminds him that they could all sting.
I taught him the meaning of the word insidious with his options of punishment. In fact, I constantly teach when interacting with both my children and grandchildren.
Coal Mining is dirty, hard, and dangerous work.
It pays pretty good.
Not everyone is even capable of doing it.
Coding?
It doesn’t pay. It’s mindless.. nobody in their right mind would want to do it.
Coding Coal Miner?
Never.
Coders are not created equal, most have in the past cranked out mind numbing highly repetitive material.
There are exceptional coders, who actually invent new things, highly productive, and they make big bucks.
I had run of a university starting in 7th grade, and learned ALGOL on a mainframe, followed by learning FORTRAN on a scientific workstation a year or two later.
I went on to become an engineer, and started my first business when I was 19.
Knowledge of both software and hardware, not just electrical, but also mechanical, architectural and lots of scientific background was the foundation of a very successful career.
All knowledge has value, and cross fertilizing disciplines is what produces the most value.
“Never let a crisis go to waste” said somebody.
These out of work Js now have the time available to learn a trade. There are places paying “signing bonuses” to carpenters and electricians.. like they were tailbacks or center fielders.
Google “Mike Rowe”.
“When our nation’s coal miners found themselves out of work, the left-media gleefully told them that they need to “learn to code.” After all, they were dinosaurs working, literally, with dinosaur fuels and needed to be reeducated for the global, technological economy.”
Oh, no, Fuzzy, it wasn’t JUST the left-media. National Review and the rest of the Cruise Ship Conservative media was equally involved. Don’t you DARE let them skate.
“National Review and the rest of the Cruise Ship Conservative media was equally involved.”
Just because it needs to be said again.
“Cruise ship conservatives”. i have had solicitations to go on these cruises but always thought spending that money on real conservative politicians was a better use of my money.You have zero chance of changing any of the speakers minds and if they change yours it would not be for better.
I am a software developer with a degree and years of experience backing me up, and still actively working in the field.
You don’t just go and “learn to code” but especially you don’t tell a coal miner who lost his job to “learn to code”. It is disrespectful to the coal miner, and it is disrespectful to those of us who actually know “how to code”.
Coding is not burger flipping. You don’t “learn to code” in three days, or three months or even three years.
All that said, I would not want any of these journolists anywhere near me, or my career. First because they would not have a clue, and second because they are all a bunch of POS.
But I admit it’s fun to tell THEM to “learn to code”.
I’ll speak some truth to power. I’m glad that these 1000 extremist-progressive millennial apparatchiks got fired. They’ve been undermining our shared culture and democracy since 9-11. They willfully and purposefully embargo, distort or misrepresent every news story that crosses their transom. They care not a jot for justice.
Let them live out of a shopping cart for all I care. That experience could be leveraged into a book deal and an interview on NPR’s Weekend Edition (following Will Short and his puzzle segment.)
And please, stay away from coding because Google is already saturated with leftist coders.
Coal miners produce a very useful product that cab be easily converted to energy that everybody uses even lying fake news reporters. The only people that need fake news are other hucksters and frauds like liz warren and bernie sanders.
Plus, can you imagine a song starting out “i was born a code writer’s daughter”?
But they all have health insurance, being supporters of ObamaCare and all, don’t they? According to Nancy Pelosi they can now fulfill their dreams of being artists and without fear of medical calamity.