Archives for June 2021

“I had no desire to bring turmoil or a political firestorm to the university that I love, but I am obligated to fight back against a wave of antidemocratic suppression that seeks to prohibit the free exchange of ideas, silence Black voices and chill free speech,” she said in the statement, which was issued by one of the law firms representing her, the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund.

A Legal Defense Fund spokeswoman said at the time that the university had unlawfully discriminated against Ms. Hannah-Jones “based on the content of her journalism and scholarship and because of her race.”

In a June 21 letter, Ms. Hannah-Jones’s legal team informed the university that she would not join the faculty without tenure, adding that she had not withdrawn her application for tenure.

The letter, published on NC Policy Watch, a North Carolina news site, said Ms. Hannah-Jones had prepared her tenure application with an expectation that it would be voted on by the board at its meeting last November. The matter was not addressed at that meeting, nor at a meeting in January, the letter said, and the board offered no explanation on why tenure had been withheld.

The letter added that Ms. Hannah-Jones, after signing her fixed-term contract, had learned of “political interference and influence from a powerful donor,” which she believed had contributed to the failure of the board to vote on the matter.

The “powerful donor” was apparently Walter E. Hussman Jr., the Arkansas newspaper publisher after whom the journalism school is named. In emails to university leaders, Mr. Hussman, who has pledged $25 million to the school, had expressed concerns about certain aspects of the 1619 Project and Ms. Hannah-Jones’s hiring.

But in an interview with The Times in June, Mr. Hussman said that, despite his misgivings, he did not want to influence the board’s decision. He added that the outcome of the matter would not affect his donations to the university.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/30/business/media/nikole-hannah-jones-unc-tenure.html

“I did the starving artist route and had multiple survival jobs, and it was a lot of rejection and doors slammed in my face,” said Newman, who graduated from Illinois Wesleyan University with a degree in musical theater in 2006. While living in Sunnyside, Queens, she made ends meet by babysitting, working in restaurants and passing out fliers in Times Square.

Two years later, she was back in Phoenix, living in her parents’ house — a humbling end to a dream that took shape when she starred in a junior high school production of “Annie.”

Newman found solace in a job at Changing Hands, a bookstore in Tempe, Ariz., that she said helped her get back to her roots as a reader and a writer. “I’m always going to be a creative person,” she said. “I realized those impulses are never going away. If I’m writing and no one reads it except me, that’s a lot less scary than putting myself out there in New York in front of an entire table of casting directors who won’t even look up at me.”

“She was Torri to us then,” said Cindy Dach, the bookseller’s chief executive. “She had a passion for books and community and was a star on the floor. Some booksellers love books but they’re introverts. Torri is the best of both worlds because she can connect with people easily.” (T.J. stands for Torri Jan.)

In early 2011, Newman left to work for Virgin America. She held onto her Changing Hands staff badge and continued to help out during the holiday rush and at events at the Tempe and Phoenix locations, but she could no longer ignore the tug of wanderlust. “I grew up traveling on my mom’s passes,” Newman said. “Travel is just about my most favorite thing in the world to do, which is why I wanted a job that paid me to do it.”

There were challenges to her new role — entitled passengers, the beverage cart — but Newman believes her time in the air helped lay the groundwork for a writing career. “You become really good at reading people: Has this person had too much to drink? Is this person showing a proclivity for noncompliance?” she said. “We are in a metal tube traveling hundred of miles an hour, miles up in the sky. We’re always aware of the margin of error.”

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/30/books/tj-newman-falling.html

The state suit was signed by attorneys general from 46 states and the District of Columbia and Guam. Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina and South Dakota did not join the case.

Facebook asked the court to dismiss both suits in March. The company argued that it was continually challenged with competition, including from new rivals such as TikTok. It also argued that the regulators had failed to prove how the services, which are free, harmed consumers. The judge’s dismissal of both suits, so early in process, stunned regulators and Facebook executives.

The judge, James E. Boasberg of U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, wondered why the states had waited so long to try to unwind Facebook’s deals for Instagram and WhatsApp. Regulators had not tried to block them when they happened. He also rejected allegations that Facebook squashed rival apps by blocking their ability to easily interact with the social media platform.

“Ultimately, this antitrust action is premised on public, high-profile conduct, nearly all of which occurred over six years ago,” he wrote, “before the launch of the Apple Watch or Alexa or Periscope, when Kevin Durant still played for the Oklahoma City Thunder and when Ebola was the virus dominating headlines.”

Judge Boasberg, who was appointed to his current post by President Barack Obama, said the F.T.C. did not sufficiently prove that Facebook was a monopoly. He said the agency’s definition for social media was too vague, and in a reference to an interpretation of antitrust law prevalent in courts that is anchored in consumer prices, he noted that the product was free.

“It is almost as if the agency expects the court to simply nod to the conventional wisdom that Facebook is a monopolist,” he wrote. “After all, no one who hears the title of the 2010 film ‘The Social Network’ wonders which company it is about.”

But, he said, “‘monopoly power’ is a term of art under federal law with a precise economic meaning.”

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/28/technology/facebook-ftc-lawsuit.html