Alex Shultz

The dude fired Breznican, the studio tentpole exclusive king, and Lawson, one of the greatest critical talents of this generation, as his first moves. And IDK if you flipped through his first issue as EIC, but the ad sales… woof. Barely any new buys apart from cat food. He was hired to kill VF.

it's an enormous bummer that Nuzzi was brought on at all, and given an extraordinarily long leash before she became too embarrassing to keep around, while Conde was doing more layoffs and firing 4 staffers for protesting said layoffs. If I were at VF, I'd be very upset about that!

IMO not enough scrutiny directed at VF's Mark Guiducci, who hired Nuzzi. The RFK affair was disqualifying on its own ofc, but the fact that it happened (it's RFK Jr!) was an obvious sign more ethical lapses + embarrassing stuff was floating around. Reflects poorly on an EIC to not anticipate as much

The A-list actor Thanksgiving set-up: Part 1 A series of nights to remember (or forget)

@aristeinhorn.bsky.social is such a great writer: open.substack.com/pub/ariellas...

Omg

"Sacks has long claimed that his position with the White House is above-board because he and Craft sold most of their crypto investments and divested from AI-oriented companies. The sourcing for this claim is David Sacks on his self-reported financial disclosures ..."
-- @alexshultz.bsky.social

The David Sacks AI Scandal Hiding in Plain Sight The AI czar and his firm still have hundreds of investments in AI-related software and hardware companies, according to an analysis of his public disclosures.

As part of his efforts to rile up the "All-In" base, Sacks posted a litigious-sounding letter from a law firm he hired; the letter, directed at the NYT, is best described as a series of complaints about what seem to be normal fact-checking steps and requests for comment from Times reporters

The David Sacks AI Scandal Hiding in Plain Sight The AI czar and his firm still have hundreds of investments in AI-related software and hardware companies, according to an analysis of his public disclosures.

Wrote about AI Czar David Sacks, who's currently throwing a fit on X (and garnering the support of his oligarch friends) because of a NYT investigation that, lucky for Sacks, actually somewhat buries its most damning bit of reporting/analysis

@alexshultz.bsky.social and I have a long discussion of how all those packages show up on your door so quickly--and who is paying the price of "free Prime delivery." Hint: There is no such things as a free lunch...

The Meta internal comms/docs are (understandably) getting lots of attention, but the stuff I found about Snapchat is really, really rough

sorry about the up-close-and-personal Zuck pic, it's the best Meta has to offer from its press kit

New Court Filings Allege Depraved Internal Communications at Meta and Snapchat Social media platforms are confronting allegations that they're intentionally addictive and designed to keep teenage users compulsively scrolling.

For @hardresetmedia.com, I sifted through recently unsealed filings from lawsuits against the major social media platforms and hooooo boy… the allegations in here are worse than whatever you can imagine

Update: “Unfettered” sold ~2,600 copies during its first week, according to data I obtained from a source who requested anonymity. That ranks No. 19 in the adult biographies/autobiographies category, two spots behind Chris Matthews’ RFK hagiography. Not what you want, numbers-wise

Famous writers at New Yorker are up in arms after fact-checker’s firing The media company dismissed four employees, including a fact-checker at the 100-year-old magazine, for “extreme misconduct.” Many of its famous writers are outraged.

“It’s frankly embarrassing that executives would make baseless claims about a fact-checker.”

www.washingtonpost.com/business/202...

🙏

John Fetterman's Memoir Is As Low-Effort As His Senate Tenure | Defector John Fetterman’s just-released memoir, Unfettered, argues that he’s turned a corner and has everything under control. Fetterman was a “stubborn asshole” (his words), he was clinically depressed, he wa...

A former Fetterman advisor texted me: “I think what comes across is the reality of who he is, which is a petulant child who never became a man and is always the victim of his own narrative—even though he’s never had a real job and lives off his dad’s money. It's all pretty sad and pathetic."

John Fetterman's Memoir Is As Low-Effort As His Senate Tenure | Defector John Fetterman’s just-released memoir, Unfettered, argues that he’s turned a corner and has everything under control. Fetterman was a “stubborn asshole” (his words), he was clinically depressed, he wa...

I present my review of "Unfettered," John Fetterman's memoir. In between petty grievances about doing his job, Fetterman asserts that he's feeling good.

Two days after "Unfettered" came out, Fetterman fell directly on his face from ventricular fibrillation, a life-threatening heart rhythm disorder.

One more thing: Were Fetterman not a swing-state senator who got a personal sign-off from Lloyd Austin for his Walter Reed hospitalization—and if he didn't vote to imperil the healthcare of millions amidst the release of his cash-grab memoir—I would of course sympathize with his health issues. Alas.

John Fetterman's Memoir Is As Low-Effort As His Senate Tenure | Defector John Fetterman’s just-released memoir, Unfettered, argues that he’s turned a corner and has everything under control. Fetterman was a “stubborn asshole” (his words), he was clinically depressed, he wa...

A former Fetterman advisor texted me: “I think what comes across is the reality of who he is, which is a petulant child who never became a man and is always the victim of his own narrative—even though he’s never had a real job and lives off his dad’s money. It's all pretty sad and pathetic."

John Fetterman’s Struggle The senator insists he is in good health. But staffers past and present say they no longer recognize the man they once knew.

Also interesting: "Unfettered" subtly confirms much of the reporting in New York mag's exposé, just in bits and pieces. At the end of "Unfettered," Fetterman claims that unspecified parts of that report are incorrect, but he's not very convincing.

Not a foolproof reporting tactic on my part, but I added some interesting anecdotes about how Fetterman's memoir is being received at his hometown Barnes and Noble (+ other PA bookstores). As a point of comparison, I was told by multiple B&Ns that the Kamala Harris book immediately sold like crazy

John Fetterman's Memoir Is As Low-Effort As His Senate Tenure | Defector John Fetterman’s just-released memoir, Unfettered, argues that he’s turned a corner and has everything under control. Fetterman was a “stubborn asshole” (his words), he was clinically depressed, he wa...

I present my review of "Unfettered," John Fetterman's memoir. In between petty grievances about doing his job, Fetterman asserts that he's feeling good.

Two days after "Unfettered" came out, Fetterman fell directly on his face from ventricular fibrillation, a life-threatening heart rhythm disorder.

got-DAMN (and the closing paragraph hits even harder)

John Fetterman's Memoir Is As Low-Effort As His Senate Tenure | Defector John Fetterman’s just-released memoir, Unfettered, argues that  he’s turned a corner and has everything under control. Fetterman was a “stubborn asshole” (his words), he was clinically depressed, he w...

“Bissinger did little to quell those rumors; he yelled at me, then hung up on me, when reached by phone, and later told the New York Times that while he provided the template for Unfettered, it was Fetterman who delivered the content. “The book is John’s,” he said.” defector.com/john-fetterm...

How Amazon Is Conquering (and Ruining) the Package Delivery Market To fulfill billions of orders, Amazon leans on gig workers and subcontractors—an anti-labor practice afflicting most sectors of the economy. We spoke to the preeminent expert on the subject.

With Black Friday fast approaching, @alexshultz.bsky.social spoke with David Weil (@profsheenalives.bsky.social) about how Amazon leans on gig workers, a profoundly anti-labor practice, for their billions of deliveries:

www.hardresetmedia.com/p/how-amazon...

How Amazon Is Conquering (and Ruining) the Package Delivery Market To fulfill billions of orders, Amazon leans on gig workers and subcontractors—an anti-labor practice afflicting most sectors of the economy. We spoke to the preeminent expert on the subject.

Our convo focused on a recent study from David and other researchers about how Amazon is wrecking the parcel delivery market; Amazon has surpassed UPS (a largely unionized workforce) and FedEx in market share, while offering to its contracted delivery drivers significantly less in wages

During our conversation about the lack of labor protections for gig workers and subcontracted employees, we also discussed the NLRB and the NLRA, both of which are on very, very shaky ground.

Weil was renominated to lead the Wage and Hour Division under Biden but he upset too many biz interests the first time around (he's critical of Uber + Lyft). He was voted down in the Senate under circumstances that suggested Chuck Schumer knew what was coming and didn't intervene. Sound familiar?

How Amazon Is Conquering (and Ruining) the Package Delivery Market To fulfill billions of orders, Amazon leans on gig workers and subcontractors—an anti-labor practice afflicting most sectors of the economy. We spoke to the preeminent expert on the subject.

For @hardresetmedia.com: Lots of great and unfortunately depressing insights from David Weil (@profsheenalives.bsky.social), formerly head of Labor Dept's Wage and Hour Division under Obama, about how the American workforce is being squeezed into independent contracting + subcontracted employment

How Amazon Is Conquering (and Ruining) the Package Delivery Market To fulfill billions of orders, Amazon leans on gig workers and subcontractors—an anti-labor practice afflicting most sectors of the economy. We spoke to the preeminent expert on the subject.

I had a long discussion with @alexshultz.bsky.social of @hardresetmedia.com about how the rise of Amazon undermines work for delivery drivers and wider impacts on labor. www.hardresetmedia.com/p/how-amazon...