

How The Racket Almost Upended Journalism - dnetesn
http://www.wired.com/2014/12/life-and-death-of-the-racket/

======
jonnathanson
I was looking forward to _The Racket_ , and when I saw this headline, I was
looking forward to an explanation for its stillbirth. I'm still looking
forward to that explanation.

This piece wraps up abruptly, but that's not the real issue. The real issue is
that the piece seems to force itself into a conclusion at the _precise_ point
where it's starting to get interesting. It's getting good, setting the stage,
and then...it stops. That's a real shame.

Also, this is neither here nor there, but I feel we're getting half of the
story. Ok, so Taibbi ran into the typical frustrations with "responsibility
matrices" and other corporate-process bullshit. But what else happened? How
much money was spent building this thing out? Were there crucial turning
points along the way, places where things could have gone north or south,
based on choices people made? And what does Omidyar have to say, for that
matter? I have no personal insight into the inner workings of First Look
generally, or _The Racket_ specifically. But I can't shake the feeling that
there _must_ have been more to the story than what we get here.

Finally, is it really fair to say that something that never launched "almost
upended journalism?" By that same logic, the never-produced _Halo_ movie was
"almost" the biggest blockbuster of all time. We're presuming the success of
the project, if only it had launched. Thing is, we can't make that
presumption. As much as I would have _liked_ this project to succeed, as much
as I admire Matt Taibbi, and as much as I believe journalism could use a good
upending, I can't say whether the market would have borne this out. We just
don't know.

~~~
frandroid
This article, linked in the Wired piece, actually does the reporting that
you're looking for:
[http://inthesetimes.com/article/17403/reports_from_inside_fi...](http://inthesetimes.com/article/17403/reports_from_inside_first_look_media_suggest_that_maybe_silicon_valley_shou)

~~~
jonnathanson
Awesome, thank you.

------
jbooth
Why could we not have at least seen this happen?

"“We outsourced Thomas Friedman to an Indian content farm, where they produce
for pennies a word, any kind of material you want. Really, it’s terrible and I
felt kind of guilty after I did this. But you hire them to write a blog post
or an article, and I hired this company to write ten stories about
globalization and the economy. I basically told them I wanted them to write a
Thomas Friedman article, I told them I wanted then to write an article about
globalization and its effect on the workforce that’s positive about
globalization, speaks about the challenges, but in the end works out for
everyone. I told them to quote a cab driver. I just gave them Friedman’s
theses, and asked them to write 800 words, and they did.”"

------
rhys_rhaven
I was really looking forward to The Racket. I really wanted FirstLook to
become to this massive prairie of muckraking bison and harassing gophers and a
ghost with a mug of wild turkey next to his shotgun laughing over it all.

Instead I'll have 'project responsibility matrices' bouncing around in the
bitter attic of my thoughts for years. Shame.

