David Uberti
Columbia Journalism Review
New York, United States
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Past articles by David:
BuzzFeed and the digital media meltdown
In retrospect, BuzzFeed CEO Jonah Peretti’s March 2014 memo to staff, titled “Is History Repeating Itself?” reads like an extended challenge to the rule that every headline ending with a question mark can be answered with a “no.” Peretti told his LOLing troops that “we’re at the start of a new golden age of media” […] → Read More
The future of the #SlatePitch in Trump’s world
When Jacob Weisberg departed from his perch as chairman of the Slate Group in October, he was nudged during an exit interview into giving something of a eulogy for the proverbial #SlatePitch. The impish liberal contrarianism that had long defined the site—maybe to an unfair extent—felt a bit too glib in the face of President […] → Read More
A Future With Less News
Alan Rusbridger’s account of his time at The Guardian illustrates the possibilities and limits of journalism in the digital era. → Read More
Yesterday’s midterms were also a referendum on the press
For 728 days after the election of President Donald Trump stunned Democrats, political professionals, and maybe even Trump himself, the press corps might as well have been holding its collective breath. Pundits who all but coronated the Clinton administration-in-waiting bashfully swore off future predictions while keeping their plush postings. Reporters and editors blunted accountability… → Read More
Forecasting the midterms: Uncertainty with a chance of finger-pointing
Ahead of the November 6 elections, CJR invited writers to spotlight stories that deserve closer scrutiny, in their states and beyond, before voters cast their ballots. Read dispatches from “States of the Union” here. For those of us with memories of November 8, 2016, etched into our temporal lobes, one crack of the neck in the […] → Read More
On cable news at the Kavanaugh hearing, everyone stays in character
Should Thursday’s hearing be viewed as a trial for Brett Kavanaugh, nominee to the Supreme Court, or an extremely public job interview, as Republican and Democratic talking points laid out, respectively, according to a report by The New York Times? Does it reveal the corruption of Democrats, seeking by any means possible to disparage President Trump’s […] → Read More
With McCain’s funeral, the press eulogizes the status quo that gave us Trump
Among Senator John McCain’s many accomplishments, we’ve learned in recent days, was weaving canny stagecraft into his own funeral. Charting out a four-day procession from Arizona to Washington to Annapolis, choosing symbolic eulogists and pallbearers, the Arizona Republican sought to hearken back to a mythic era of politics. And the Washington press corps lapped it […] → Read More
Leave the war with Trump to the national papers
Those who’ve followed President Donald Trump’s love-hate relationship with the press may have anticipated his response to more than 350 news outlets editorializing against his attacks on Thursday. The trio of tweets alone could have gone a long way toward filling out an all-caps press-bashing bingo card: THE FAKE NEWS MEDIA IS THE OPPOSITION PARTY. […] → Read More
Sarah Jeong, The New York Times, and the Gamergate School of Journalism
On Thursday, just a day after The New York Times announced Sarah Jeong as the newest member of its editorial board, she also joined the small but growing club of journalists who’ve been labeled as the real racists in certain corners of the internet. Right-wing media outlets dredged up a series of inflammatory tweets Jeong […] → Read More
The Curious Case of Zack Stoner, Slain Chicago Journalist
When The Chicago Defender put Zack Stoner on its cover in early April, the 113-year-old newspaper portrayed the YouTube vlogger as a modern offshoot of its legacy covering the city’s black community. “The Hood CNN,” as the headline described him. → Read More
Let's Not Forget the Real Victim Here: Sarah Huckabee Sanders
If you can believe it, the Trump administration’s separation of migrant families at the southern U.S. border has sown even more discord in an already-chaotic White House. The latest peak behind the fraying curtain comes courtesy of Vanity Fair’s Gabriel Sherman, who managed to wrangle up a few Sarah Huckabee Sanders confidantes to check in with how the White House press secretary is handling a… → Read More
You Don't Need to Just Quote Trump
Do you notice anything peculiar about this batch of tweets recently shared by the Associated Press with its 12.8 million followers? → Read More
DC Journalists Are Getting Very Rich Off of Trump
Over the past 18 months, political journalists and news executives have done plenty of dancing around the idea that a “Trump Bump” has provided a financial lifeline for national media outlets. The idea that a Donald Trump presidency is a good thing for the bottom line doesn’t mesh with the notion that he presents a unique threat to the press or other democratic institutions. And while there are… → Read More
Sarah Huckabee Sanders is Winning
The White House Correspondents Dinner is this weekend, meaning it’s time for The Politico to drop its annual magazine issue about the media. The edition is meant to give an insider’s view of an insider’s profession, and any such package in 2018 wouldn’t truly be complete without a long human-interest feature on what the site calls “the face of the most duplicitous press operation in White House… → Read More
Chicago Tribune Staffers Tell Bosses to Recognize Their Union or Else
Organizers at the historically conservative Chicago Tribune have given their bosses until Wednesday morning to voluntarily recognize their union, adding that they have the overwhelming staff support needed to prevail in a National Labor Relations Board election. → Read More
The Fight for Amazon's New Headquarters Is Being Waged With Almost Total Secrecy
Envoys for Amazon are now fanning out across the United States and Canada to evaluate 20 cities vying to house its new headquarters. In competing to give Jeff Bezos the sweetest possible incentive package, state and city leaders are thirsting to provide corporate welfare on a massive scale. Yet local residents have largely been left in the dark on what this unprecedented bidding war might end up… → Read More
Conservatives Are Whining That Facebook Is Being Mean to Their Shitty Websites
In January, Facebook announced that it was changing its all-powerful algorithm to prioritize posts from friends and family in order to bolster engagement among users. Adam Mosseri, the head of Facebook’s News Feed, explained that this meant “we’ll show less public content, including videos and other posts from publishers or businesses.” The message was clear: News organizations should expect… → Read More
Politico Apparently Helped Make One of the Trump Campaign's Most Successful Ads
The bombshell revelation that Cambridge Analytica apparently used illicitly obtained Facebook user data to hone the Trump campaign’s digital strategy has given way to more granular details of how the data company manipulated media and tech firms to give its client an edge. On Friday, The Guardian published portions of a 27-page post-election report which was presented to Cambridge employees in… → Read More
How the Old Bosses Won at the New Gothamist
New York Public Radio and WNYC’s revival of Gothamist, the beloved New York news site which was abruptly shut down last November, has been framed as a rare victory for local journalism. In a Tuesday essay on WNYC, NYPR president Laura Walker cloaked a fundraising plea for the project in Churchillian language. “NYPR and Gothamist Are on a Mission to Save Local News,” the headline read. It was… → Read More
NYT Editor Dean Baquet Has No Problem Participating in the Same Event as Steve Bannon
A March 22 Financial Times event about the “future of news” is stacked with media luminaries. Billed as a networking opportunity for C-suite executives, a ticket for the all-day affair goes for $875. It features top journalists from BuzzFeed and Vice, executives from Google and Facebook, and senior figures from Splinter’s parent company Univision, The New York Times, and CNN. → Read More