1. Monthly archive
  2. May 2017

May 2017

When push comes to shove, how quickly will you give up your data for convenience?

[Commentary] We may have a gut-instinct to protect our privacy, but we are increasingly are also willing to trade that data for either convenience or money. As a professor of IT, business analytics, and marketing at New York University’s Stern School of Business, I have collaborated with telecom providers, advertisers, and mobile-app developers to design massive real-world field experiments to understand just how quickly consumers are willing to give up their real-time location data to get personalized discounts.

[Anindya Ghose is Professor of IT, business analytics, and marketing at New York University's Stern School of Business]

Roger Stone claims Sean Hannity made 'insane effort' to be White House chief of staff

President Donald Trump's former campaign adviser, Roger Stone, claims he "had to kill" an "insane effort" by Fox News host Sean Hannity to become White House chief of staff. "Sean Hannity and his lackey Bill Shine blocked me from Fox because I blocked Sean's insane effort to become @realDonaldTrump [White House chief of staff]," Stone tweeted May 2.

Shine resigned from Fox News as its co-president on May 1 amid criticism of his handling of sexual harassment claims. Hannity quickly responded to Stone, denying he ever asked for consideration for the job, which was awarded to former Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus. "Roger, with all due respect, I NEVER EVER ASKED to be considered for any WH job, nor would I ever have accepted, nor is that my skill set," Hannity tweeted.

Can Freedom of the Press Survive Trump’s Onslaught?

[Commentary] The message from America’s highest official — that the world’s most professional and trusted media outlets are malicious frauds, that facts and fakeries are equivalent, and that press access to policymaking and diplomacy must submit to the whims of the powerful — represent a set of values that could undermine democracy. As every parent, corporate CEO, and Fox News staffer knows, values are set at the top.

Regardless of how he treats reporters behind closed doors, President Donald Trump has signaled publicly that it’s okay to play nasty with the press. The relationship between the media and the state is an uneasy truce; Trump has offered public officials license to rewrite the terms as they see fit.

[Suzanne Nossel is executive director of the Pen American Center]

This Is How the Free Press Dies

[Commentary] Former Motherboard editor Ben Makuch has been pursued by the Canadian government since 2014 for doing his job. For nearly three years, our colleague and friend Ben Makuch has had the full weight of Canada's intelligence agencies, federal government, and court systems bearing down on him for the crime of committing journalism.

While Ben's case has been widely covered in Canada, it has flown under the radar of the Trump-obsessed American press. But what happened with Ben is part of a global trend to prevent the free spread of information by governments that espouse democratic values and supposedly champion an open society.

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