by Ayana Willoughby (8th)
Buzzfeed acquires The Daily Rubbish to replace Buzzfeed News
Published May 20, 2023 12:28am EST
After 15 percent of Buzzfeed employees were discharged and the Pulitzer Prize-winning Buzzfeed News shut down on May 5, CEO Jonah Peretti announced that Buzzfeed had plans to replace the now-defunct site with The Daily Rubbish.
The purchase agreement was finalized the day after Buzzfeed News officially ceased operations, with Buzzfeed settling on an undisclosed amount of money which Forbes estimates to be between two and six dollars.
“Eh, it’s okay.” Perretti said about The Daily Rubbish in a recent interview with the New York Times. “We only have to pay one guy, and he writes stuff, what, like once a month? Honestly, I don’t know what’s going on with my company anymore—I read one of the articles and The Daily Rubbish certainly lives up to its name.”
Perretti mentioned that he wishes to enforce the “listicle” format of typical Buzzfeed articles, and in addition to re-formatting, suggested altering the title of The Daily Rubbish’s “Spy Balloon Spotted Over CMS” to one that aligns more with pop culture, such as “The U.S. Government Just Spotted A Spy Balloon Near A Middle School, And I Can’t Get Over How Joe Biden Responded On Twitter”.
However, not everyone is on board with these changes.
Buzzfeed has received backlash from The Daily Rubbish for allegedly disparaging the pre-existing journalism on the platform.
“Mr. Perretti seems to have a different vision for The Daily Rubbish than the one we had in mind, but nevertheless we are willing to work with him, because he owns the newspaper now.” says The Daily Rubbish’s newly appointed spokesperson, ChatGPT-4.
By June 1, The Daily Rubbish is expected to have modified all of its news columns in such a way that they correspond with the style of Buzzfeed articles.
Former Buzzfeed News employees have condemned the acquisition of The Daily Rubbish, stating that “[laying off all those people] is unethical” and that one person taking the place of dozens is “nearly as bad as the current AI takeover”.
The Artichoke reached out to Buzzfeed for comment.
Several days later, they told us they laid off the guy who answered emails.
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JetBlue bans babies on its planes indefinitely
Published May 18, 2023 8:36pm EST
David Neeleman, the founder of JetBlue, announced the company’s plans to enforce a baby ban on its airplanes.
Neeleman reports that the ban is a result of the “innumerable complaints” JetBlue and various other airlines receive from irritated passengers regarding the “disruptive nature of infant behavior” on a daily basis.
“We are taking these actions to ensure customer satisfaction,” read an official statement posted to JetBlue’s website on Monday. “But no, we will not make the food better.”
Frequent flyers have expressed their support online for the decision which is set to take effect in October 2023.
“I have to take Ubrelvy® for my severe migraines and I feel like babies are ruining the performance of my medication.” Twitter user Anna Collins wrote using the trending hashtag ‘BabyBan’. “And in case you didn’t know, the people who take off their shoes are next.”
Collins told The Artichoke that not every person shares her triumphant sentiment about the ban—families in particular.
A full-time parenthood blogger mentions that “many families will suffer” and “it isn’t like the baby can drive itself to the destination”.
According to her blog page, around 21 percent of people travel by plane yearly with a child between the ages of 6 months to 36 months.
“The people in favor of JetBlue’s new rule have no idea about how it will affect those of us with kids,” She wrote for her blog. “JetBlue is on the more affordable side, and for families who can’t afford to pay to be on more expensive flights at United or American Airlines, this will be devastating. Now I, a struggling upper middle-class mother, am only able to show people pictures of my kids.”
The Artichoke reached out to the Federal Aviation Administration for comment, to which they replied: “Just give me a sec.”
It has been nine days.