CNN’s Show-runner Stops Show. Apple’s Creepy Goggle Tech. And America’s Guardians of the Gasoline Galaxy! Plus More! #167
Grüezi! I’m Adrian Monck, and welcome to this newsletter featuring seven things that caught my attention this week.
Also in this edition – a Holocaust survivor’s reflections, brain implants to help people walk, and Moomin country’s free electricity.
–––
1️⃣ ‘Ich nichten Chris Licht-en’
CNN’s ousted leader learned lessons the hard way.
Any of us followed for long enough might say and do things that an ironic and acid-tongued observer might draw upon to portray us in an unflattering light.
CNN’s former boss Chris Licht discovered that The Atlantic reporter profiling him was not James Boswell to his Samuel Johnson.
Tim Alberta, Licht’s acid-tongued amanuenis, produced a picture one media exec described as “like watching a snuff film.”
(Needless to say, Alberta’s pyrhhic profile means his career too is likely not to feature opportunities to spend unlimited time close to powerful people.)
Licht’s previous success had been feted long ago in the NYT. It consisted largely of allowing presenters – or anchors – to be a little less wooden and a little more ‘themselves’. It was built on personal relationships and trust.
When you run a 3,500 person organization, relationships and trust are not built on handshakes, smiles and shared pizza.
If you ever wondered about the shallowness and loneliness of life at the top of big, powerful organisations, consider this cameo. CNN’s ‘owner’ – David Zaslav, CEO of Warner Discovery – tells Licht after courting and hiring him:
“We’ve been friends for 15 years... We’re not friends any more. You work for me.”
A brain aneurysm at 38 apparently caused Licht to reassess his life.
Had he shared a little more of himself with the organization and allowed CNN staff a little more of the freedom that he gave Stephen Colbert and Joe Scarborough, he might not find himself in the position he does now.
⏭ Meanwhile, CNN has an interim boss.
–––
2️⃣ Meet America’s Car Dealers!
Don’t mess with the men kicking electric vehicles into touch.
Meet the conservatives who hate Elon Musk (or rather his direct-to-consumer EV car sales). Meet – the Guardians of the Gasoline Galaxy.
They’re the stars of this incredible reporting from the conference of America’s car dealers, one of the most powerful and protected lobby groups in the United States.
Some nuggets:
“In 17 [US] states, it is outright illegal for car manufacturers to sell cars...
“As of 2021, the top 10 dealership groups in the U.S. had annual revenues around $100 billion, more than any company that actually makes cars.
“Dealers had secured such an astounding array of political protections via their lobbying outfit that no countervailing force—economists, car manufacturers, civil rights groups, environmentalists, or the Koch brothers—has been able to thwart them.
“They spent a record $7 million on federal lobbying in 2022, far more than the National Rifle Association, and $25 million in 2020 just on federal elections, mostly to Republicans.”
A reminder that America is the world’s only functioning socialist society, if you’re already rich.
If you ever wondered if Elon Musk’s political positioning might be a cynical act... look at his opponents.
⏭ In case you’ve been reading Mr Bean on EVs, read this instead.
–––
3️⃣ The Awful Anticipation of Auschwitz
The painful honesty of one of the Holocaust’s last survivors.
A necessary interview with Auschwitz survivor Ivor Perl, now aged 91. Jonny Freedland’s conversation starts bleakly:
“How much has it helped in the 80 years, us talking? Can you tell me? ... I think: nothing.”
Perl’s honesty penetrates. Having rarely been on a train, he tells Freedland of his excitement to leave Hungary for Auschwitz in 1944:
“[Perl] and the others believed that whatever this mysterious place called Auschwitz held in store for them, ‘we had suffered such a lot that anything must be better than what we’ve got now’. So when they were told: ‘You’re going into Poland,’ he thought: yes, let’s go.”
It’s an excitement crushed almost immediately.
When he is asked by schoolchildren: “Do you hate the Germans?” he replies: “Why do you say ‘the Germans’? Who were my guards? Hungarians, Ukrainians, Poles, French, Estonians.”
“I think what I hate is what human beings allow themselves to do.”
One final observation from Perl:
Nobody survived the camps without luck. But not everybody that had luck survived.
⏭ The race to save the stories of the last Holocaust survivors.
–––
4️⃣ Expensive Electricity is Finn-ished
(Terrible puns are still free though.)
⏭ Sadly the world is still not on track to meet its sustainable energy goals.
–––
5️⃣ Send Your Name Into Space!
NASA wants you to sign a poem. What would Buzz Aldrin say?
⏭ Meanwhile, the US is apparently storing alien spacecraft debris. Erm, right.
–––
6️⃣ AI implants aren’t all bad
This one is helping someone walk again.
⏭ Brain implants are starting trials for more medical conditions.
–––
7️⃣ ‘Yes, We’re Having a Totally Normal Chat.’
‘No! Of course you don’t look sinister.’
One of the engineers who worked on Apple’s goggles reveals some of the creepy modelling behind the tech giant’s new hardware:
“One of the coolest results involved predicting a user was going to click on something before they actually did. That was a ton of work and something I’m proud of.
“Your pupil reacts before you click in part because you expect something will happen after you click.
“So you can create biofeedback with a user’s brain by monitoring their eye behaviour, and redesigning the UI in real time to create more of this anticipatory pupil response.
“It’s a crude brain computer interface via the eyes, but very cool. And I’d take that over invasive brain surgery any day.”
⏭ No goggles required for reading on Bea’s book club podcast.
–––
If you enjoy this newsletter – please recommend it!
Best,
Adrian
