Its Edge Intact, Vice Is Chasing Hard News | Hacker News Reader

Its Edge Intact, Vice Is Chasing Hard News

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53 pointsdnetesn19 comments

I'm crossed about the News Corp. buyout of a large portion of the company. On one hand, I think that this could simply be them spotting something that's on the up, and investing in it, hopefully with a light-handed approach that doesn't involve touching the formula.

The more cynical side of me wonders if Vice going far beyond "mainstream" media and covering important social and international issues is the reason, and News Corp. is grabbing power over it so they can quietly take it's integrity and edge out back and put a bullet into it's skull, because they are a threat to not only the business model, but the very system that News Corp. exists in.

It's the nature of things, you can't have edge forever.

Just as each day the HN community degrades a little VICE will lose a bit of its edge whether owned by News Corp or not.

I think News Corp just likes money and sometimes it uses it's size to exert power of things (and/or governments, whatever...) so that it can make more money.

> I'm crossed about the News Corp. buyout of a large portion of the company.

Maybe they have increased their stake or something, but the only deal I can find was for 5%. And I wouldn't call 5% a large portion. It certainly seems dubious that they would be able to exert much control at all at that level.

http://www.theguardian.com/media/2013/aug/17/rupert-murdoch-...

Surely it'd be cheaper (and work better for internal morale) if News Corpse let its more brilliant employees loose on skunkworks projects? You know, something like 20% time to create something that might become a future success or at least head off some of the upstart competitors?

As an aside, the story of the author's (David Carr) life and challenges is an amazing one:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/20/magazine/20Carr-t.html?pag...

I know many people love Vice but I find their news coverage to be fairly vapid. Their journalism is more about generating a reaction and less about providing accurate in-depth information for the viewer.

For the most part I think you're right, but give them a chance and check out some of their excellent documentaries:

- https://news.vice.com/video/the-islamic-state-part-1

- http://www.vice.com/the-vice-report/saving-south-sudan-part-...

- http://www.vice.com/ground-zero/mali

There's a parody vice twitter that parody's exactly that.

https://twitter.com/Vice_Is_Hip

I see it more as a cross between reality TV and documentaries rather than a source of news.

That vice special on ISIS was fascinating (and scary). I love their shows (HBO + Youtube). It is a much more interesting version of Current(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Current_TV) Al Gores station that was purchased last year and is unfortunately no longer on Direct TV

It's not on DirecTV because it no longer exits, at least under that name; it was acquired by Al Jazeera and transformed into Al Jazeera America.

bummer .... because there was some really interesting shows on that channel.

If you look up the primary figures involved in the shows you like, you can usually find what they're working on now. I hope that most of their independent documentary producers will just shift to different distribution platforms.

CurrentTV always struck me as the last innovative cable network in a decade when cable TV was already dead. ZDTV/TechTV/G4 before them showed that niche technical content couldn't work on cable, while it flourishes online.

Al-Jazeera has some good ones too, and they often make specials that really dig into an issue and provide both sides of the issue as well as the context in which the whole thing is happening. I've been really impressed with their coverage in general.

But, and this is pretty annoying, a lot of the documentaries and stories that they play are not new and used to be available, along with a live stream of the channel, on their website. There's nothing wrong with recycling the content; that stuff takes awhile to make and demanding new editions every day is a big part of what made the 24-hour news cycle into what it is today. But now that I've cut the cord I do miss their coverage.

Anyways, AJ is a solid news channel so I wouldn't be too too upset about the acquisition.

Subject-wise it still can be edgy at times, but I still miss the Gavin McInnes days (the pushed out co-founder)[1], despite him resurfacing kind of predictably as a Fox News regular. The writing in the magazine itself has mellowed since then and often succumbs to a uninspiring stale journalistic style that I think the editors mistake for gravitas. But then again, no one reads anymore so there is that...I like some of the fiction though.

[1] https://soundcloud.com/litmustrax/the-voice-of-vice3

Not bad going for a free glossy magazine that when it started looked for all the world like the bastard offspring of Bizarre Magazine and The Face.

Also, it (Voice of Montreal) was funded by Canadian welfare checks - if you ever need an example of how a safety net can encourage growth and innovation.

Interestingly enough, I didn't realize that they were ever a physical magazine.

I initially knew them for their "documentaries" that involved a lot of swearing and sexism. It has been amusing watching them turn into something besides frat-boy journalism.

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