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Wednesday Link-Off: More than PR

camille-rowe-next14-01There’s no getting around the way the Ray Rice story blew up. While we all agreed the suspension was far too light, past precedent notwithstanding. However, we didn’t suspect that the NFL had never really bothered with its due diligence in the matter. Now they’re scrambling, not to make it right, but to save themselves from a complete PR meltdown. What a sad state of affairs when PR trumps doing what’s right.

So let’s get this post underway. Here’s Camille Rowe.

Toronto mayor Rob Ford has scored a key endorsement in his re-election campaign: Mike Tyson. (Yahoo!)

If you’re a Politico reader, their executive editor just left over strategic differences with the site’s founders. (New York Times)

Several months after the incident occurred, the full video of Ray Rice beating his wife made its way to TMZ. Suffice to say that his two-game suspension became a massive PR nightmare for both Rice’s now-former team and the NFL. But that’s all this was about. It’s all about PR. (Sports of Earth)

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Sunday Link-Off: Data Tracker

sabriane-brandao-wonderbra14-03Good news! Doctor Who returned last night with a new Doctor! Even better news! Formula One is back from its summer break this morning. Actually, barring a monsoon, a safety car or a red flag, they should be two-thirds of the way through the race. I’ll have the latter written up tomorrow and the former later this week.

For now, it’s Sunday so that means that we’re going to do the links. Let’s start with Canadian model Sabriane Brandao.

Given what’s happening in Ferguson, Missouri, it might surprise you to hear that statistics on police killings are surprisingly sparse. (FiveThirtyEight)

To help with that lack of police killing data, the folks at Deadspin are crowdsourcing data to answer that question. (Regressing)

Fark is trying to ban misogyny from the website. It’s not going particularly well. (Washington Post)

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Wednesday Link-Off: The Important Questions

jenna-coleman-london14-02I haven’t thrown it in the links today but did anyone else see that epic SummerSlam main event. It was a 20-minute masterclass in professional wrestling and it will go down as the match of the year. Of course, no one in Canada watched it because the state of the WWE Network in Canada is terrible because they can’t just do the same digital offering as they do in America even though they own all the content.

Anyway, it’s time for the links. Since Doctor Who is back on Saturday (and reviews of the new Doctor Who season are coming next week), here’s Jenna Coleman.

How bad are things getting in Ferguson, Missouri? Amnesty International is deploying a human rights team in the US for the first time ever. (The Independent)

Now police in Ferguson are going around without any identification on. How can police be held accountable when the only way they can be identified is by saying the pudgy, balding, middle-aged white one? (Vox)

Time Inc. has found a new way to evaluate its writers. They’re rating them based on value to advertisers. The sad state of journalism in 2014. (Gawker)

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Wednesday Link-Off: And It’s Only Wednesday

michea-crawford-agentprovocateur14-08So I was having a conversation at my day job yesterday talking about plans for the rest of the week. However, my rest of the week plans were only for Thursday and Friday because I was convinced that yesterday was Wednesday. You would think that working on my usual Wednesday post yesterday would have tipped me off but I’ve had a long week this week and it’s only Wednesday.

But since it’s Wednesday, it’s time for the links. Let’s start with Canadian model Michea Crawford.

It doesn’t matter where you work or what you do, you have a right to a safe workplace, both mentally and physically. Writers at Jezebel have seen their mental well-being come under threat as anonymous accounts are posting rape GIFs on their website but Gawker won’t do anything to deal with it. (Jezebel)

Toronto Mayor Rob Ford received a bomb threat telling him to resign or be blown up. Smoking crack on camera multiple times didn’t stop him. A bomb threat didn’t either. (National Post)

Education might not be the great equalizer after all. A recent study shows black men need more education than their white counterparts to get a job. (The Atlantic)

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Wednesday Link-Off: All The Write Stuff

nina-agdal-soliver14-02I know that only writers and aspiring writers care about writing and other writers but there are a lot of links today about sports writers and sports writing. That might not be everyone’s cup of tea but hopefully there’s a link for everyone in today’s post.

But before we get to the links, let’s start with Nina Agdal.

Texas’ war on abortions isn’t really doing much to promote the “right to life” of unborn children as endangering them and their mothers when they look for abortions. (Washington Post)

The UN has released satellite photos showing Gaza before and after Israel bombarded it. (Sploid)

It seems like it might just be a coincidence but your name might an impact on your life. (The Atlantic)

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Wednesday Link-Off: Power and Politics

danielle-knudson-macys14-01It’s the middle of the week which means that it’s time for the links. It seems as though Wednesday comes sooner every week. I’m used to not being busy with my life at this time of year but life has a way of getting in the way. But if life didn’t get in the way, we probably wouldn’t have interesting links to pursue.

So let’s get started with those links. First, here’s Canadian model Danielle Knudson.

The GOP like to blame President Obama for all the country’s ills but a Democratic president has historically been good for the US economy. (Vox)

The New York Times editorial board have come out in favour of the US Government repealing the ban on marijuana. Old-timey attitudes and false beliefs make it hard for me to believe that it would happen in this Presidency but maybe it’ll happen eventually. (New York Times)

Neil DeGrasse Tyson proves that if you’re smart, you aren’t in politics. His political views are smarter than anything politicians say. (The Daily Banter)

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Sunday Link-Off: All The Write Stuff

genevieve-morton-randallslavin14-06No, that title isn’t a typo. I’m just back to making bad puns. What else do you expect from me on the weekend? I know! Links! And since today is Sunday, it’s probably a good idea to bring you the links. We start with some writing and transition to the downfall of sensibility in the NFL and the confused sustainability priorities of the NHL.

But before we get to all of that, let’s kick off with South African model and blog favourite Genevieve Morton.

TMZ might be the biggest player in celebrity gossip today but no one is entirely sure how it became a seemingly overnight success story. Here’s a look at the gossip site’s history. (BuzzFeed)

And since I just ran a BuzzFeed link, one of their lead writers is a serial plagiarist. (Our Bad Media)

After a couple of days of controversy, BuzzFeed undertook an internal review and let Benny Johnson’s for plagiarizing over 40 times. (BuzzFeed)

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Wednesday Link-Off: Dollars and Sense

samantha-hoopes-maxim14-04Sunday’s link-off was mostly about current events in Canada. Today, it’s the latest developments in Ukraine. You’d think that someone would try to be very apologetic about accidentally shooting down a civilian airplane but I guess that’s not how it works in Russia. It’s starting to look like things in Ukraine might once again get worse before it gets better.

First, let’s start this post with Samantha Hoopes.

The more Putin tightens his grip on Ukraine, it seems that more money is slipping through his fingers. Russian billionaires are worried about making money in an increasingly isolated Russia. (Bloomberg)

In other economic news, if the American economy is to grow, business have to start spending rather than saving. Apparently lowering taxes isn’t encouraging them to do so. (The Upshot)

The FCC wants to open up broadband to be available as a public-owned utility for municipalities to run themselves. It would be a great way to get around net neutrality by offering competition so no ISPs could hose customers. The Republicans are opposed to it, obviously. (Vox)

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Sunday Link-Off: Breaking Conservative

chrissy-teigen-espys14-01The start of the week wasn’t particularly interesting from a news standpoint but it got a bit too interesting by the end of the week. While you’ve probably just been keeping up with some of the major international stories, we have some links about the political goings on in Canada among other interesting links.

Anyway, it’s time to get the post started. Let’s start with the only noteworthy thing from the ESPYs. That would be Chrissy Teigen.

Contrary to what the Conservative Party would have you believe, most Canadians think that current marijuana laws are too harsh. In fact, the government’s own polling shows that. (Metro)

Speaking of Conservative Party battles, they’re blaming of their battles with the Supreme Court on the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Damned rights getting in the way of oppressing people. (Canada.com)

NBC News pulled their top Middle East reporter out of Gaza after he reported about Israeli forces killing four Palestinian boys earlier this week. Given American networks’ reputations for pre-Israel coverage, it didn’t go over well. (The Intercept)

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Wednesday Link-Off: The World (Cup) is Not Enough

irina-shayk-twinset14-07World Cup month is finally over and the whole world can move on so we can forget about the billions of dollars wasted by the Brazilian government… Well, that’s until we talk about the billions of dollars wasted by the Brazilian government on the 2016 Summer Olympics. And just wait until we have to deal with the Qatar World Cup of 2022.

Anyway, there’s a lot more to today’s links than the World Cup. But let’s keep with a quasi-soccer theme with Irina Shayk.

Canadian government staffers have been deleting Canadian government staffers from Wikipedia. Gee, what are they hiding and who are they hiding it for? (Vice)

The FCC has been so inundated with comments about the future of net neutrality that it’s repeatedly crashed their website and forced them to extend the comment period. (PC Magazine)

NASA thinks that we’ll find other life in the universe inside the next 20 years. That would be pretty cool. (CBS)

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