Gawker Media Staff Votes To Unionize

Via Gawker:

Yesterday, more than 100 Gawker Media editorial employees voted on the question of whether to be represented by the Writers Guild of America, East for the purpose of collective bargaining—that is, whether we want to form a union. The results are in. Yesterday’s votes were cast electronically and tallied by VoteNet, an independent online voting system. Out of 118 eligible voters, 107 cast votes. The results are: Yes: 80 votes—75% No: 27 votes—25%. The next steps: determining what we want to bargain for; forming a bargaining committee; and negotiating a contract. We are unionized.

Gawker Media includes its namesake site, Deadspin, Jezebel, Lifehacker, I09, Jalopnik, and Gizmodo. The Writers Guild has issued a statement:

“As Gawker’s writers have demonstrated, organizing in digital media is a real option, not an abstraction. People who do this work really can come together for their own common good,” said Lowell Peterson, Executive Director of the Writers Guild of America, East. “The WGAE, Gawker’s writers, and the company’s management share a commitment to journalistic integrity and creative freedom. We are eager for Gawker’s editorial staff to join our creative community, and we are eager to negotiate a fair contract.”

From the New York Times:

The Gawker effort is unusual in numerous ways, starting with the fact that its supporters say Gawker is currently a good place to work. Many say they want a union as a sort of insurance policy in case the next generation of managers is not so nice. “We’re in a very good place right now,” wrote Anne Merlan, a Jezebel writer, in an online debate about unionizing. “But we also exist in a bubble. When it bursts, I’d like us to have fair labor practices in place to protect everyone and provide for them in the event of ‘downsizing.'” In another twist, the company has not opposed the unionization drive; indeed, Gawker’s founder, Nick Denton, said he was “intensely relaxed” about it. The company and the Writers Guild East even issued a joint statement: “We believe the cumbersome and often fractious process of unionization is premised on an assumption of complete antagonism between management and labor. Nothing of the kind exists at Gawker Media.”

Maya Angelou Gets "Forever" Stamp

Via the Los Angeles Times:

The U.S. Postal Service will release a "forever" stamp honoring writer Maya Angelou, the agency announced Monday. Angelou, best known for her memoir "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings," died last year at age 86. In addition to being an author, Angelou was a professor, a Tony-nominated performer, an official with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, a calypso singer who danced with Alvin Ailey, a streetcar conductor, an actress, a screenwriter and a film director. Her primary work was as a memoirist and poet; she recited a poem at President Bill Clinton's 1993 inauguration. She was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2011 by President Obama.

The stamp's artwork has not yet been revealed.

Writer David Carr Dies At Age 58

Via the New York Times:

David Carr, a writer who wriggled away from the demon of drug addiction to become a name-brand media columnist at The New York Times, and the star of “Page One,” a documentary about the newspaper, died on Thursday in Manhattan. He was 58. Mr. Carr collapsed in The Times newsroom, where he was found shortly before 9 p.m. He was taken to Roosevelt Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. Earlier in the evening, he moderated a panel discussion about the film “Citizenfour” with its principal subject, Edward J. Snowden; the film’s director, Laura Poitras; and Glenn Greenwald, a journalist. Mr. Carr wrote about cultural subjects for The Times; he initiated the feature known as The Carpetbagger, a regular report on the news and nonsense from the red carpet during awards season. He championed offbeat movies like “Juno,” with Ellen Page, and he interviewed stars both enduring and evanescent — Woody Harrelson, Neil Young, Michael Cera. More recently, however, he was best known for The Media Equation, a Monday column in The Times that analyzed news and developments in publishing, television, social media — for which he was an early evangelist — and other mass communications platforms.

Accolades from fellow journalists have been pouring out on Twitter.

Stephen King Vs Edgar Allen Poe

An "epic rap battle." I think Poe wins.

Tonight At The Apollo

Maya Angelou Dies At Age 86

Legendary poet, author, and civil rights activist Maya Angelou has died in her North Carolina home at the age of 86.

Winston-Salem Mayor Allen Joines confirmed Angelou was found by her caretaker on Wednesday morning. Angelou had been reportedly battling health problems. She recently canceled a scheduled appearance of a special event to be held in her honor. Angelou was set to be honored with the “Beacon of Life Award” at the 2014 MLB Beacon Award Luncheon on May 30 in Houston. Angelou is famous for saying, “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”

In 1993 Angelou read her now famous poem On The Pulse Of Morning at the inauguration of President Bill Clinton. I was overcome with goosebumps when the poem name-checked gay people at such a prestigious event. Pulse remains one of the very few poems I can (mostly) recite from memory.

There is a true yearning to respond to
The singing River and the wise Rock.
So say the Asian, the Hispanic, the Jew
The African, the Native American, the Sioux,
The Catholic, the Muslim, the French, the Greek
The Irish, the Rabbi, the Priest, the Sheik,
The Gay, the Straight, the Preacher,
The privileged, the homeless, the Teacher.
They hear. They all hear
The speaking of the Tree.


RELATED: Angelou's reading of Pulse was dramatically sampled in Ispirazione's 1996 dance hit Psalm.

Fran Lebowitz On Spelling

"Spelling. I am probably the worst speller in the world, so I am constantly looking things up. Every time I sit at my desk, I look at my dictionary, a Webster’s Second Unabridged with nine million words in it and think, All the words I need are in there; they’re just in the wrong order." - Fran Lebowitz, quoting from her Paris Review interview on her Facebook page. (Via JMG reader Brett)

TRAILER: Salinger

Orson Scott Card: Obama Will Unleash An Army Of "Urban" Thugs On America

"Obama will claim we need a national police force in order to fight terrorism and crime. The Boston bombing is a useful start, especially when combined with random shootings by crazy people. Where will he get his 'national police'? The NaPo will be recruited from 'young out-of-work urban men' and it will be hailed as a cure for the economic malaise of the inner cities.

"In other words, Obama will put a thin veneer of training and military structure on urban gangs, and send them out to channel their violence against Obama's enemies. Instead of doing drive-by shootings in their own neighborhoods, these young thugs will do beatings and murders of people 'trying to escape' -- people who all seem to be leaders and members of groups that oppose Obama.

"Already the thugs who serve the far left agenda of Obama's team do systematic character assassination as a means of intimidating their opponents into silence. But physical beatings and 'legal' disappearances will be even more effective -- as Hitler and Putin and many other dictators have demonstrated over and over." - Former NOM board member Orson Scott Card, in a May column highlighted yesterday by Slate.

Writers To Joan Rivers Show: Pay Up

The writers of Fashion Police, which is co-hosted by Joan Rivers and produced by her daughter, Melissa, have filed a claim against against the  E! Network for $1M in back wages according to a complaint filed with the California Division of Labor Standards Enforcement.

The complainants say that "Fashion Police" ignores state laws that require an employer to pay hourly employees their regular wage rate for all time worked in an eight-hour period. In addiition, the law requires paying overtime for employment beyond eight hours in any workday or more than 40 hours in any workweek. "The most I've been paid for a show has been for eight hours of work," said writer Eliza Kinner in a release issued by the Writers Guild of America, West. "In reality, I put in anywhere from 12 to 32 additional hours on each show -- time I should have been compensated for.

The complaint has the backing of the Writers Guild.

For The Hoopy Froods

If you really know where your towel is, you'll enjoy today's Google Doodle in honor of Douglas Adams' birthday.

Petition Of The Day

All Out writes:

OUTRAGE: DC Comics has just hired anti-gay writer Orson Scott Card for their new digital Adventures of Superman. He's written publicly that he believes marriage equality would lead to the end of civilization. He's also on the board of a notorious anti-equality organization. We need to let DC Comics know they can't support Orson Scott Card or his work to keep LGBT people as second-class citizens. They know they're accountable to their fans, so if enough of us speak out now, they'll hear us loud and clear. Sign and share!

That "anti-equality organization" is NOM. Orson Scott Card has called for Christians to overthrow the federal government over same-sex marriage.

What these dictator-judges do not seem to understand is that their authority extends only as far as people choose to obey them.  How long before married people answer the dictators thus: Regardless of law, marriage has only one definition, and any government that attempts to change it is my mortal enemy. I will act to destroy that government and bring it down, so it can be replaced with a government that will respect and support marriage, and help me raise my children in a society where they will expect to marry in their turn.

Last year Card campaigned for North Carolina's ban on same-sex marriage and wrote this for the Greenboro Times:

Same-sex attraction is not a strait jacket; people's desires change over time; gay people still have choices; a reproductive dysfunction like same-sex attraction is not a death sentence for your DNA or for your desire to have a family in which children grow up with male and female parents to model appropriate gender roles.

The movie version of Card's Hugo Award-winning Ender's Game is due for release this November. Card is the co-producer.

Dear Abby Dies At 94

Dear Abby advice columnist Pauline Phillips has died at the age of 94. Phillips was known for being one of earliest and most widely-read supporters of gay people.

Phillips’ column competed for decades with the advice column of Ann Landers, written by her twin sister, Esther Friedman Lederer. Their relationship was stormy in their early adult years, but later they regained the close relationship they had growing up in Sioux City, Iowa. The two columns differed in style. Ann Landers responded to questioners with homey, detailed advice. Abby’s replies were often flippant one-liners. She willingly expressed views that she realized would bring protests. In a 1998 interview she remarked: “Whenever I say a kind word about gays, I hear from people, and some of them are damn mad. People throw Leviticus, Deuteronomy and other parts of the Bible to me. It doesn’t bother me. I’ve always been compassionate toward gay people.”

Ann Landers died in 2002. Dear Abby is written today Phillips' daughter, Jeanne.

Maya Angelou: Don't Give Up Your Vote

"We are here in direct relation to the heroes and she-roes who paid with their lives for this right. Many of us are old enough to remember what it felt like to be told we could not register to vote without taking a test or paying a poll tax. Some were asked how many angels danced on a head of a pin, how many bubbles were in a bar of soap. We are here because four courageous college freshmen sat down at a lunch counter in Greensboro in 1960, four years before the passage of the Civil Rights Act, to make a stand for equality. It’s a terrible thing to obstruct access to the ballot. But we follow all those who had the courage to dare to live so we can dare to live.

"Because of them, we are here. So vote to keep moving us forward. And carry with you your friends, family and neighbors. Carry them from your congregations, your beauty salons and barbershops, your sororities and fraternities. Carry with you those five people whose vote could make the difference. You may be pretty or plain, heavy or thin, gay or straight, poor or rich. But nobody has more votes than you. All human beings are more equal to each other than they are unequal. And voting is the great equalizer. It is important. It is imperative. There is no time for complacency." - Maya Angelou, writing for the Winston-Salem Journal.

Songwriter Hal David Dies At 91

Hal David, the legendary songwriting partner of Burt Bacharach, has died at the age of 91.

David died of complications from a stroke Saturday morning in Los Angeles, according to Jim Steinblatt, spokesman for the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers. David was a longtime member and former president of ASCAP. Bacharach and David wrote many top 40 hits including "Raindrops Keep Fallin' On My Head," ''Close to You" and "That's What Friends Are For."

"As a lyric writer, Hal was simple, concise and poetic -- conveying volumes of meaning in fewest possible words and always in service to the music," ASCAP's current president, the songwriter Paul Williams, said in a statement. "It is no wonder that so many of his lyrics have become part of our everyday vocabulary and his songs... the backdrop of our lives."

Many lyrics and tunes from Bacharach and David continue to resonate in pop culture, including "Do You Know the Way to San Jose" and "I Say A Little Prayer" to "What The World Needs Now Is Love." Their music was recorded by legendary singers including The Beatles, Barbra Streisand, Frank Sinatra, Neil Diamond and their longtime partner Dionne Warwick.

Instead of a dozen Warwick clips, let's start out with Luther Vandross' goosebump-inducing interpretation of my all-time favorite Hal David classic, followed by my other favorites.

Gore Vidal Quote Farm

Pithy, withering, astute, bold narcissist. Nobody tossed out bon mots like Gore Vidal. Here are just a few.

"It is not enough to succeed. Others must fail."

"The United States was founded by the brightest people in the country — and we haven't seen them since."

"Fifty percent of people won't vote, and fifty percent don't read newspapers. I hope it's the same fifty percent."

"The four most beautiful words in our common language: I told you so."

"There is no human problem which could not be solved if people would simply do as I advise."

"Style is knowing who you are, what you want to say, and not giving a damn."

If you have a favorite Vidal quote, please add it in the comments.

Outed Atlantic Columnist Jonathan Merritt Has A "Special" Announcement To Make

Earlier this week gay evangelical Azariah Southworth published a blog entry outing well-known Atlantic columnist and Christian author Jonathan Merritt. This morning JMG reader Dwight tipped us that Merritt will be making a "special announcement" at the Georgia church where his father, a former president of the Southern Baptist Convention, is head pastor and where the younger Merritt had been scheduled to continue a four-week series of sermons.

Update! A Special Message This Sunday, July 29
Join us this Sunday for a special and heartfelt message by the Pastor and Jonathan Merritt. Services are at 9:30 and 11:00 a.m.

Merritt's Twitter feed has been uncharacteristically silent since Southworth's revelation. I'll have an update on his "special announcement" when it's available.

Gay Evangelical Azariah Southworth Outs Atlantic Columnist Jonathan Merritt

Yesterday I posted a quote from Atlantic columnist and Christian author Jonathan Merritt (above left) in which, referencing the Chick-Fil-A brouhaha, he denounced consumer boycotts driven by social issues. Shortly thereafter I received a Facebook email from gay evangelical Azariah Southworth (who came out in 2008) in which he hinted that he knew something as-yet undisclosed yet very pertinent to Merritt's argument. But I didn't get to Southworth's email before JMG readers tipped me to his just-posted blog entry outing Merritt.

Exposing this truth of Jonathan’s sexual orientation is not an easy decision for me. I take no pleasure in doing this. As I type this my stomach is turning because I know of the backlash he will receive. I have thought about what all of this will mean for him and for me. I base my reasoning in the importance of living an authentic and honest life. True change in the “culture wars” may come through genuine fellowship and conversations but if there is not complete honesty and transparency when we come to the table than we are simply building a foundation which will soon deteriorate. We must have radical honesty in the character, intentions and identities of our leaders. I truly hope for the day when leaders of the LGBT community and leaders from the anti-LGBT community can come to the table with no secrets or agendas but simply to know one another. As Howard Thurman said, “Contact without genuine fellowship breeds hatred.”

Southworth notes that he will not "disclose the nature" of his relationship with Merritt, but that he can substantiate his outing claim if necessary.

RELATED: One of the most-recurring themes in Merritt's writing is a call for civility in the culture wars, including when it comes to the characterization of anti-gay groups as "haters." One reviewer of Merritt's latest book notes that he was "personally recruited by Jerry Falwell" to attend Liberty University. From another review:

The specter of Jerry Falwell drifts in and out of Merritt’s book, a convenient archetype of wrong-headed Christian engagement in the American culture wars. Merritt ends his book, fittingly, with a reflection on Falwell’s death. As he metaphorically pats the dirt on his grave, Merritt encourages his readers to do the same to Falwell’s misguided mission.

Last year Merritt received withering scorn from fellow evangelicals for a Christian Science Monitor piece which he denounced Christian leaders for focusing exclusively on "homosexual sin" and not on other biblically proscribed actions. The Monitor reportedly yanked that column, presumably in response to its reception.

Nora Ephron Dead At 71

Famed director, author, and screenwriter Nora Ephron has died of leukemia at the age of 71.

The three-time Academy Award nominee was a prolific author, screenwriter, playwright and director who made a name for herself as a pioneer in Hollywood, where she was one of the first women to write and direct her own films. She contributed essays and journalism to outlets including the New York Times and the Huffington Post, for which she last wrote a story in June 2011. She had most recently written the play "Lucky Guy," a drama based on the life of Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Mike McAlary, which was expected to open on Broadway in 2013 with Tom Hanks in the starring role. Ephron's marked film career was known for her charming romantic-comedies that often starred such silver screen icons as Meryl Streep, Tom Hanks, and Meg Ryan, with whom she worked multiple times throughout her career.

Ephron got her screenwriting Oscar nominations for Silkwood, When Harry Met Sally, and Sleepless In Seattle.

Ray Bradbury Dies At Age 91

My second favorite author of all time, behind Arthur Clarke. Details.

Ray Bradbury — author of The Martian Chronicles, Fahrenheit 451, Something Wicked this Way Comes, and many more literary classics — died this morning in Los Angeles, at the age of 91.