These are the top maybe-not headlines from the past 36-hours presented by The Conversation Project from raw engagement data from our social media to the headlines posted over the past day.
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The 8 topics that our followers ranked as the most conversational are:
DEADSPIN REVOLTS AGAINST ‘STICK TO SPORTS’ EDICT, EDITOR BARRY PETCHESKY SAYS HE WAS FIRED
It was a solid bet when The Daily Beast reported that G/O Media management issued an edict to Deadspin to stick to sports, and when management unilaterally removed posts directing readers to complain to them about auto-play videos in apparent violation of their collective bargaining agreement with the union, that there was going to be an active revolt. This happened, as Deadspin spent Tuesday morning featuring older stories on the top of its homepage that had nothing to do with sports, and only producing new content about things like wedding dress codes and good dogs that wouldn’t have seemed out of place on the site in recent years but were nonetheless a thumb in the eye of the edict. Barry Petchesky, who has been at Deadspin for over a decade and took over as interim editor-in-chief when Megan Greenwell left the position for a job at Wired in August, announced that he was fired today. Deadspin was part of the former Gawker Media, which was purchased by Univision in bankruptcy auction in 2016. Deadspin, Gizmodo, Kotaku, and Jezebel were rebranded as the Gizmodo Media Group, which added sites like The Onion and eventually was sold to the private equity firm Great Hill Partners earlier this year and rebranded as G/O Media. G/O Media is led by former Forbes boss Jim Spanfeller, and Deadspin wrote a story detailing qualms with his team’s management practices in August. A showdown has been inevitable, and this story is nowhere near over, as the remaining writers and editors have a vision for the site that does not correspond at all with management’s.
[SOURCE: thebiglead.com]
AMERICA HAS 40 MILLION POUNDS OF UNEATEN BACON, HIGHEST IN 48 YEARS
Data released by the U.S. Department of Agriculture last Tuesday showed that the amount of pork belly – the cut of meat used to make bacon – stored in public, private and semi-private refrigerated warehouses reached a near-record high of 40 million pounds at the end of September, the highest in 48 years. It’s slightly down from the month of August, which showed 45 million pounds in reserves – but, as a whole, the increased pork stored in warehouses in the past few months hasn’t reached this level since 1971, when 50 million pounds of bacon were stored. The pig herd, per Bloomberg, is at 77.7 million heads. Bloomberg reports that the production of pork accelerated during the summer due to increased imports from China, whose pork supply has suffered from an outbreak of African swine fever. The demand for pork belly is historically domestic, while other cuts of pork are more popular internationally. But as the trend for exporting pork to China continues at this rate, the bacon excess may stabilize, per Bloomberg.
[SOURCE: usatoday.com]
“GILMORE GIRLS” AND “SUPERNATURAL” STAR JARED PADALECKI WAS ARRESTED AND CHARGED WITH ASSAULT
Supernatural star Jared Padalecki was arrested on suspicion of assault early Sunday after allegedly getting into a fight at the bar he owns in Austin. Austin police told BuzzFeed News that officers were called to the bar, Stereotype, shortly after 2 a.m. and arrested Padalecki. The 37-year-old Gilmore Girls actor allegedly hit two employees in the face after starting a verbal argument. TMZ posted a video of Padalecki that shows him putting another man in a headlock on a sidewalk outside the bar. He then lets go and raises his hands in the air. Another video clip, shot from inside the bar, shows an apparently drunk Padalecki leaning against a car and taking money out of his pocket while officers are nearby. Padalecki is then put in the back of a police car. Deadline reported that production on Season 15 of Supernatural has not been impacted by the actor’s arrest.
[SOURCE: buzzfeednews.com]
NCAA TO ALLOW COLLEGE ATHLETES TO BE PAID FOR THEIR NAMES, IMAGES AND LIKENESSES
The NCAA’s Board of Governors voted Tuesday to allow college athletes to receive compensation for their names, images and likenesses. In the end, California won. Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill into in September that allows the state’s college athletes to accept endorsement deals by 2023, upending the decades-long precedent set by the NCAA to prevent collegiate athletes from being paid. Michael V. Drake, the board’s chair and president of the Ohio State University, said in a statement, “We must embrace change to provide the best possible experience for college athletes.”
[SOURCE: axios.com]
KRIS JENNER FIRES BACK AT BLAC CHYNA IN LAWSUIT OVER PAST ASSAULT ALLEGATIONS
Chyna filed a lawsuit in 2017 against the family over claims of assault, battery, domestic violence, defamation and interference with prospective economic relations. In new legal documents obtained by The Blast, the 63-year-old momager has requested Chyna hand over all text messages and emails that she sent to ex-fiancé Rob Kardashian from Dec. 1, 2016, until present. Jenner is also requesting all contracts related to her son and Chyna’s now-defunct reality show, “Rob & Chyna.” Chyna’s lawsuit claims the Kardashian-Jenners banded together to have the show canceled. They’ve vehemently denied the allegations. She also wants the Lashed salon owner to “describe each occasions on which you have been arrested or publicly accused of assault, battery and/or any other acts of physical violence against other PERSONS from January 1, 2008 through the present,” per The Blast. As Chyna’s lawsuit claims, “Rob Kardashian is an abuser intent on destroying Angela White, the mother of his baby, who left him in 2016. In revenge, the Kardashian-Jenner family became media predators, slut-shaming her on social media and killing her hit television show [‘Rob & Chyna’], which had already begun filming a second season.” Her suit also claims Rob physically abused her. Chyna, 31, also had executive producer Ryan Seacrest dragged into the lawsuit, deposing him over his involvement with “Rob & Chyna” and the Kardashian family. The case is ongoing, though the Kardashians are hoping the lawsuit gets thrown out.
[SOURCE: pagesix.com]
TOM BRADY STAYED ‘WELL AFTER’ THE PATRIOTS-BROWNS GAME TO HAVE HIS 9-YEAR-OLD SON MEET ODELL BECKHAM JR.
After leading the New England Patriots to a 27-13 win over the Cleveland Browns, Tom Brady stayed “well after” the game to introduce his 9-year-old son, Ben, to Odell Beckham Jr., according to Nicole Yang of Boston.com. Yang reported that Brady and Beckham had a “lengthy chat” and that the locker rooms had been cleared. Beckham lived up to a promise he made during the week, when he said he had goat-hair cleats for Brady. Beckham had referred to Brady as the greatest quarterback of all time, or the “GOAT.” He gave Brady the cleats after the game. Brady told Hill that his kids were allowed to wear any jersey they want and that though they mainly support Patriots players, they do support other NFL players too.
[SOURCE: businessinsider.com]
AT&T SURPRISES WITH HBO MAX PRICE IN BATTLE AGAINST DISNEY AND NETFLIX
AT&T Inc in May will launch its HBO Max streaming service with a new “Game of Thrones” series at the current HBO price of $15 a month in an aggressive move to battle Netflix, Disney and Apple for the future of TV. The price, which many expected to be higher, surprised the financial analysts and investors attending the WarnerMedia presentation on Tuesday. HBO Max is expected to reach 75 million to 90 million global subscribers by 2025, with about 50 million of these coming from the United States. The new service is expected to generate about $5 billion in U.S. revenue by 2025. The stakes are high for AT&T, which is saddled with debt from a $134 billion acquisition spree to combine media conglomerate Time Warner and satellite TV provider DirecTV with the second-largest U.S. wireless phone company by subscribers. The success of HBO Max is in many ways a referendum on a strategy to merge content with the means to distribute it. HBO, which invented high-end, subscription programming, is playing catch-up in the streaming era dominated by Netflix. To compete, AT&T has committed to invest up to $4 billion in additional HBO Max content by 2025, executives said, just a day after reporting tepid media results for the third quarter.
[SOURCE: reuters.com]
JOHN LEGEND AND KELLY CLARKSON UPDATED ‘BABY, IT’S COLD OUTSIDE’ TO BE LESS DATE-RAPEY
We really encourage you to stay and not go away to read this news flash from Voice judges (and pals) John Legend and cover queen Kelly Clarkson, who, in the name of holiday enthusiasts everywhere, decided to duet on an updated version of “Baby, It’s Cold Outside.” Per Vanity Fair, the bop, which will be released as a standalone single later this year, has newer, woker lyrics written by Legend and Insecure’s Natasha Rothwell, and it’s described as being “every bit as fun and swinging as the original.”
[SOURCE: vulture.com]
Eight Things To Talk About uses the raw engagement data from the social media engagement from The Conversation Project to generate the top-ranking headlines over the course of a weekend.
A full weeks’ data (from Friday to Friday) is compiled, weighed, and sorted to produce the content for the Wrap-Up Show with J Cleveland Payne, published every Saturday as a podcast available at ThisIsTheConversation.com or wherever your favorite podcasts are found.
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