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1. Gabriel Sherman’s story on the breakdown at NBC News both before and after its Brian Williams scandal was an internet blockbuster (�(Actually) True War Stories at NBC News,� March 9�22). And catnip to others in the media: �A required read,� wrote press critic Jay Rosen. �Big piece,� tweeted Michael Calderone from the Huffington Post. And the L.A. Times’ Bret �Israel summarized the piece this way: ��Dysfunction�thy name is NBC news.� The organization looked to be in such disarray that most readers just offered advice. �NBC needs to do three things,� wrote commenter louis.katz at nymag.com. �Fire [NBC News chief] Deborah Turness, turn MSNBC into a hard-hitting investigative news site, and rehire great investigative reporters.� To some readers, the story made the whole project of TV news seem out-of-date. �News, today, has become immediate,� wrote Timely�writer. �The evening editions are nothing more than a recap of what has been on cable television and over the internet all day long. Further, those who sit in these supposed anchor seats are overpaid teleprompter readers. No offense, folks, but that’s what you are. It’s beyond belief that Matt Lauer and others are paid millions of dollars � when, in actuality, all the work is being done by those behind the scenes. It’s about time that the curtain is pulled back and this �industry is exposed for its ego, entitlement, self-importance and insecurity. This isn’t just an NBC issue�it’s prevalent throughout the overall industry. Time to clean house, folks, make change and move on.�
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2. Santiago Calatrava’s ground-zero PATH station is the most ambitious piece of architecture the city has seen in decades, but, at a cost of $4 billion, also the most extravagant, Andrew Rice wrote in a story about the building the Times’ Michael Kimmelman has called �a kitsch stegosaurus� (�A Glorious Boondoggle,� March 9�22). The piece prompted a debate as to whether the architect should take responsibility for the project’s financials. �I’m sure it will be spectacular,� wrote ThankYouXoXo, �but it would be nice to have more than one �station in the city that doesn’t look like the inside of a urinal, and just half the budget for this would have gone a long way toward that.� �It’s not the architect’s job to control costs,� countered JDuggar. �Wait,� interjected commenter Arundel. �So you’re saying that an architect can simply disregard costs, costs that come directly from the taxpayers in this case?� �Yes, that’s what I’m saying,� responded JDuggar. �The Port Authority was under no obligation to enact Mr. Calatrava’s designs if they considered them too expensive. I can’t imagine a situation where an architect would ever voluntarily advise a client to value-engineer a project. I’m sure the PA did ask Mr. Calatrava to reduce costs, to which he refused; at which point the PA could have simply fired him from the job and retained a more subservient architect. Ultimately the pecuniary responsibility lies with the PA and not with Mr. Calatrava.� �That’s BS!� replied a commenter named paol. �I’m an architect with 40 years of experience and I wouldn’t be able to sleep if I had designed something with no eye to cost, let alone such massive cost overruns. It’s not as though it’s the first time it has happened to Calatrava. It’s unprofessional and irresponsible.�
3. �Broad City is not just an idea about blind ambition and the way young people stumble their way toward adulthood. It’s also the name of a television show that, in just its second season on Comedy Central, has come to stand in for that entire period of growth�which in turn has made best friends Jacobson and Glazer, as its stars, writers, and executive producers, playing exaggerations of their younger selves, into the crop-top-wearing mascots of bouncy-castle, post-Bloomberg New York,� wrote Jada Yuan in her profile of the supernaturally driven comedians Abbi Jacobson and Ilana Glazer (�The Broad City Hustle,� March 9�22). �At times, it seems like there’s no place they won’t go to achieve their signature �barebones-honest’ brand of comedy,� wrote Salon’s Colin Gorenstein. �But, in fact, there are a few places � Despite the �frenetic tone of the show, the profile is an important reminder that the two are �running a business. They’re thinking �critically about how every joke comes off. The profile is a fascinating examination of a line that the two friends and business partners grapple with every day while navigating the comedy world.� The Hairpin’s Jazmine Hughes also addressed that grappling, in particular an incident, described toward the end of the article, in which a woman drunkenly approaches Jacobson and Glazer and pitches them ideas for their show, using the word niglets to refer to small black people�which prompted Glazer very clearly to draw a line. �I mean, first of all, girl what,� wrote Hughes in a post titled �These Girls Get It.� �Secondly, damn, that’s really funny, but also � sort of revolutionary? Glazer using her whiteness as justification to not do something or as a barrier to not be allowed into the joke is a swift turn from people who think that comedians are allowed to say whatever they want�Glazer is proof that you can opt out and still be funny. Somebody tell the men on Twitter, please?�