Innovations in Media: 'Primary' — not 'Objection'

I started out here with plans to highlight a new startup called Objection. But in a world of pivots, before I could start writing, Objection” has transformed itself into a new venture called Primary. Regardless, both ventures are worth exploring. 

The June 2021 Hollywood Reporter article that spawned a complaint via the Objection website.Let’s start with Objection.ai, which I first learned of from a June 10 article in The Hollywood Reporter. That article — headlined “An Online Tribunal Funded by Peter Thiel is Putting Journalists on Trial. “I’m Case No. 1” — certainly caught my eye. The article is well worth reading, but here’s the gist: 

Anyone who is the subject of a news article can “object” to anything within that article by submitting a complaint to Objection. The site then contacts the author of the article, inviting them to defend their work by uploading supporting evidence. Objection then would send the information to a “tribunal” of artificial intelligence “judges” to gauge the legitimacy of the journalism. The AI judges included publicly available models like Claude, ChatGPT and Grok. 

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Innovations in Media: 'The Print Edition'

There’s unorthodox, then just a big further afield is The Print Edition. 

In an age of seemingly endless and disposable media, two men have launched a podcast-to-print product that is just odd enough to carve a profitable niche. 

Issue 1 of "The Print Edition"In short, The Print Edition is a quarterly printed tabloid-sized newspaper that “celebrates an escape from the algorithm and a deeper connection to what’s around us. What will you find here? Well, things we’re interested in ourselves. Travel, style, sports and the details that make those things better.”

OK, we have a blend of freeform and tidiness. Structure but squishiness.

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Can we stop overusing the term ‘supergroup’?

Google defines “supergroup” as “a music band or ensemble whose members are already established and highly successful as solo artists or as part of other bands. It functions as a musical "all-star team".

Merriam-Webster defines “supergroup” as:

• “a group made up of very talented, renowned, or expert members. 
• “especially : a musical group made up of established, prominent musicians,” citing true supergroups like Boygenius, Traveling Wilburys or Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young.
• “an extremely successful musical group,” citing the K-Pop megastars BTS.

There seems to be a disconnect between over-enthusiastic music writers and their use of the dictionary. To borrow from sage linguist Inigo Montoya, “You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.” 

I suppose there’s some wiggle room in Merriam-Webster’s initial definition of “a group made up of very talented, renowned or expert members.” But the dictionary emphasizes “especially” in the second definition to encourage us not to get sloppy in proclaiming anyone “very talented” or “expert.” 

Below are a few examples of why I think music geeks are getting too loose with the term. 

As quoted in the June issue of 5280 magazine, which focuses on Colorado, Indie 102.3 public radio music director Alisha Sweeney proclaims Graveyard Choir as “an up-and-coming supergroup including members of INTHEWHALE and Musuji.” Hmmm. Not that Spotify listenership is the arbiter of popularity, but INTHEWHALE has 2,400 monthly listeners, while Musuji has … 10. Yep, 10.

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