Victor Frankl’s fictional podcast Blog of a Madman kicks off with Liz Franzak and Noah Colwyn dissecting 2013’s dying digital journalism, where Fusion.net’s traffic slump sparks debates over clickbait—like Geraldo Rivera’s shirtless tease or a $5 "Steve Jobs vs. Elizabeth Holmes" quiz—exposing media’s ethical cracks. Colwyn admits viral tactics thrive despite exploitation, while Liz and Frankl’s meta-jokes (e.g., "wrangling a Jew") blur satire with sharp critiques of revenue-driven journalism, all under Truant Colon on the Media’s chaotic banner, hosted by Brooke Ladstone’s unfiltered wit. [Automatically generated summary]
Welcome to Mike.com's new pivot to podcast format.
We have here a try-fire-type format here featuring my good friend Liz Franzak, a social justice journalist out of the University of Pittsburgh.
We have Noah Colwyn out of Tel Aviv University here to talk to us about diversity in the IDF.
And of course, me, Victor Frankl.
And, uh, no, okay, can't do that.
My guys both look at me.
I mean, I don't know.
You're the guy who like does this stuff.
I'm just a media guy.
I'm just a simple blue check.
Listen, Noah, riddle me this.
Yes.
It's 3 p.m. on a Friday, right?
We're here at the fusion.com offices.
Fusion.net, but go ahead.
Fusion.
Wow.
Thank God you're here.com.
It was, I don't remember why they didn't, but yeah.
There was a moment when media companies were like relaunching a rebranding where they're like, we're going with, it was like an alternate, like, how to like signal that you were alternative.
We were recode.net.
Well, and now we're, and then it became Vox.com.
Wait, so, okay, yeah.
I've got so many media questions.
Well, here, let me, let me, let me, let's, let's play this out a little bit.
Okay.
You are getting called in.
You are a.
Yes, I'm being called in.
You, you work at the office, but you're a freelancer.
Uh, Liz and I are your bosses, Jorge Ramos.
Ramos.
Ramos.
And what's a woman?
Madeleine Albright.
Madeleine Albright.
What?
We are your bosses here at fusion.net.
I've always thought Liz looked like her.
We call you into the office, and it's 20, it's 2013.
Okay.
It's 2013.
Great year.
We say pre-9-11, everything's good.
Bush is still in office, but he hasn't started the Iraq war yet.
In 2013.
In 2013?
Yeah, this was a number.
And we're like, Noah, our numbers are flagging, right?
The clicks ain't there.
What do we do?
So, I mean, that's a really, you know, 2013 was a special time to ask that question because there were a lot of really, I mean, frankly, just a lot of new frontiers being blazed in journalism that I think we're still sort of reckoning with.
People hadn't.
You could put quizzes in posts.
You could also start to add polls.
You could do stuff where you could do a hide link, like a bit.ly on Twitter, but then actually have it load a link of like Geraldo Rivera shirtless.
And, you know, there was just all these sorts of different little hijinks that you could do.
Yeah.
I remember one time I was, This was, you know, I was trying to figure out like, ah, is this, you know, I was, it was like a, I think it was like a November and I woke up one day and my boss is like, you got to do something, get some traffic.
And I was like, all right, is this Halloween costume Steve Jobs or Elizabeth Holmes?
And that was a fucking banger.
How much did you get paid for that?
Do we need to talk about that?
Yeah.
No, my starting job.
Paid Traffic Job00:01:36
Well, this was, I mean, that's like the bullshit side of it.
But like, you know, that was, I started at Recode and I think I was probably making at the end.
Yeah, annualized that year was 60K.
And then, you know, but like the other part of the job was not doing, you know, was not doing quizzes and trying to do the real journalism.
Yeah.
But the quizzes were a part of it.
But, you know, and that was really, I was paid well and I lived in the Bay and like ostensibly I worked for a company that made money.
But, you know, the heavy dot com ostensibly, but that's like, it's like, like all media revenue is fucking theoretical unless it's a company that's been around for a hundred years.
And then if it's like, and then if it's, and then within that theoretical, there's the good kind of theoretical where everybody went to a nice college and everybody understands like theoretically, you know, the stuff you're supposed to make to change the world, the journalism.
And, you know, and then there's like the bad kind where it's like junk, but in reality, it's all the same.
It's just one giant, horrible like tar pit that we all live in.
Well, before we get into all of that.
Hello, everyone.
I'm Liz.
My name is Jorge Ramos.
And of course, and we have actually, in our special episode about journalism, Liz and I have headed out onto the streets of Bedstead, lassoes in hand, astride muscled donkeys, and wrangled a Jew.
Not hard in New York.
Yes.
But they got a special one.
And what's your name?
I'm Noah Colwin.
And of course, we are joined by producer Young Chomsky.