Reading List: December 17, 2016

Saturday snow day.

At Jadaliyya, As`ad Abukhalil describes the division on the left over the Syrian war.

But economic policies and the question of social justice are not the only criteria to judge leftism. The stance of groups toward imperialist dangers and the threat of Israel (which are derivative) should also be taken into consideration. In this regard, there are confusing or delineating lines of demarcations: the external allies of the Syrian rebels (and some factions of the Syrian rebels) are aligned with the United States or with its clients regimes in the Gulf; others — like the Nusra Front, some elements of the Free Syrian Army, and some lobbying groups for the Syrian opposition in Washington DC — are either aligned with the Israeli government or with the pro-Israeli lobby in Washington DC. On the other side of the front lines, the Russian government is also an ally of the Israeli state. The Putin leadership does not in any way challenge Israeli policies in Palestine or the region. If anything, Putin has solidified the Russian-Israeli alliance. While Hizballah and the Iranian regime adopt a resistance posture against Israel, the Syrian regime wavers in its attitude toward the Israeli threat. As mentioned earlier, it has abandoned — for some time now — the cause of liberating the occupied Golan and accepted the “Arab Peace Initiative.” The Syrian regime has at some points supported (including arming) Palestinian and Lebanese resistance groups. Yet it did so according to its own regime calculations, and was willing to turn against those groups as it did in 1976 in Lebanon and again later in the mid- to late-1980s against Hizballah.

Massachusetts has a new public records law and The New England First Amendment Coalition is ready to help you figure out how to use it.

Like a night of epic carousing, the “Act to Improve Public Records,” which goes into effect January 1, has upsides and downsides. It establishes a presumption (not a requirement) that successful records requesters will be awarded their attorneys’ fees if they prevail in a lawsuit. It even carries the threat of punitive damages if a custodian withholds records in bad faith. The law also puts some limits on the fees that agencies and municipalities can charge. On the other hand, it extends the time that public entities can take to provide public records: Municipalities can now take more than a month in some cases. The law also leaves some room for custodians to charge exorbitant hourly rates for their employees or outside counsel to search for and redact records.

Until we can demonstrate the need for new legislation to give the public records law even sharper teeth, journalists will need to use the tools provided in the new law. Here, then, are a few tips on how to take advantage of some of these new provisions — and how to avoid some traps for the unwary.

And The Baffler’s David V. Johnson takes on vox, the explainer website for Democrats.

In its brief history, Vox has become a model in an industry that’s moved from entrenchment to retrenchment. Vox’s rapid growth, its dream team of policy bloggers, its cachet with the White House, its ability to attract blue-chip advertisers such as Chevrolet and Campbell’s Soup, and its tech innovation have become the envy of competitors. Why? What is the secret of Vox.com and its thriving parent company Vox Media, which, according to a report this spring in Bloomberg Technology, is profitable and valued at $1 billion? Are there applicable lessons for the dwindling segments of the media industry that still care primarily about journalism? Or, is the Vox Media success story largely the product of clever — perhaps even deceptive — marketing?

The answer, and more, at the link.