Company type | Nonprofit organization |
---|---|
Industry | Mass media |
Founded | October 2013 |
Founders | Pierre Omidyar |
Headquarters | New York City, New York , United States |
Key people | Michael Bloom (CEO) |
Products | Investigative journalism, new media |
Subsidiaries |
|
Website | firstlook |
First Look Media is an American nonprofit media organization founded by Pierre Omidyar in October 2013 as a venue for "original, independent journalism". [1] [2] The project was started as a collaboration with Glenn Greenwald, Jeremy Scahill, and Laura Poitras with a promised $250 million in funding from Omidyar. [2] [3] [4] The organization announced plans to support multiple publications, the first of which was The Intercept , launched in February 2014.
A second publication was announced in February 2014 that would focus on financial and political corruption, headed by Matt Taibbi. Although the name of the publication was not publicly announced, the name Racket was reportedly chosen. [5] The publication was to be launched autumn 2014 [6] [7] but in October, it was reported that Taibbi was on leave after "disagreements with higher-ups". [8] On October 28, Omidyar stated in a press release that Taibbi had left First Look. [9]
In December 2014, First Look Media announced the launch of Reported.ly, a social media news service led by Andy Carvin. [10] However, in August 2016, Reported.ly said FLM has "chosen to part ways with us," and was planning to shut down. [11]
In January 2015, Betsy Reed joined as the editor in chief of The Intercept, replacing John Cook. [12] Shortly thereafter, she hired Charlotte Greensit as managing editor in April 2015. [13]
In February 2016 First Look Media announced they would be partnering with Matt Bors to relaunch The Nib. [14]
In 2017, First Look Media launched the photo and video website Topic.com. [15] Topic Studios was also launched as part of this. [16] They have helped produce Roman J. Israel, Esq. , [17] Risk, [18] Spotlight and Leave No Trace. [19] [20]
In May 2017, First Look Media relaunched the Press Freedom Defense Fund [21] to fund first amendment court cases. [22]
In June 2019, First Look Media decided to stop funding The Nib and laid off its staff as of the end of July 2019. [23]
On October 29, 2020, Glenn Greenwald announced his resignation from The Intercept and First Look Media, citing editorial censorship of his story concerning the Biden–Ukraine conspiracy theory and allegations concerning Joe Biden's conduct with regard to China, and also citing attempted interference with his contractual right to publish rejected stories elsewhere. [24] Greenwald published his resignation letter and rebuttal on Substack. [25] [26] Betsy Reed, The Intercept's editor-in-chief, disputed Greenwald's accusations and claims of censorship, and accused him of presenting dubious claims by the Trump campaign as journalism. [24] [27] [28]
On November 30, 2020, Laura Poitras was fired by First Look Media, allegedly in relation to the Reality Winner controversy. [29] [30] More recently, the Topic Studios unit of First Look Media inked a first look deal with Loveless. [31]
On January 9, 2023, The Intercept announced that it would restructure as an independent non-profit organization, with financial help from First Look. [32]
In February 2015, senior investigative reporter Ken Silverstein, who had been hired in December 2013, announced his resignation. Writing in Politico , Silverstein described First Look as "a slowly unfolding disaster, not because of editorial meddling from the top, but because of what I came to believe was epic managerial incompetence. …For all of the bean counting and expense account-approving that Omidyar's organizational structure imposed on us, they were shockingly disinterested in the actual journalism. …Top management was so aloof that it was hard to figure out who was in charge." [33]
First Look Media began partnering to produce podcasts in 2016. [34] Shows include:
Pierre Morad Omidyar is a French-born Iranian-American billionaire. A technology entrepreneur, software engineer, and philanthropist, he is the founder of eBay, where he served as chairman from 1998 to 2015. Omidyar and his wife Pamela founded Omidyar Network in 2004. As of 2023, Forbes ranked Omidyar as the 245th-richest person in the world with an estimated net worth of $8.7 billion.
Omidyar Network is a self-styled "philanthropic investment firm," composed of a foundation and an impact investment firm. Established in 2004 by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar and his wife Pam, Omidyar Network has committed over US$1.5 billion to nonprofit organizations and for-profit companies across multiple investment areas. According to the OECD, Omidyar Network's financing for 2019 development increased by 10% to US$58.9 million.
Matthew Colin Taibbi is an American author, journalist, and podcaster. He has reported on finance, media, politics, and sports. A former contributing editor for Rolling Stone, he is the author of several books, former co-host of the Useful Idiots podcast, and publisher of the Racket News on Substack.
Matt Bors is a nationally syndicated American editorial cartoonist and editor of online comics publication The Nib. Formerly the comics journalism editor for Cartoon Movement, he was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 2012 and 2020, and became the first alt-weekly cartoonist to win the Herblock Prize for Excellence in Cartooning.
Glenn Edward Greenwald is an American journalist, author, and former lawyer.
Jeremy Scahill is an American investigative journalist, writer, a founding editor of the online news publication The Intercept, and author of Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army, which won the George Polk Book Award. His book Dirty Wars: The World Is a Battlefield was published by Nation Books on April 23, 2013. On June 8, 2013, the documentary film of the same name, produced, narrated and co-written by Scahill, was released. It premiered at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival.
Business Insider is a New York City–based multinational financial and business news website founded in 2007. Since 2015, a majority stake in Business Insider's parent company Insider Inc. has been owned by the German publishing house Axel Springer. It operates several international editions, including one in the United Kingdom.
Laura Poitras is an American director and producer of documentary films.
Comics journalism is a form of journalism that covers news or nonfiction events using the framework of comics, a combination of words and drawn images. Typically, sources are actual people featured in each story, and word balloons are actual quotes. The term "comics journalism" was coined by one of its most notable practitioners, Joe Sacco. Other terms for the practice include "graphic journalism," "comic strip journalism", "cartoon journalism", "cartoon reporting", "comics reportage", "journalistic comics", and "sketchbook reports".
Lee Hu Fang is an American journalist. He was previously an investigative reporter at The Intercept, a contributing writer at The Nation, and a writer at progressive outlet the Republic Report. He began his career as an investigative blogger for ThinkProgress. Fang shared the 2018 Izzy Award of the Park Center for Independent Media with fellow Intercept reporter Sharon Lerner, investigative reporter Dahr Jamail, and author Todd Miller.
Boundless Informant is a big data analysis and data visualization tool used by the United States National Security Agency (NSA). It gives NSA managers summaries of the NSA's worldwide data collection activities by counting metadata. The existence of this tool was disclosed by documents leaked by Edward Snowden, who worked at the NSA for the defense contractor Booz Allen Hamilton. Those disclosed documents were in a direct contradiction to the NSA's assurance to United States Congress that it does not collect any type of data on millions of Americans.
XKeyscore is a secret computer system used by the United States National Security Agency (NSA) for searching and analyzing global Internet data, which it collects in real time. The NSA has shared XKeyscore with other intelligence agencies, including the Australian Signals Directorate, Canada's Communications Security Establishment, New Zealand's Government Communications Security Bureau, Britain's Government Communications Headquarters, Japan's Defense Intelligence Headquarters, and Germany's Bundesnachrichtendienst.
The Intercept is an online American nonprofit news organization that publishes articles and podcasts.
The Nib was an American online daily comics publication focused on political cartoons, graphic journalism, essays and memoir about current affairs. Founded by cartoonist Matt Bors in September 2013, The Nib was an independent member-supported publisher that ceased operating in September 2023.
Betsy Reed is an American journalist and editor. From January 2015, she was the editor-in-chief of The Intercept. In July 2022, she was named the editor-in-chief of Guardian US, succeeding John Mulholland, and assumed her new position in the autumn of that year.
PropOrNot is a website that claims to expose Russian propaganda. It has been featured in The Washington Post about Russian propaganda and the spread of fake news. PropOrNot's methods and anonymity have received criticism.
The Alliance for Securing Democracy (ASD) is a political advocacy group formed in July 2017.
Dan Taberski is a writer, director, and producer based in New York City. He is best known for hosting investigative journalism podcasts Missing Richard Simmons, Surviving Y2K,Running From Cops, 9/12 and The Line.
Katherine Rose Halper is an American comedian, writer, filmmaker, podcaster, and political commentator. She is the host of the podcast The Katie Halper Show and co-host of the podcast Useful Idiots with Aaron Maté.
Adversarial journalism refers to a kind of journalism or a journalistic role where the journalist adopts an oppositional and combative style of reporting and interviewing. The goal of adversarial journalism is to reveal supposed wrongdoings of actors under investigation. Instead of being completely impartial, adversarial journalists take sides in what they believe to be true. They deliberately combine information with commentary or opinion in their writing. In particular, adversarial journalists remain relentlessly hostile and highly skeptical regarding government, big business companies, and political events, questions, institutions and personalities. Adversarial journalism is thought to be traditional in liberal democracies where journalism is regarded as a "Fourth Estate". It is also considered an extreme form of participant journalism or advocacy journalism. It has been contrasted with public or civic journalism.