controversies

McDonald's CEO in Feisty Racial Exploitation Accusation Exchange

Hamilton Nolan · 05/24/13 10:52AM

Annual shareholder meetings are the one time when activists traditionally get a chance to berate corporate executives directly, trying to goad them into exchanges. And hey, McDonald's had a pretty decent one yesterday. Featuring racism charges!

If the Koch Brothers Want to Pay Too Much for Newspapers, Let Them

Hamilton Nolan · 05/09/13 01:58PM

Evil corporatist archconservative billionaires the Koch brothers are considering making a bid to buy several big newspapers from the Tribune Co., including the LA Times and the Chicago Tribune. Unions and liberal politicians are justifiably alarmed by this prospect. They're trying to pressure the shareholders not to sell to the Kochs. Here's another, perhaps more productive idea: let the Kochs buy that crap.

Keep the Jesus Posters, Ban the Football Team

Hamilton Nolan · 10/24/12 10:05AM

In Kountze, Texas, high school cheerleaders had a habit of writing Bible verses on banners for school football games. The superintendent, cognizant of our pesky "separation of church and state," ordered them to stop. A district judge disagreed, and has (temporarily) allowed the Bible banners to continue, throwing editorial writers across America into a tizzy over the various abuses of law and the American way by one of the world's easiest targets: insular middle American Christians.

Ray Kelly Does Not Care About Black People

Hamilton Nolan · 07/11/12 12:40PM

Ray Kelly, the head of the NYPD, is just so full of shit. His police department has a massive "stop and frisk" program which, by the NYPD's own statistics, is existentially programmed to stop and frisk hundreds and hundreds of thousands of completely innocent young black and Latino men with no real cause. It is a minority dragnet, so blatantly racist that not even the police chief can quibble on that point. He can merely say: it's for the black people's own good.

Texas College Cartoonist: I Was Fighting Media Bias With 'Colored Boy' Cartoon

Hamilton Nolan · 03/28/12 11:40AM

Yesterday, University of Texas- Austin student newspaper The Daily Texan won our coveted "Most Racist Trayvon Martin Cartoon" contest for Stephanie Eisner's "WHITE man" vs. "COLORED BOY" media critique pictured above. The paper briefly pulled the cartoon offline when the controversy struck, but put it back up last night, along with an editor's note. Today: the fallout.

The Best Photo of a High School Principal Ever

Lauri Apple · 12/03/11 06:16PM

Everyone meet Jane Addams High School principal Sharron Smalls—seen here getting down with, and chocolate-sauced by, a topless man who looks less-than-excited to be there. Yesterday students at Addams (it's in NYC) covered their school with copies of the photo in honor of Smalls and her achievements—particularly her use of said pic on her Facebook profile.

Pickets, Lawsuits, Sex Ads, and Hard Times at the Village Voice

Hamilton Nolan · 11/16/11 12:42PM

The Village Voice has problems. The paper had yet another round of layoffs last month, as part of a nationwide cull by its parent company. (Not to be confused with the other layoffs earlier this year.) Like most alt-weeklies, the Voice depends on sex and drug ads for its very survival. The paper's so desperate for revenue that it's suing Time Out NY for using the phrase "Best in NYC." You know that belongs to the Village Voice, right?