Crikey long reads

Josh Taylor, journalist

“How liberals fell in love with The West Wing” by Luke Savage in Current Affairs

“More than simply a fictional account of an idealized liberal presidency, then, The West Wing is an elaborate fantasia founded upon the shibboleths that sustain Beltway liberalism and the milieu that produced them.”

Cass Knowlton, editor

“Crimetown” [podcast] hosted by Marc Smerling and Zac Stuart-Pontier for Gimlet Media

“Every season, we’ll investigate the culture of crime in a different American city. First up: Providence, Rhode Island, where organized crime and corruption infected every aspect of public life. This is a story of alliances and betrayals, of heists and stings, of crooked cops and honest mobsters—a story where it’s hard to tell the good guys from the bad guys.”

Sally Whyte, deputy editor

“Exploitation of Vietnamese students rampant among Melbourne businesses” by Trinh Nguyen and Bich Ngoc on sbs.com.au

“Exploitation has affected the mental and physical wellbeing of many international students. They often worked in poor conditions with the lowest wages reported at $6 per hour.” 

Emily Watkins, media reporter

“The fake news story no one’s talking about” by Jim Rich in Rolling Stone

“For all the Salem-esque hunting of media witches by the president and his angry mob, there is a ‘fake news’ scandal just waiting for someone to take a match to it: A mainstream reporter accused of fabricating sources in at least five news articles, along with nearly the entire plot of a recently published nonfiction book.”

Dan Wood, subeditor

“When pixels collide” in sudoscript

Last weekend, a fascinating act in the history of humanity played out on Reddit. For April Fool’s Day, Reddit launched a little experiment. It gave its users, who are all anonymous, a blank canvas called Place … Over the following 72 hours, what emerged was nothing short of miraculous. A collaborative artwork that shocked even its inventors.”

Bernard Keane, politics editor

“Grace Kelly (Dead Blondes episode 11)” [podcast] on You Must Remember This

“The quintessential ‘Hitchcock blonde,’ Grace Kelly had an apparently charmed life. Her movies were mostly hits, her performances were largely well reviewed, and she won an Oscar against stiff competition. Then she literally married a prince. Was it all as perfect as it seemed? Today we’ll explore Kelly’s public and private life (and the rumors that the two things were very different), her working relationship with Hitchcock, her Oscar-winning performance in The Country Girl, the royal marriage that took her away from Hollywood and Kelly’s very specific spin on blonde sexuality.”