Salon.com > Liam O'Donoghue

Steven Spielberg’s surprise “Lincoln” follow-up

Sun, 28 Apr 2013 03:13:00 +0000

As part of a White House Correspondents' Dinner gag, Stephen Spielberg debuted a teaser of his next big presidential biopic. Surprisingly, he's decided to bring back "Daniel Day-Lewis" for the title role...

“House of Cards” is bogus

Thu, 21 Mar 2013 21:33:00 +0000

At a real-time salon Wednesday night, Salon's Steve Kornacki and Andrew O'Hehir discussed politics and pop culture with acclaimed filmmaker Ramin Bahrani (whose new film "At Any Price" comes out April 24) at Soho House, New York. During the Q&A that followed, a question was asked about Netflix's "House of Cards" -- which prompted an impassioned response from Kornacki, below. [Spoiler alert!]

Executive feminism: “It doesn’t have to be for everybody”

Mon, 11 Mar 2013 17:40:00 +0000

Controversy around Facebook executive Sheryl Sandberg's new book has been brewing for weeks. Although “Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead” was just released today, many critics have responded vehemently with accusations that Sandberg's advice for women is narrowly targeted toward middle- and upper-class female professionals.

Salon's Irin Carmon recently interviewed Sandberg and appeared on ABC's "Good Morning America" to share her thoughts on the controversy. "She's offering a lesson based on her experience and that's it," Carmon said. "It doesn't have to be for everybody."

Watch the full video "Facebooks's Sheryl Sandberg says women must 'Lean In'" here.

Let your friends see what you’re reading on Salon

Tue, 31 Jul 2012 00:00:00 +0000

I’ll admit it. When the Washington Post launched its Social Reader last year, I was a skeptic. “Why would I want to see what my friends are reading (and vice versa)?” I wondered.

But the app took off like a rocketship -- it’s been downloaded more than 25 million times -- and I’ve been converted. Now that Social Reader has expanded to include dozens of partners, I love being able to skim through the app’s personalized homepage to discover articles and outlets I never would have found on my own and see what’s trending on a day-to-day basis among my Facebook friends.

Plus, there are so many articles I enjoy that I would never have the time to manually share and this makes it easy to get those stories out there without any extra work.

Here’s how the Washington Post describes it:

Introducing Salon’s new CEO

Wed, 06 Jun 2012 12:00:00 +0000

Today Salon is proud to announce that we have a new fearless leader at the helm. Cindy Jeffers, the former technical director at the Huffington Post, is our new CEO and CTO. David Talbot, Salon’s founder and outgoing CEO will continue to play an advisory role.

Over the past year, David helped lead Salon through a period of strong growth and reinvigorated Salon’s reputation as a leading destination for political and cultural news. Now, with Cindy’s experience building the Huffington Post from a scrappy start-up to a media juggernaut, we’re excited to continue expanding our reach and social engagement with innovative new features, functions and strategies.

In the coming months, you can expect to see the same high quality of independent journalism on Salon, but infused with a new spirit of innovation. Our goal is not only to continue publishing some of the best news and entertainment journalism on the Web, but to reemerge as a technological leader of online media by experimenting with emerging platforms, new data sets and new ways of interacting with stories.

Salon sale extended

Wed, 04 Apr 2012 15:00:00 +0000

Last week, I wrote about how we were dropping the price of a Salon Core membership to $29.95 -- the lowest price ever -- to make supporting Salon more affordable. That offer led to a boom in new members, so we’re extending what was originally intended to be a one-week sale.

Salon Core is a crucial pillar of our business model, but it’s also at the heart of our philosophy. We’re proud that Salon has survived for 17 years (which equals an eon in “Web years”) through the support of readers like you who value our journalistic mission and outspoken writers. We know that times are tough, but your funding supports our ability to challenge the forces that have made life so difficult for working people, so consider your Salon Core membership an investment.

Plus, you get some great benefits upon registration, which makes this sale price an even better deal. For the price of a couple of movie tickets you can support independent journalism, get access to our webcasts and events, and pick up a bunch of goodies and benefits. Please consider joining Salon Core today.

Salon on sale

Fri, 30 Mar 2012 17:00:00 +0000

Over the past few weeks, you may have noticed a steady flow of appeals promoting Salon Core, our membership program. Most of these efforts have focused on the necessity of readers’ support to “keep independent journalism alive.” As Salon’s founder David Talbot explained, “A free press is not free. We have always paid the hardworking people who report and write and edit and photograph and film and design and code for our site.”

Our editor in chief Kerry Lauerman highlighted some of Glenn Greenwald’s latest scoops to illustrate the kinds of stories that your funding supports. In her brilliant smack-down of Rush Limbaugh, Joan Walsh wrote about Salon’s role as a defender of women’s rights and powerfully explained the need to “support those who support you.” We’ve been running a series of ads touting the virtues of our crusading brand of fearless journalism.

Get intimate with Salon

Sat, 24 Mar 2012 16:00:00 +0000

The name of this website provides insight into the intentions of its founders. From the very beginning — way back at the dawn of Internet culture in 1995 — the idea was that Salon.com would function as a virtual version of the fabled salons of old. Although the word “salon” is more commonly preceded by “hair” in modern times, our goal has always been to invoke the concept of eclectic, freewheeling intellectual gatherings.

With the rise of Web 2.0 and social media, the idea of a website providing a hub for conversation is no longer unique, but we at Salon still view this as part of our mission. You may have noticed a growing number of banners on our site lately promoting webcasts. This burgeoning schedule is part of an effort to provide opportunities for Salon readers to connect with writers and each other.

For those of you who haven’t joined one yet, the format of these webcasts is straightforward: They’re essentially a video chat where participants can submit questions and comments to the “host(s)” — the writer — in real time, and there is also a live-chat window embedded into the webcast so viewers can interact with each other throughout the event.

Yes, we are fixing Salon’s comments system

Thu, 01 Mar 2012 22:55:00 +0000

Thank you to everyone who took the time to read and respond to the piece “Fearless Journalism Has a Price.” We truly appreciate your feedback and, as David Talbot emphasized, you—the Salon community—are what keeps the site alive.

Beyond your financial support, your comments are a big part of what makes our site so engaging. We appreciate that many in the Salon community are interested in having genuine conversations. At their best, these conversations are witty, insightful and truly expand on the concepts explored in the article to which they are responding. The readers who comment on Glenn Greenwald’s columns, for example, often submit sources and content that are included in Glenn’s signature “updates.”

Salon was one of the first Web-only news sites and since we launched at the dawn of the digital era, we have recognized the significance of intelligent interaction in online “town squares.” This is why we take your feedback about problems with the functionality of our comments section seriously and why we’re making this our top priority.