Alt-Wrong

Welcome to the “alt-right,” a corner of the pro-Trump internet where “young would-be conservatives are getting the message that to fight for free speech is to tweet anti-Semitic memes at Jewish writers, and to make casual jokes to them about the Holocaust,” as Jesse Singal reports for New York Magazine.

“This year, white nationalists can barely contain their excitement over the presumptive Republican nominee,” writes Buzzfeed’s Rosie Gray, reporting from the annual “American Renaissance” conference in Tennessee. While there, she encountered the alt-right in person, writing. “The alt-right like to flatter themselves that they are simply an ultra-ironic, boundary-smashing, fun-loving group of ‘shitlords’ who might send a few Jews some mean tweets about gas chambers, then roll their eyes at all these cucks alleging anti-Semitism.”

This explains a lot: Donald Trump has gotten a huge share of the media attention going to the presidential candidates, worth an estimated $1.9 billion in free media. But according to an analysis by Parse.ly of more than one billion page views across more than 100,000 articles, Hillary Clinton actually gets more page views per article than Trump. As Parse.ly’s Conrad Lee writes, “while journalists seem to be preoccupied with covering Trump, the public is not especially interested in reading about him.” So why all the extra coverage of Trump? Because he makes it so easy, says Lee: “in the midst of today’s 24-7 news cycle, most journalists can devote only a small amount of time to their next article, and so they often find themselves choosing topics that are convenient to write about.” Trump’s constant provocations via social media are perfectly tuned to this dynamic.

More data: Bookings at Trump Hotels are down compared to last year, says HipMunk’s Kelly Soderlund.

What sharing economy? Is Uber an employer, a transportation business with independent contractors, or a software company? As David Dayen wittily points out for The Intercept, it depends which lawsuit the company is defending itself from—the company has argued all three. Like Whitman, it is large, it contradicts itself.

This is civic tech: SeamlessDocs just took in $7 million in Series B funding, Jason Shueh reports for GovTech.com.

Media wars: Gawker founder Nick Denton writes Peter Thiel an open letter.

Sometimes the early mover loses the game. To wit, this quasi-eulogy by Kelsey Sutton and Peter Sterne of Politico for Salon.com, one of the first online news sites, which appears to be in dire straits. (As a former contributor to the site, this hurts.)

Your moment of zen: Take a moment to be inspired by the word poetry of Donovan Livingston, the convocation speaker at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.