New York Daily News’ Twitter Goes Rogue, Snark-Tweets About Mass Layoffs
SHOTS FIRED
The paper's social media posted memes mocking how their newsroom was just cut in half.
Agencja Gazeta/Reuters
The New York Daily News’ Twitter account addressed the paper’s mass layoffs Monday, tweeting memes to snark about the grim news. First, despite the paper’s entire social team reportedly being laid off, the account posted a meme of Pulp Fiction’s Vincent Vega looking confused in a presumably empty room. The “Confused Travolta” GIF came after Daily News’ parent company Tronc laid off about half of the newsroom, including editor-in-chief Jim Rich and managing editor Kristen Lee. In an email to staff, the company said that it would allocate future resources towards “breaking news–especially in areas of crime, civil justice and public responsibility,” a shift from the newspaper's long-standing “punch in the gut” journalism with a populist tone. “If you hate democracy and think local governments should operate unchecked and in the dark, then today is a good day for you,” Rich tweeted on Monday. Shortly after the Pulp Fiction tweet, the Daily News account also posted dark memes from Planet of the Apes and a clip from mob film The Untouchables—both eventually deleted.
