Comments

1

Perhaps Lester can post the amount of money that The Stranger owes to all of those unpaid interns Tim and crew "hired" for all of those years?

3

@1 Words are hard. But Google is your friend.

4

I think those unpaid interns had on average an amount of wages stolen from them that must approach $0, and if you add the accrued interest over the years I'll bet it'll even be $0. Multiply that by the number of unpaid interns they must have had in previous years and the Stranger probably owes well in the neighborhood of $0.

6

So are you guys just going to pretend you didn't get the obvious point #1 was making, or are you guys just genuinely that stupid?

This article from 2013 may help:

https://www.businessinsider.com/is-my-unpaid-internship-illegal-2013-6

The unpaid internships at The Stranger back then were more than likely illegal by the letter of the law, as they added clear value by authoring posts which garnered views and clicks. Why do you think they stopped using that byline and joking about how much they were exploiting the labor of the interns?

7

7

Nah, they genuinely that stupid. Post history confirms that.

8

I saw this post go up this morning and thought, Oh goodie! The comments will be full of people who don't give 2 shits about the employees of the Tacoma Weekly but will use them to claw all over each other to try to score points against the Stranger.
@1 5 & 6: The lack of self awareness of your own hypocrisy regarding the fate of former Stranger Interns is so, so predictable.
If you really cared, you'd be reaching out to said former interns, helping them hire a lawyer, and seeking justice. But ya don't. So ya won't.

9

@6, yes most Sloggers these days ARE that stupid. 8 years ago the comment thread was choked full of comments about how pissed they were that Tim and Co. had unpaid interns.

But at least we all know that the old time Slog commentators have truly abandoned ship

10

@8: You have commented about the immigrant detention camps. How much money have you personally sent them, and how many lawyers have you sent them? How many of these kids have you visited and spoken to? If you haven't sent lawyers, you clearly don't care about justice, and are not allowed to talk about it.

Your underthought and hilariously hypocritical post aside, I never claimed to really care about the interns or the exploitative practice of The Stranger. I just thought it was funny to see people who were too dumb to understand a simple point call other people dumb while they show everyone their entire dumb ass.

12

@10: Nice try Teddy! I hate to break it to you, but funding organizations that help immigrants is a big part of my job, so not only do I care, I care enough to do it for a living. Every day!
So thank YOU for showing us YOUR entire dumb ass. XOXO

13

@12: How convenient. So it isn't your money and you get paid for your time? Wouldn't you be even more pure if you did the work for free, and donated money yourself?

You can rationalize it all you want, but claiming that people are not allowed to talk about topics unless they are giving up their own time and money for them is incredibly stupid, and you are likely smart enough to know that.

14

@13: Awwww does it sting that I get up every morning and work to help those less fortunate than myself? In addition to donating 1/4 of my paycheck to various charities once a month as well as serving on a foundation?
Pull your pants a little further down Teddy.

15

14

TG’s point is still valid, no matter what you do personally for a living or what charity you give to.

16

@14: No, none of that "stings." Why would it?

I see you absolutely love bragging about it, but do you think you are the only person who gives to charity?

Also, doesn't change the point I was making, as you are well aware.

17

To be clear, I think interns should be paid, I've always thought interns should be paid, and I'm glad that the Stranger is doing so now.
I also think that people can discuss world events without having to show receipts.
But we a know that that's not what this is about don't we. Nope, it's about some members of the Slog community giving themselves a superiority chub by ironically telling the Stranger that THEY can't report on world events because they aren't 100% pure.
Again the lack of self awareness is delightful!
In conclusion I think there is plenty of moral grubbiness to go around.

18

@16: I'm so sorry that it upsets you to be corrected regarding your misapprehension as to what I do with my time and money Teddy. I know you were hoping to score points, but alas, none of the poo you're flinging will stick. But please! Do keep showing us where it comes from.

19

@17, 18: Just so you know, literally no one is this thread was telling people what they were or were not allowed to talk about but you, despite your admission in #17 that you are just projecting.

Although you should ponder something: what is it about you that requires you to pretend that your job (which no one care about) enrages people who only exist in your imagination?

I mean, it seems very important to you that your job "upsets" me, but why do you need this weird delusion in your life? Seems kind of petty.

20

8 Congratulations, I guess. You've been proven right!

21

I knew this was going to be a Teddy thread, but I didn't expect him not to be among the first two posts.

22

Yuck, even more @8 than I was expecting. Lester, this is an excellent piece of work, and please consider turning off comments when you post articles that will just attract trash. If the Stranger wants those sweet trash clicks, then you have leverage to push for comment policy changes.

(And now that we have Gorath on the record with "I never claimed to really care ... I just thought it was funny" trolling, can we be done with him?)

23

@19: Shhhh Teddy. It's ok.

24

Reading what Weymer said to Jordan Martin “You oversold yourself. You’re lousy. You’re no good," sent shivers down my spine. It seems like yesterday that Weymer said the same thing to me as he reached for excuses not to pay me for graphic design work I had done for the weekly. It was during intermission at Lord of the Rings back in 2001 he berated me on the phone. Like the others in this article, I was young and at the time too crushed and stupid to fight back, or to even know how to go about it. To think that he's been getting away with this for 20 years, taking advantage of young people just starting out in their careers infuriates me. I hope there is a way for the Tacoma Weekly to continue without Weymer, who it appears is at best an incompetent publisher; and at worst a scoundrel.

25

People who run small businesses are by and large a bunch of psychos.

26

@24 thanks for coming here with your story.

The fact that he can skate by for so goddamn long is gross. Maybe L&I should post a sign on the front of a business, like the health department does on restaurants, for (potential) employees.

Realistically, guess I've got to learn how to do a records search on an employer. Didn't see it on a quick look at lni.wa.gov.

27

This is too fucking funny: one of the biggest violators of having paid interns in Seattle has commentators kissing his ass saying it was somehow okay when The Stranger did it. Holy fuck...is it parody or is it reality? Who can tell at this point..

28

@27:

Well, I just assume everything you post here is parody, so...

29

@27: Nope it wasn't ok then, and I'm glad they are now paying their interns as they should. Look at that! We agree! Whatever will you do now?

30

@28: You, as always, are a delight.

31

25

"People who are socialists are by and large a bunch of psychos"

fixed it for you.

32

@31: I am so sorry you're terrified of Scandinavians! That must be awful for you.

36

Jeez, what I took away from the story is that Weymer is truly a scoundrel.

37

@34: the ONLY reason you're bringing up the unpaid interns of the past(do we know that they haven't finally been paid, btw?) is that you're trying to argue that The Stranger has no right to cover the Tacoma Weekly story. It's the equivalent of those who argue that people who didn't demand that Bill Clinton be removed from office over discredited accusations from his past have no right to speak out against sexual assault in any OTHER situation(for the record, I personally wouldn't have had an issue with Clinton being deposed other than the hypocrisy and total insincerity of those who were demanding that).


Please wait...

Comments are closed.

Commenting on this item is available only to members of the site. You can sign in here or create an account here.


Add a comment
Preview

By posting this comment, you are agreeing to our Terms of Use.