What happened to Vice? Why is Amazon downsizing? And should the US ban TikTok

On this week’s “Nightcap” with CNN’s Jon Sarlin, Semafor’s Max Tani explains what’s going very wrong at Vice. Fight for the Future’s Evan Greer says the US should not ban TikTok. And “Winner Sells All” author Jason Del Rey explains Amazon’s recent hiccups. To get the day's business headlines sent directly to your inbox, sign up for the Nightcap newsletter:

00:00 – Welcome to "Nightcap"
00:25 – Inside Vice Media's descent
04:43 – What banning TikTok would look like
10:03 – Turbulent times for Amazon

25 comments

  1. Vice documentaries and news coverage is the best in the game imo. Its a shame this is happening. They were doing way too much. 😊

    1. All about the advertising dollar or as Murdoch put it “The red, white & green).
      I spent 40 years in broadcast television and news and when Vice came about it was the first time I ever considered working in the digital domain. The 2014 Ukraine despatches really cemented that decision for me. Since then like me Vice has aged out of the zeitgeist from drive time to easy listening. I hope they maintain their library

  2. Amazon needs to fix their search results and take a stronger stance on punishing vendors that try to game the system. Their search results are full of sponsored links and unrelated crap, while vendors will often use good ratings for one product to sell another or outright bribe users with gift cards for good reviews. It’s a ridiculous mess and often a frustrating shopping experience.

    1. Exactly, when I searched company ‘xyz’ garments, they showed whole other staff along with my desired product. As a software developer, it’s very weird to me.

  3. One of the many problems with Amazon? I was a long time member. Let it lapse last year. I could see my delivery times change drastically. If I shipped to my daughters address? 2-3 day delivery. Change the address to the post office delivering to her address? 10-14 day? After seeing the pattern Amazon lost about 75% of my business in my last year as a member. Same scenario with most of my orders. On average they didn’t even ship the product until 6-7 days! Funny that signing up they say they don’t guarantee fast delivery if not a “prime” item or sent to other than a residence, but also say locker, pickup locations qualify for fast prime delivery but? Why do they not ship it for 6-7 days after the order? Reminding you once again they promise the exact same delivery in 2-3 days if you put a residential address? I met many people on the road dropping their membership for the same reason. I would rather shop elsewhere paying a little extra for fast delivery. I now only shop Amazon if I cannot find it elsewhere or the deal is way too big to pass up.

  4. That is so sad. I really like Vice news, their documentaries and group debates. They do really good reporting. Can’t believe they’re going under, that sucks.

  5. Yeah, China is our friend and we shouldn’t ban tiktok, just because people say China is bad. Heck we can trust China to follow the privacy laws. **sarcasm btw**

  6. instead of a tik tok ban how about we only allow videos where they sing “me chinese me play joke me go peepee in your coke” and China has to filter through millions of those

  7. I had a Newf who gave specific toys to specific people repeatedly. When he passed, I passed those toys to his people. Miss him so…

  8. 2023 and Amazon still leans heavily on the post office to deliver a lot of their packages. What’s more, both Walmart and Target have dumped their own drivers too and also are using the postal service to ship their packages. That’s like owning a pizza shop and saying..”We dont’ want more business. In fact we’re just going to give the orders we get to Ellio’s frozen pizza. Except we’re just going to surprise the customer with it. Might get an Amazon pizza….buuuut chances are a lot better that you’re going to Ellio’s because we actually suck.”

    It’s absurd to have any business say, “nah…we don’t want more business. We’ve got enough” and then turn away potential profits to a competitor. DHL…went out of business only like 5 years ago? Somehow they’re back and they too will still dump Van loads of parcels off at our local post office. Dude… you guys were just like bankrupt! You need all the business you can get!! lmao.

    Nobody wants to work and nobody wants to pay the workers. But guess who does…the postal service. An actual full time job witih actual daily routes and actual employee responsibility. Amazon, they’ve always just been a middle man. They don’t make the stuff you buy from them. And most of the time they don’t take proprietorship in the people who deliver their packages. Everyone is a “free lance contractor”. Worse yet these people only will do like 4 hour shifts. How does that make any sense? It doesn’t. Hence why the postal service still does most of the leg work for last mile.

    Currently the Postal Regulatory commision has lifted the Congressional Restraints on how much the post office is allowed to charge for their services. This means that Dejoy can finally raise package rates to be more competitve and actually make money instead of breaking even as a “federal service to the american people”.

    What will happen is when the Post Office raises rates….Amazon will have to either pay their employee’s less or yet again raise their prime prices and actually start charging for non prime shipping. I remember when prime was like 99 bucks 10 years ago. Now it’s 140. How high can they go before people start going back to the stores OR simply start buying from walmart or target’s websites?

    Free rides don’t last forever.

  9. How is banning a platform a violation of the first amendment?

    I’m more worried about algorithms being used to further divide us more than the data collection. ❤ GOD Bless Everyone

  10. We quit buying so much from Amazon due to their business practices, just like Wal-Mart. We haven’t shopped at Wal-Mart for over a decade.

  11. I remember shying away from Vice after the first 3-4 years, when they started going pretty woke. (I’m a liberal, but the woke movement has proved to be too extreme for me, too problematic). ❤ GOD Bless Everyone

  12. I now use Amazon to add things I want
    But find the items cheaper/same price at STORES.
    Also…. Amazon no longer allows u to pay for the prime annually??

  13. Consumers are also paying the price. For Prime subscribers who are aware, it’s clear that some shipping costs are being included in the prices of items. When the exact same item costs a few dollars less from another online retailer, the logical conclusion is that it’s an adjustment for rising shipping costs. As Amazon cuts staff, the prices of items also rise. Greedy corporate execs and shareholders need to adjust their focus or risk overpricing goods and services to the point where people will do without rather than buy what’s being sold.

  14. He tried so hard to ignore the real concerns behind TikTok, what a sick organization CNN has become, Ted Turner must be disgusted with what he started

  15. I’ve always loved Vice. They do some wild and unique journalism!!!! How could anyone not be interested in them?! 0_o

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