Who was the last cool billionaire?

Let me explain that for you...

Always a head spin to see a flurry of single-person media brands and Talking Heads on podcasts do their best to translate the main point of an already viral post about a global conflict. This week it’s Israel vs Palestine, and every kid with an Instagram page is trying to make a brand for themselves, summarising as best they can. It doesn’t matter where the news comes from — what matters is how it’s displayed. What makes your take different? Can’t just be graphic design anymore, kid. Is your Instagram carousel lucid enough? Is your Call To Action too kind? Is your series of tweets short enough; long enough; just punchy enough to sum up what is happening better than anyone else…

I believe that the power to make money is a gift from God.

- John D. Rockefeller

Is this what Citizen Journalism was all about? Doesn’t matter… We’re here now. Hard to think those poor bastards tweeting through it during the Arab Spring would predict we’d end up here. Oh, Zuck and Jack From Twitter were quick to claim ownership of that particular social cause. Shame it didn’t last and barely was what it seemed.

Gabe Kapler finally out at The Giants. Farewell, Gabe… I will always remember you for the chaos you brought on The Company the moment you stepped in there. Maybe it should’ve worked on paper, but there were enough red flags. Still, a few years of the American Dream… that’s more than most of us. Australia’s biggest test this week is on media literacy.

Well, Elon’s first Big Test hit the countertop and it’s playing out on the Gaza Strip. And there are enough dead bodies on my timeline for me to know that he has failed. Media companies have an obligation to cover this conflict, not just because it is Big News but because the platforms we all once trusted are now swollen with lies and filth. But what happens when most of these brands used these social platforms to news gather in the first place? I guess we’ll Find Out…

Just as Elon’s personal brand was the best thing to happen to Mark Zuckerberg, his management of Twitter might just be the best thing that's happened to Facebook’s clone, Threads. That’s if they want it to take over… I’m not convinced. I will always be honest with you and I am no accountant, but it feels like the sort of thing where taxes enter the conversation. Who was the last Cool Billionaire, anyway?

Vermouth and soda this summer, I think. Takes the edge off.