If it’s out of a can, then nothing: this week on Fresh Powder

The lede

Since its release last week, praise poured in for the Netflix limited series Unbelievable, in which Pulitzer Prize-winning reporting is adapted for the small screen. Kaitlyn Dever portrays Marie, a real-life rape victim accused of lying. “Marie said in a recent interview that she is grateful for the Netflix series, hopeful its lessons will resonate,” updates ProPublica, which originally reported Marie’s story and others in exploring the cost of not believing victims and the failures of law enforcement.

. . . From 2016: Read the original piece by ProPublica and The Marshall Project: “An Unbelievable Story of Rape” (It would win the Pulitzer for Explanatory Reporting.)

. . . Rolling Stone: “Dramatizations that are lazy or rote can undermine the gravity of the topic and do a genuine disservice to the people who’ve suffered that real-life trauma. With Unbelievable, the creative team and superb cast treat the subject with the seriousness and grace it deserves, while also telling one hell of a story along the way.” (I highly recommend it.)

Seconded

Cokie Roberts is considered “one of a handful of pioneering female journalists … who helped shape the public broadcaster’s sound and culture at a time when few women held prominent roles in journalism.” NPR: Cokie Roberts Dies At 75.

TGIF

Netflix’s purchase of Seinfeld’s streaming rights for an incendiary sum says more about its current state of mind after losing bids to retain The Office and Friends than it does about what it thinks of Seinfeld independently. The Ringer, on these latest developments from the front lines of the escalating Streaming Wars: “Neither The Office nor Friends were Netflix originals, but they might as well have been to the binge viewers who watched them more than any in-house productions. So when those two series were set to leave Netflix, (they) were left staring down their own version of a chicken-and-egg problem: Had Netflix become a generation’s go-to because it had nostalgic touchstones from their youth, or had Friends and The Officebecome nostalgic touchstones because the service was already where millennials went for background viewing? Netflix has opted not to find out.”

. . . Alas we address the monkey in the living room: “Friends Is Older Than Some of Its Biggest Fans,” writes The New York Times. (Find someone your own age!)

#MillennialProblems

Newsrooms in Minneapolis, St. Louis and Boston handed over control of their Instagram accounts for the summer to a few college interns, resulting in huge growth, expanded reach and plentiful usage. From Poynter: “Traditionally, newsrooms have used Instagram to showcase their photographers’ work. There’s still room for that … but it’s also a way to help raise awareness of traditional journalism’s other work.”

. . . How to share traditional stories on non-traditional social media platforms to capture the attention of younger audiences is precisely what Poynter’s MediaWise is trying to figure out. “We want to presume TikTok won’t be a vehicle for publishing investigative journalism. However, given the way technology has evolved, there’s no way to tell for sure.”

Sports!

“SI conducted interviews with more than two dozen people who have employed, worked for, coached, or played alongside Brown.” In an exclusive story, Sports Illustrated found that there’s a lot more to the Antonio Brown story.

Thinking ahead

Where to turn to when you’re single and have exhausted all other resources: a dating doctor for your phone? Wired: “The folly of love is not so much about what we do when we are flooded with feelings, but what can happen when we have incomplete data. This is perhaps why a crop of new apps have arrived, harnessing the powers of artificial intelligence, to offer relationship advice.” (I’d have sunk $9 into it 15 years ago. Sure.)

This also happened last week: A college student’s case for Sharpay Evans, hero of the High School Musical trilogy, went viral, but for the greatest movie counter argument of all time, we give you this: Violet Beauregarde should‘ve won Wonka’s chocolate factory (Don’t @ us.)