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The Most Common Error in Media Coverage of the Google Memo

theatlantic.com

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Re: The Most Common Error in Media Coverage of the Google Memo

#31
post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Implicit in your comment is that any suggestion of malicious intent by the author is not substantive. That doesn't seem reasonable, given the context.

I think discussing implicit things in such context should be considered harmful. We should limit ourselves to considering only the original text at face value - because it's too easy for anyone to read their own implicit meaning into the text that reflects their own biases.

The context of this discussion, diversity in gender and race, already contains a lot of implicit meaning in the form of the historical development of the culture of discrimination. It's not at all harmful to acknowledge the long, deep history of the use of dog whistle language and malicious intent disguised as thoughtful rhetoric, especially by those who are in the position of power (men, whites, and especially white men).

Re: The Most Common Error in Media Coverage of the Google Memo

#32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you are giving all the click-bait writers far too much of a benefit of doubt. Let's dispel once and for all with this fiction that they don't know what they are doing. They know exactly what they are doing, and what they are doing is creating outrage and profiting from it in this eyeball-click-ad driven journalism economy. Very few are going to have the wherewithal to forego hundreds or thousands of dollars i…

> Let's dispel once and for all with this fiction that they don't know what they are doing. > They know exactly what they are doing... Because you referenced one of the most oft-quoted blunders[1] of Rubio's 2016 primary campaign I can't tell if you're serious or not. It really detracts from the point you're trying to make. [1] “And let’s dispel once and for all with this fiction that Barack Obama doesn’t know what h…

Good catch :)

I deliberately referenced it because I wanted to convey that there was nothing implicitly wrong in the wording he (Marco Rubio) used, and that the blunder wasn't specifically about to the wording but the use to which it was put, and that the same wording _can_ be used properly too, as I hoped I did.

Re: The Most Common Error in Media Coverage of the Google Memo

#33
post #22

It's ironic that many of the comments here assume Gizmodo and others were acting out of malice to intentionally mislead their audience.

I don't know since I can't read their minds, but both options are troubling. If they did it for easy click-bait money, it's ethically bad. But if they did it on purpose, this is even worse, because it means they manipulate other narratives in the same way. If they can convince very smart HN readers, how totally helpless is the rest of the population?

Re: The Most Common Error in Media Coverage of the Google Memo

#34
post #22

It's ironic that many of the comments here assume Gizmodo and others were acting out of malice to intentionally mislead their audience.

Gizmodo is part of the Gawker Group; they've never been shy about slanting stories to get clicks.

Re: The Most Common Error in Media Coverage of the Google Memo

#35
post #5

> He wants to use different means to address “the problem,” he insists, and doubts that the tradeoffs of getting to a staff of 50 percent men and 50 percent women would be worth it A lot of people are rushing to give this guy bonus points for saying "I'm not against diversity" and acknowledging some women should exist at Google. (Just as long as they're fewer than men, apparently.)

The author took the "I'm not sexist, but..." approach to this. But sadly, because of that, people seem to think he's some kind of objective observer. If you have to make that kind of declaration, then everything you say afterward contradicts it.

See, for me that happens when you have to lie about what the other person said to make your point.

YMMV.

Re: The Most Common Error in Media Coverage of the Google Memo

#36
post #13

What pains me is before reading this article I was slightly biased because of previous articles. Actually it doesn't pain me... it really pisses me off that so many journalist are fooling people... particularly me. When I read the bloomberg article (which I submitted to HN and now I want to just bang my head on the table for doing it) I was actually slightly siding with Google. Even though I was constantly telling my…

I feel the same. When I first read the censored Gizmodo version, I thought to myself, "Whoah, this guy is making up too many assumptions without any references!" Later, when I found the original version with references, I felt a bit stupid for judging him.

For me it was the other way around. I was aware of the references, so I just nodded and moved on, not realizing how incendiary some of these things sound when you don't have the context.

For example, "neuroticism" being just a technical term for a normally varying personality trait, not "mental illness".

Re: The Most Common Error in Media Coverage of the Google Memo

#37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Let's dispel once and for all with this fiction that they don't know what they are doing. > They know exactly what they are doing... Because you referenced one of the most oft-quoted blunders[1] of Rubio's 2016 primary campaign I can't tell if you're serious or not. It really detracts from the point you're trying to make. [1] “And let’s dispel once and for all with this fiction that Barack Obama doesn’t know what h…

Good catch :) I deliberately referenced it because I wanted to convey that there was nothing implicitly wrong in the wording he (Marco Rubio) used, and that the blunder wasn't specifically about to the wording but the use to which it was put, and that the same wording _can_ be used properly too, as I hoped I did.

It was a blunder because he came across as robotic and overly scripted, reciting it word for word multiple times, even after Christie pointed it out.

Re: The Most Common Error in Media Coverage of the Google Memo

#39
What this is all really about, when it get's boiled down, is the testing of the freedom of speech by using offense to rally the mob for censorship of a minority. If the oligarchy gets this style of democratic self-censorship past us, it's one more nail in the coffin of freepeoples everyone.

Re: The Most Common Error in Media Coverage of the Google Memo

#40
post #9

> to help him avoid alienating his audience, The gender-diversity topic is too charged to accomplish that. Seriously, I would challenge essayists from either side of the debate to write any significant words on the subject that does not "alienate the audience".

If the audience were intellectually honest this would not be an issue: this is done with religious and moral topics all the time.
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