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I Am Deleting the Blog

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Re: I Am Deleting the Blog

#271

Post by jychang »

thinkingemote wrote: post #170

It doesn't take too much imagination to see how easy it would be to write a hit piece. Scott writes eloquently and in depth, but the news is not about either of those things. Scott has written a few times about problematic issues which have surfaced in recent months and it would be very easy to write "some people say that Scott is ${label}" with just a bit of superficial quotes. Today's climate of online mob justice…

Scott is the type of individual where literally any side of a political debate can write a hit piece with some quotes, because he considers ALL the sides of a debate. Unfortunately, that's a rare trait these days.

Re: I Am Deleting the Blog

#272

Post by mratsim »

the-dude wrote: post #120
npstr wrote: post #111

Similar effect when reading the news on a topic that one is an expert in - they usually get it incredibly wrong. And then you turn the page and read the next article completely forgetting how bad the reporting actually is - there is no reason to assume they do a better job on topics that one is not an expert in! I think this bias had a name but I can't remember it.

Gell-mann Amnesia : https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/65213-briefly-stated-the-ge...

I'm surprised they don't even get the show business right, I thought many publications were owned or actually in the show business and so they would have many subject matter experts available.

Re: I Am Deleting the Blog

#273

Post by ImaCake »

johan_larson wrote: post #237

I'm sorry Scott has decided to shut down his blog. He posted many interesting things over the years, and the community of commenters that clustered in the blog's open threads was usually a joy to deal with. I was part of that for years. I'm sorry to see it go. That said, this decision to shut down the blog looks like an overreaction to me. Scott seems to think that he should be able to be both a prominent online pund…

It doesn't seem like an overreaction when he states that he fears for his life and the welfare of his patients. He seems to say that when faced with being doxxed, his choice is to keep the blog and threaten things he cares deeply about, or hide the blog and thus protect those things. Clearly he has decided there are things more important to him than the blog.

Re: I Am Deleting the Blog

#274

Post by arrrg »

AnthonyMouse wrote: post #250
rachelshu wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think, given Scott's recent defense of Steve Hsu, that he'd really want people fired for doing ill-advised things, even if they could be reasonably construed as dangerous, unless harm was demonstrated. It's still disappointing that the journalist is making this choice.

There is a clear division to be made between firing someone for what they do on their own time vs. actions they take in the course of their employment for you. When being a responsible journalist is your job, it's not unreasonable to expect to get fired for not being a responsible journalist.

I think it’s completely unreasonable to fire someone for one instance of wrong behavior (with very narrow exceptions for something like stealing or sexual abuse).

I’m very happy to live in a country where you cannot fire people just like that, even if they do something wrong. You have to give people second chances. I don’t get this “fire them” approach to anything wrong something does.

People make mistakes. That just happens. To always fire people because of that makes no sense to me.

Re: I Am Deleting the Blog

#275

Post by vinay427 »

cmroanirgo wrote: post #176
brnt wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Disengaging based on an N=1 is not the type of individual action that improves our society. Our society is built on individual (and collective) attempts to improve, and you putting your money towards journalists you found to be doing a good job is the way we leave the world better than we found it. I hope you'll consider this, because our society cannot function without quality investigative reporting. I of course ag…

And there's the rub. What is "quality investigative reporting" in an objective sense, when most of the MSM outlets are owned by oligarchs, or simply "toe the line"? In theory I would gladly support the theory of "quality investigative reporting", but the reality is a propagandist machine where opinion pieces replaces actual unbiased, adjective-free objective news. Some examples of "oligarch news": https://www.youtube…

I find it mildly ironic that you link to a clip from the PBS NewsHour while, from my reading, you also imply that objective reporting or investigative reporting don't exist or are dwindling. There are clearly some sources left that are worth their salt.

In the US, I've found most PBS/NPR news broadcasts fairly objective, and the various NPR podcasts sometimes chart into investigative territory but there are other sources I rely on for this (e.g. ProPublica) which I don't expect to be just objective.

I'm not sure I understood exactly what you meant about quality investigative journalism, so forgive me if I misread. I generally agree with your comment.

Re: I Am Deleting the Blog

#276

Post by Lewton »

johan_larson wrote: post #237

I'm sorry Scott has decided to shut down his blog. He posted many interesting things over the years, and the community of commenters that clustered in the blog's open threads was usually a joy to deal with. I was part of that for years. I'm sorry to see it go. That said, this decision to shut down the blog looks like an overreaction to me. Scott seems to think that he should be able to be both a prominent online pund…

How is it an overreaction if the NYC was trying to make him famous and he didn't want to be (real-name) famous? Isn't shutting down his blog the only appropriate action then?

Re: I Am Deleting the Blog

#277

Post by 0-O-0 »

ehnto wrote: post #66
chillacy wrote: post #14

This is a tragedy, Scott Alexander is such a thoughtful writer. I wish journalists would come up with some professional standards and make the title licensed, like doctor or lawyer. Right now we all recognize how important journalism is but journalists themselves run the gamut from ethical investigative journalists to clickbait manufacturers. Imagine if journalists also had to adhere to the equivalent of attorney cli…

A standards body maybe. But do you not see some ethical concerns of licensing that tells people how to conduct journalism? Freedom of the Press, but only for those who the governing body deems fit? The whole point of a license is to reduce the gamut of people who can practice a profession to just those people who do it the way the license specifies. In a world such as ours, and a country such as the US, it will inevi…

There is no accountability, no repercussions [1] for causing any amount of personal and economic damage. No real need to offer retraction and corrections even when reporting isn't just unethical, but also blatantly wrong.

If you want an easy example look at this Super Micro spy chip story [2] by Bloomberg Businessweek. It's absolutely unsubstantiated [3], caused 40% drop for SM share price, but two years later it's still up.

[1] except that one time Tiel funded a lawsuit

[2] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2018-10-04/the-big-h...

[3] https://www.theregister.com/2018/10/22/super_micro_chinese_s...

Re: I Am Deleting the Blog

#278

Post by Angostura »

I was a journalist for 20 years working in the B2B IT magazine sector in the UK. We took what we did seriously, strove for accuracy and took pride in informative reporting. There are lots of journalists like this, so I am sad to see how many people are dismissive of the work.

I can understand the anger at the NYT journalist's stance here, but I suppose I would say that we only have the blog author's view at the moment. I can think of situations where exposing an identity would be justified.

Re: I Am Deleting the Blog

#279

Post by skinkestek »

brnt wrote: post #126
Uhrheber wrote: post #75

I stopped trusting reporters about 35 years ago, when I personally witnessed an occurrence, where a reporter was at the scene, and later read what he had written about it in the newspaper. It had practically nothing to do with what really happened, but was written in a way that most of their readers would most likely expect and endorse. I was still very young then, but it opened my eyes, and from then on, I mostly st…

Disengaging based on an N=1 is not the type of individual action that improves our society. Our society is built on individual (and collective) attempts to improve, and you putting your money towards journalists you found to be doing a good job is the way we leave the world better than we found it. I hope you'll consider this, because our society cannot function without quality investigative reporting. I of course ag…

> I hope you'll consider this, because our society cannot function without quality investigative reporting.

Where do I find quality investigative reporting?

I support the Guardian and two regional/local newspapers and I' also forced to pay for the state run broadcaster here but I have to say that I also find myself reading a number of other sources to figure out what is really going on (for the Scandinavians here I'm one of those who will happily look to both Klassekampen and Document, in addition to vg.no and nrk to figure out what is really going on in certain cases, and I understand I am not alone in this).

Once you know a bit of history and a number of different angles you realize some things are horribly complicated and big media is making things worse by pushing misinformation, and by conveniently omitting facts. My favourite example from my favourite (i.e. least despised) local mainstream media source: X fired at a number of positions in neighbouring country Y yesterday. . This happened after a barrage of rockets was fired from these positions shortly before. And that is the most honest of them. The rest seemed to just omit the fact that part Y fired first.

PS: The reason I support some of them is 1) because I feel it is the right thing to do. 2) because I feel at least one of them have actually managed to do some great quality investigative reporting as well as some great feature stories in between. We talk about certain companies and public healthcare organizations getting some much needed sunlight.

Re: I Am Deleting the Blog

#280

Post by perch56 »

enriquto wrote: post #242
Uhrheber wrote: post #75

I stopped trusting reporters about 35 years ago, when I personally witnessed an occurrence, where a reporter was at the scene, and later read what he had written about it in the newspaper. It had practically nothing to do with what really happened, but was written in a way that most of their readers would most likely expect and endorse. I was still very young then, but it opened my eyes, and from then on, I mostly st…

> I stopped trusting reporters about 35 years ago This. Sometimes we joke that "all news is fake news"; but it is actually true!

A book that opened my eyes is Stop Reading the News: A Manifesto for a Happier, Calmer and Wiser Life by Rolf Dobelli.
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