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I Am Deleting the Blog

slatestarcodex.com

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Re: I Am Deleting the Blog

#671

Post by at-fates-hands »

fullshark wrote: post #641
wayoutthere wrote: post #625

I unsubscribed from the NYT after the Tom Cotton editorial. That's when it became clear to me that their ethics were driven by a need to drive traffic to their site and I wanted no part in it. Stuff like this just reaffirms my decision. Good riddance.

I think that decision was worse than a sign that they have given in to market forces. They have given in to internal activists who have no desire to learn, think, or report the truth, merely use the paper as a weapon for social change.

> They have given in to internal activists who have no desire to learn, think, or report the truth.

I am shocked and saddened this is where we are as a society. Literally one man's opinion distressed so many people, in such a way, they felt the need to raise an army and then descend on their employer and demand they remove, recant and say it will never happen again?

We have arrived at a time in place where you cannot have your own opinion without fear of the rage mob coming after you.

“Every record has been destroyed or falsified, every book rewritten, every picture has been repainted, every statue and street building has been renamed, every date has been altered. And the process is continuing day by day and minute by minute. History has stopped. Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Party is always right.”

George Orwell

-1984

Re: I Am Deleting the Blog

#672

Post by sly010 »

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.

Personally, I call it the Dan Brown effect, because when I was a teen I read "The Da Vinci Code" (I am not expert) a few months before reading "Digital Fortress" (I am somewhat knowledgable) and I found it so profoundly bad that it mad me angry for wasting my time.

Re: I Am Deleting the Blog

#673

Post by catacombs »

gwbas1c wrote: post #659
alecbenzer wrote: post #605

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The implication being that the NYT wants to use real names to drive clicks and appease advertisers?

I think it's best to hear from NYT about why they strictly only use real names.

Factual accuracy is the cornerstone of the profession.

In reporting out a story, it is the journalist's responsibility to obtain factual and verifiable information. People are the center of the story, and using their real names adds credibility to the story.

Now, there are circumstances where reporters use pseudonyms for sources -- mainly to protect victims of sex crimes -- or anonymous sources entirely. The latter is constantly debated among journalists. However, the consensus is using anonymous sources is necessary when all other avenues of getting someone on the record is exhausted or the story is so explosive that people close to the information are willing to shed light on an issue so long as their name is not used in print, mostly from fear of retribution, which is more common than you think.

Re: I Am Deleting the Blog

#674

Post by nillium »

ErikAugust wrote: post #657

Feel free to use Trim to remove all paywalls and JavaScript from places like the New York Times: https://beta.trimread.com .

How is this not theft?

Journalism is expensive. Of course, there are other business models (full disclosure, we're building one too: https://blog.nillium.com/what-can-napster-teach-local-news/) but circumventing a paywall is not the answer.

Yes, the NYT is one of the few outlets that is doing reasonably well right now. But many newspapers are going out of business, or at least furloughing employees -- employees who already were not earning huge salaries.

If you read the article, and they ask for money to let you do that -- then honor that request. Just because you can hop over a paywall doesnt mean you should.

Re: I Am Deleting the Blog

#675

Post by DuskStar »

csharptwdec19 wrote: post #664
DoubleGlazing wrote: post #374

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The father of one of my neighbours recently died in a house fire. It was a tragic accident, nothing sinister. The whole family could be described as boringly average with nothing of note about them. The family refused all requests for interviews from the media. That didn't stop the Irish Independent (big national paper here) from publishing gory headlines about the families pain. They also managed to source family ph…

Doesn't the UK have strong laws about libel and slander? Or do they not apply to Ireland?

Ireland is a different country.

Re: I Am Deleting the Blog

#676

Post by catacombs »

alecbenzer wrote: post #605
kerkeslager wrote: post #543

Damn. I've been reading Slate Star Codex for a long time, and he's always been one of the most insightful voices on the internet. I'm really sorry to see him go. After reading this, I looked up NYT's policy of using real names, and it turns out this isn't the worst time that the NY Times has done this[1]. I've long said that if you want to know who an organization serves, see where its money comes from. The NY Times…

The implication being that the NYT wants to use real names to drive clicks and appease advertisers?

> The implication being that the NYT wants to use real names to drive clicks and appease advertisers?

This shows a lack of how journalism works. Using real names isn't to "drive clicks" and "appease advertisers." It's to add credibility to a story.

Think about it: Does a furniture business advertising in the local paper care whether the victim of a shooting is named in a piece? Sure, the owner might know the victim, but that doesn't mean the business will determine its expenditures based on names.

Re: I Am Deleting the Blog

#677

Post by skissane »

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…

In 2005, The Australian newspaper published an article claiming that Macquarie University IT Services was going to make redundant 50-60 staff. (I can't find the text of the article online, but I can find a citation for it [1].)

I remember being amused by this article, because I actually worked there at the time, and we didn't actually have 50-60 staff to make redundant. If they'd let go of 50-60 staff from our department, we would have had a negative number of employees remaining (the actual number of employees was a bit over 40). It also reinforced my tendency to distrust journalists, who often fail to get even basic facts right.

(There was an element of truth behind the story – they did plan a significant round of job cuts, 15 years later I can't recall exactly how big, but it could have been a third of the department – it was just the numbers in the article had been impossibly inflated. And the plan was never to lay off the entire department, just a significant chunk of it.)

[1] https://trove.nla.gov.au/version/121830411

Re: I Am Deleting the Blog

#678

Post by gringoDan »

emiliobumachar wrote: post #561

Original title: "NYT Is Threatening My Safety By Revealing My Real Name, So I Am Deleting The Blog" HN title as of this writing: "I Am Deleting The Blog" I propose we change the HN title to match the original title. If length is a problem, then I propose "NYT About To Doxx Me, So I Am Deleting The Blog".

He updated the title of the blog post after this link was posted to HN. The title of the HN post is reflective of the original title of the blog post.

Re: I Am Deleting the Blog

#679

Post by catacombs »

ErikAugust wrote: post #657

Feel free to use Trim to remove all paywalls and JavaScript from places like the New York Times: https://beta.trimread.com .

How about buying a subscription to not just NYT or other national outlets, but local news organizations so the people reporting on these issues can keep the lights on.

Re: I Am Deleting the Blog

#680

Post by [deleted] »

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.

[deleted]
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