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Slate Star Codex and Silicon Valley’s War Against the Media

newyorker.com

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Re: Slate Star Codex and Silicon Valley’s War Against the Media

#101

Post by ggreer »

alex_young wrote: post #13

Can you really be both a public figure and keep your identity hidden by way of asking? There’s a playbook for this. Look at Banksy for example. If you don’t want your identity out there it’s your job to protect it. Not the New York Times.

Even when a subject's legal name is known, the NYT regularly uses a pen name or pseudonym to protect their identity. Here are some examples:

- Virgil Texas, co-host of the Chapo Trap House podcast: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/29/us/politics/bernie-sander...

- Vermin Supreme, performance artist: https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/30/us/politics/libertarians-...

- Drag queens such as Lil Miss Hot Mess, Sister Roma, and Heklina: https://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/25/fashion/drag-performers-f...

- Baseball statistician Tom Tango: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/29/magazine/why-are-some-new...

- Gay niche erotica writer Chuck Tingle: https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/22/opinion/chuck-tingles-int...

- A Canadian who traveled to Syria to fight for ISIS: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/20/podcasts/caliphate-transc...

- A random person: https://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/25/nyregion/commodes-if-not-...

> A second person who checked out the women’s restroom — and who asked not to be identified because she has always wanted to be an anonymous source — reported her findings by email...

- Jeremiah Moss: https://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/05/nyregion/a-cranky-blogger...

> Mr. Moss, which is not his real name — more on that to come — took part in a doomed attempt to save the Café Edison, a beloved Times Square coffee shop whose landlord was looking to replace it with a classier establishment. ... A therapist and a writer, he says he is worried that clients might object to his activism.

"A therapist and a writer", hmmm... who else fits that description? Oh right, Scott Alexander!

Re: Slate Star Codex and Silicon Valley’s War Against the Media

#102

Post by SquishyPanda23 »

> so the reporter is either stupid or disingenuous

IMO your comment would be better without the ad-hominems

> anyone expressing heterodox opinions is likely to write something that a reporter working for a mainstream outlet considers "a creditable reason for negative coverage"

I get that you're angry, but this is unsubstantiated by anything you or the article says.

Re: Slate Star Codex and Silicon Valley’s War Against the Media

#104

Post by baddox »

whatshisface wrote: post #56
ajkjk wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It didn't strike me as ugly as all.

Reading the Scott Aaronson affair described as being about the trouble of male nerds on the "dating market," was awfully ugly. Of course, this doesn't mean that the New Yorker has it out for "rationalists," it's just an example of the callous and not-exactly right coverage that subcultures usually get from the mainstream. The truth is that the Aaronson affair was that he had crippling anxiety when he was young, got m…

It seems to me that simplifying the entire Scott Aaronson affair was necessary, since it was just a brief part of this article. I thought their choice of simplification was reasonable and in good faith, but of course others might disagree (and unfortunately, whether we agree or disagree is likely to be effected by our overall level of agreement with the article).

Re: Slate Star Codex and Silicon Valley’s War Against the Media

#105

Post by zozbot234 »

hirundo wrote: post #68

> This plea ... in this case, it seemed to lend plausible deniability to what he surely knew would be taken as incitement. That's unfair given that the alternative was supine acceptance. He made a good faith attempt to amplify his reasonable criticism while leashing the inevitable jerks. Can the author of this article say as much? This is a formula to silence any popular speaker by association. Here's a dangerous per…

I agree with the author that Scott definitely knew what was about to happen. He has consistently tried his best to "leash" his followers, but the response has been quite harsh nonetheless. And the whole SV + conservative politics vs. old media angle has made the situation even more intractable.

Re: Slate Star Codex and Silicon Valley’s War Against the Media

#106

Post by atdrummond »

avivo wrote: post #85

As someone who works at the intersection of technology and journalism, it hurts to see how many misunderstandings there are in these comments and elsewhere. The tech world (and HN in particular) deeply needs a solid explainer on how journalism works. So many misunderstandings! (Of course, many/most journalists also need an explainer about the tech world. And that is not to say that some of the more nuanced critiques…

I’m willing to learn where I may be wrong. What specifically do you see that strikes you as off-base?

Re: Slate Star Codex and Silicon Valley’s War Against the Media

#107

Post by drchickensalad »

SquishyPanda23 wrote: post #102

> so the reporter is either stupid or disingenuous IMO your comment would be better without the ad-hominems > anyone expressing heterodox opinions is likely to write something that a reporter working for a mainstream outlet considers "a creditable reason for negative coverage" I get that you're angry, but this is unsubstantiated by anything you or the article says.

I agree. Stupid and uninformed are quite different.

Re: Slate Star Codex and Silicon Valley’s War Against the Media

#108

Post by maverick2007 »

avivo wrote: post #85

As someone who works at the intersection of technology and journalism, it hurts to see how many misunderstandings there are in these comments and elsewhere. The tech world (and HN in particular) deeply needs a solid explainer on how journalism works. So many misunderstandings! (Of course, many/most journalists also need an explainer about the tech world. And that is not to say that some of the more nuanced critiques…

Tell us more! I'd be interested in reading that explainer on journalism if you have a good one to link to.

Re: Slate Star Codex and Silicon Valley’s War Against the Media

#109

Post by analyte123 »

tripletao wrote: post #28

What an ugly article. A couple quotes: > It remains possible that Alexander vaporized his blog not because he thought it would force Metz’s hand but because he feared that a Times reporter wouldn’t have to poke around for very long to turn up a creditable reason for negative coverage. The reporter is unaware that the Internet Archive exists? The content is obviously still readily available, so the reporter is either…

Parts of this read as a smoothed-over hit piece. An honest and comprehensive effort to rip apart and debunk neo-reactionary ideology is painted guilt-by-association style as "possibly legitimizing" or "describing" it. "[Exploring] and [upholding] research into innate biological differences between men and women" is "[giving] safe harbor to some genuinely egregious ideas". Asking people to politely contact the editor of a major newspaper is "incitement". Not to mention the sheer bravado of simultaneously claiming that everybody involved is a grandiose conspiracy theorist for being worried about being targeted and misrepresented by the news media, while doing all of the above and providing direct quotes that show them being targeted and misrepresented about whether they "recruit people for white supremacy" in the comment section. This is being a "professional journalist", but disputing this narrative is being "quarrelsome" and "agitated". The writer admits that "a reporter would want to make them pay for" tolerating extreme positions in order to show how those positions may be mistaken.
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