An upcoming story about Coinbase • Hacker News Board

Re: An upcoming story about Coinbase

#131

Post by peteretep » Thu, Nov 26, 2020, 5:17 AM UTC

theanarcrist wrote: post #121

ntsplnkv2 wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It is odd to me that they would preemptively go loud on this "This is gonna be really bad, so we need to get out in front of it." That's what it sounds like to me.

I suspect part of the motivation is to scoop the reporter's own story as a passive aggressive reprisal. It also serves to reduce the chance of future reporters on negative topics to talk directly to Coinbase since they've already showed they're willing to break stories before they publish.

Their PR agency is asleep at the wheel; there's no way this doesn't amplify the story

Re: An upcoming story about Coinbase

#132

Post by TerminalWarrior » Thu, Nov 26, 2020, 5:17 AM UTC

peteretep wrote: post #125

TerminalWarrior wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What about in the day and age where "silence is violence"? Apparently just trying to not get involved is enough to make a whole company raciest?

Announcing a policy where you’re saying “we’re above politics and we’ll pay you to leave if you’re not” is quite definitely not an example of “trying to not get involved”

I get it. If you don't want your company to be involved in political issues whats the problem? (Other than the NYT coming after you apparently).

Re: An upcoming story about Coinbase

#133

Post by ericpauley » Thu, Nov 26, 2020, 5:18 AM UTC

whakim wrote: post #91

drewbug01 wrote: post #27

Well, the whole press release / internal email smells of a company desperately trying to spin what they expect to be a very, very bad article. But this line jumped out at me twice: > To be specific: Although the story will likely allege that a number of Black employees and contractors referenced in the story filed complaints with the company, only three of these people filed complaints during their time at Coinbase.…

Agreed. The entire post is filled with vague language, such as talking about what the story will "imply". Also, I think it goes without saying that there are plenty of very understandable reasons why people don't file complaints even though they have very legitimate grievances (which allows companies to stand on such technicalities). So we'll see.

To be fair, The Times is notorious for crafty implication. For the casual reader, these implications can ring far louder than the actual facts, without the piece being false, per se.

Re: An upcoming story about Coinbase

#134

Post by fatbird » Thu, Nov 26, 2020, 5:18 AM UTC

avolcano wrote: post #17

This is an odd thing to see widely published. I'm at a company that had a rather detailed negative article written about us, and we were warned about it internally shortly before it was published, after the reporter had contacted us with details and questions. However, we didn't go public with a reaction until after it was out, since it seemed rather pointless to respond to something that hadn't been published yet, e…

Everyone who has read this and then reads the NYT story will do the latter with the former in mind. As much as possible, they're anticipating what the story will reveal and getting their objections on the record so that a reader can't help but view the story's assertions in light of the responses they've already read.

Moreover, getting in front of this means adopting a stance of openness and transparency that, in itself, seems quite laudible. As a PR strategy, this is good work, especially for a company that's already raised its profile on these topics earlier in the year.

Whether it's cynical PR strategy or sincere crisis management is left for the reader to decide.

Re: An upcoming story about Coinbase

#135

Post by rlt » Thu, Nov 26, 2020, 5:18 AM UTC

flowerlad wrote: post #73

ApolloFortyNine wrote: post #10

It's really really hard to prove your not racist. If anyone has any clue as how to do so, please share. They could have waited until the story was published I guess to share this statement, but publishing it preemptively makes sense too I believe (it's an always open entity that is incredibly easy to switch away from). But truly, when you get accused of racism, what can you even do?

> It's really really hard to prove your not racist. If anyone has any clue as how to do so, please share. If you have been accused of racism that's because somebody has an example of you being racist. If you did not have racist intent you can clarify your intent. Simply claiming you're not a racist won't do because pretty much everyone accused of racism makes that claim (example: central park dog walker, or any other…

> If you have been accused of racism that's because somebody has an example of you being racist

> any other person in the news accused of racism

You’re kind of proving the point by claiming it’s always so clear cut.

Re: An upcoming story about Coinbase

#136

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Nov 26, 2020, 5:18 AM UTC

lacker wrote: post #105

avolcano wrote: post #17

This is an odd thing to see widely published. I'm at a company that had a rather detailed negative article written about us, and we were warned about it internally shortly before it was published, after the reporter had contacted us with details and questions. However, we didn't go public with a reaction until after it was out, since it seemed rather pointless to respond to something that hadn't been published yet, e…

It is odd to me that they would preemptively go loud on this, drawing attention to a story that might not even get that much traction. It's hard for me to imagine an NYT story getting less traction than a Coinbase post, though. So is this really drawing attention to the story? Maybe this is just drawing more attention to Coinbase's version of the story, rather than the NYT's version. Basically, if you're going to end…

[deleted]

Re: An upcoming story about Coinbase

#137

Post by Barrin92 » Thu, Nov 26, 2020, 5:18 AM UTC

wonderwonder wrote: post #97

wilg wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would argue that your framing of that situation is itself politicized!

He is probably correct though. Often times a company or person will do something that catches attention, this then provides an opportunity for a story on a subject that people are already aware of and drives interest. If Coinbase had not published the prior memo, this article would likely have not been written. Was it written by someone with an axe to grind, I don't know (maybe) but the odds of the article being gree…

is that an actual problem though? Controversial actions drawing attention to other issues isn't exactly new in journalism, what matters is if the allegations in the piece are going to be substantiated, and this preemptive post makes me think that will be the case. When I read that previous coinbase statement I actually wondered immediately if they have internal issues like this, and their policy was just an attempt to shut it down, I guess that's what a journalist might think as well.

It's of course also hilarious that Coinbases attempt at shutting political discourse at the company down now has put them into the crosshairs if that's actually the case.

Re: An upcoming story about Coinbase

#138

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Nov 26, 2020, 5:19 AM UTC

peteretep wrote: post #131

theanarcrist wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suspect part of the motivation is to scoop the reporter's own story as a passive aggressive reprisal. It also serves to reduce the chance of future reporters on negative topics to talk directly to Coinbase since they've already showed they're willing to break stories before they publish.

Their PR agency is asleep at the wheel; there's no way this doesn't amplify the story

[deleted]

Re: An upcoming story about Coinbase

#139

Post by jolux » Thu, Nov 26, 2020, 5:20 AM UTC

nullc wrote: post #128

muglug wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> NYT's recent decline from paper of record to race-baiting propaganda Good newspapers must always speak truth to power. In a country where white people hold virtually all of it, sometimes that means speaking truth to white power. You’re sort of telling on yourself if you find that offensive.

The thing about speaking truth to power is that there are two components to the statement. It isn't met only by attacking a group perceived to be affiliated with "power"-- it also has to involve the truth.

Who's claiming it doesn't have to involve the truth?

Re: An upcoming story about Coinbase

#140

Post by ericpauley » Thu, Nov 26, 2020, 5:20 AM UTC

drewbug01 wrote: post #104

philtar wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Reading between the lines, I imagine that the complaints workers claim to have filed were ignored by management at some level of the process, or not filed on the right paperwork or something. Reading the lines (instead of between them) tells you that two of the complains were investigated by a third-party which found no evidence of wrong-doing.

What you’ve said and what I’ve said are not in conflict. Coinbase clearly states that they believe there to be three complaints and that they’re generally in the clear. My point about reading between the lines is that the explicit, specific repetition of the claim and the way they’re saying it implies that the NYT is going to allege there were more complaints. So then: what of the missing complaints? What Coinbase is…

It seems plausible to me that The Times could use very similar language to "a number of people," and giving 3 examples while implying that the number is far more.