Oh... so journalists not complying with police orders in hostile/riot environments... literally nothing to see here...
Record Breaking Number of Journalists Arrested in the U.S. This Year
371–380 of 527 posts
Re: Record Breaking Number of Journalists Arrested in the U.S. This Year
#372Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's truly scary times we live in... It feels like the entire word has developed an authorization bend. The United States has a sitting president who is attempting a self-coup with the majority of the legislatures in his party supporting it, or at least not condemning it. It's just... shocking.
You make your claims as if it was fact and yet it isn't. Millions of people in the United States think you're completely brainwashed. The same way as somebody a few years ago that was freaking out that Obama was building work camps to force all gun owners into. For somebody outside of your echo chamber your viewpoints sound ridiculous.
It repeats for Americans over and over like a tape. The outrages literally copy themselves just switching sides. It's very hard to even discuss these matters with Americans since they have both picked their favorite football team and hold onto their dogmas just middle age church.
Re: Record Breaking Number of Journalists Arrested in the U.S. This Year
#373Earlier quoted context omitted.
Would you say people aren't software developers unless they are employed by a company to predominately develop software? Because your comment certainly reads like that type of gatekeeping regarding who is and is not a journalist.
The fact that arrests of journalists are being tracked implies that some gatekeeping about who is a journalist is necessary. The clearer the definition is, the more meaningful the statistics will be. That is the only way we would actually be able track whether journalists are being targeted by police.
> The fact that arrests of journalists are being tracked implies that some gatekeeping about who is a journalist is necessary.
Not really. Just track the statistics for full-time journalists. Then you don't have to engage in gatekeeping of journalism, you're just sensibly excluding full-time bounty hunters who wrote a news article that one time from the statistics on arrests of full-time journalists, even if the bounty hunter was, in that one instance, a journalist.
Re: Record Breaking Number of Journalists Arrested in the U.S. This Year
#374Earlier quoted context omitted.
As a theory, Y Combinator, thus HN, is strongly aligned with startups which, in less hip circles, are "small businesses". Small business tends conservative because regulation disproportionately impacts them (eg. regulatory capture). It would certainly be nicer if more regulation created a level playing field and actually prevented anti-competitive practices. To counter balance the above blatant and unfair stereotypin…
small business tends conservative because regulation disproportionately impacts them That doesn't make sense. If someone feels unduly burdened by the status quo, why would they vote to preserve it?
In US Politics, "conservative" often means someone who believes in small government and less regulation.
Regulations tend to take a lot of money to comply with, making it difficult for small businesses to compete with larger ones.
So it is in small business owners' interests to support candidates that claim to be in favor of removing regulatory restrictions.
Which tends to be a Republican talking point (whether or not they actually do anything to advance the cause once elected)
Re: Record Breaking Number of Journalists Arrested in the U.S. This Year
#375Earlier quoted context omitted.
I would guess it's actually that HN has members who aren't from the major tech metros, and people outside of those areas tend to be more conservative (in a relative sense at the very least). For many, this would be the main place they ever come across those people, which would make it seem unusually conservative.
As a theory, Y Combinator, thus HN, is strongly aligned with startups which, in less hip circles, are "small businesses". Small business tends conservative because regulation disproportionately impacts them (eg. regulatory capture). It would certainly be nicer if more regulation created a level playing field and actually prevented anti-competitive practices. To counter balance the above blatant and unfair stereotypin…
There are people here all over the world. In large parts of Europe liberals prefer low taxes and small state to conservatives who want to give their old voters all sort of gifts and benefits. Probably the American idea of a libertarian is more suited.
Re: Record Breaking Number of Journalists Arrested in the U.S. This Year
#376Earlier quoted context omitted.
Then you're probably following a losing strategy. "Team" doesn't have to mean "generic normie political party"; there are other team dynamics at play. In any case, if you haven't partitioned the political space into allies and enemies along at least a few planes, you're probably going to get taken advantage of (at the very least).
I am fine with being an individual with original opinions but I can empathize with insecure people who band together for reassurance.
If you're not attuned enough to figure out why political alliances are worthwhile, your opinions probably aren't that original.
It's not a matter of "reassurance" - it's about economies of scale. If the best explanation you can come up with for why a bunch of people exhibit a behavior you don't is "they have a personality flaw", this is very strong evidence that you don't actually have a good grasp of people's motivations.
Re: Record Breaking Number of Journalists Arrested in the U.S. This Year
#377Reading the comments in this thread and I am amazed at the sudden pro-authoritarian shift seen on HN lately, what's going on?
No shift - it's just that most people espouse their convictions with an unstated parenthetical that those convictions only apply when it furthers the power ambitions for them or their allies. Not much else explains e.g. how Julian Assange's rep has changed in the past 10 years.
I'm sure if anyone responds to this, it will be to tell me why Julian's case is actually different and now he's dangerous for democracy...but sorry, no, his case isn't different. You're just a hypocrite.
Re: Record Breaking Number of Journalists Arrested in the U.S. This Year
#378Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't see a pro-authoritarian bent in the comments in this thread. What I see a lot of is people pointing out that the definition of "journalist" is very very loose in 2020, and that has an effect on the arrest stats. Many many many people have watched with their own eyes, live on video, what's been going on through the course of this year. We've seen CNN and ABC reporters shot with rubber bullets and accosted on l…
Journalist is not loosely defined. FTA: >While we recognize the importance and the rights of the private citizen who snaps a photo or video of an arrest, this site will only cover individuals who self-identify as journalists and have some track record of journalistic work. Splitting hairs over the semantics of the word 'journalistic' is an attempt to discredit the study about authoritarianism being at an all time hig…
> Splitting hairs over the semantics of the word 'journalistic' is an attempt to discredit the study about authoritarianism being at an all time high in the U.S.
Those two things are not the same, and in many ways aren't even connected within the context of this article.
1. The article's definition of journalist would allow me to claim that I'm a journalist. I would never consider myself as such, nor would any reasonable person, yet my photography has adorned the covers of published books, my writing has been published on respected news sites, and I've been invited as a speaker to conferences as an authority on a variety of subject matters.
"Some track record of journalistic work" is a very low bar, depending on the meaning of "journalistic work" and "some track record".
"self-identifying as a journalist" is an even lower bar.
2. If you'd read the article, they even assert that half the incidents reported occurred to people not associated to any known or major media organizations and presumed to be freelancers.
So, I don't think it's just "splitting hairs", the definition is central to the validity of their methodology. Is there a problem with growing authoritarianism in the US? In my opinion, yes, unequivocally. I've been discussing this matter in my circles for more than a decade. The revelations from Snowden, the work the CATO Institute/Radley Balko did on police militarization and brutality, no-knock warrants, asset forfeiture, etc. are all strong evidence of a persistent and growing authoritarian trend in the US. That may or may not validate the evidence in the article, but the way the article states it's evidence and methodology comes very much down to semantics about what it means to be a "journalist", and that is not a decided question in 2020. One can recognize and acknowledge growing authoritarianism in the US while at the same time pointing out flaws in the article and it's associated study methodology.
I think it is not in good faith to try to tar people who bring up good questions about definition as "splitting hairs", or being pro-authoritarian, or in other ways trying to straw man their position. You can be anti-authoritarian, be against police brutality and the suppression of the press, have observed with your own eyes credentialed reporters being harmed and assaulted by the police in 2020, and still want to know with some specificity what this study considers to be a "journalist" for the purpose of reporting their stats.
Re: Record Breaking Number of Journalists Arrested in the U.S. This Year
#379Earlier quoted context omitted.
Being anti-"journalist" isn't the same as being pro-authoritarian. 99% of institutional journalists are sockpuppets for prog neoliberal authoritarianism. I can think of a single-digit number of well-known journalists who I actually respect and generally expect to provide useful/unbiased information. This isn't a left/right authoritarian/libertarian thing - anti-corpo-journalist sentiment is pretty widely shared acros…
Being in favour of, or okay with, journalists being arrested for doing journalism is _intensely_ authoritarian, whether you agree with them or not. Especially if you disagree with them, really.
I think it's wrong to arrest journalists for doing journalism, but I don't really care about legally punishing "journalists" doing "journalism", where "journalism" is targeted violent harassment, slander, vandalism, etc.
Re: Record Breaking Number of Journalists Arrested in the U.S. This Year
#380Earlier quoted context omitted.
So here's the dilemma I'm faced with. As someone who wishes to consume news that is as factual as reasonably possible, while also being aware that at least some bias is inevitable (no matter how well-intentioned the author may be)... how does one evaluate a news source for its trustworthiness, short of physically observing an event for yourself?
Others have given great responses, but one thing not emphasized enough is recognizing the type of language used. It failed for various reasons, but The Knife used to do a textual analysis of articles and point out the manipulative language used. A quick example off the top of my head is recent reporting on the US election (all paraphrased, but I bet you can find real examples easily): "... baseless claims" "... witho…
Except those aren't example of manipulative language as they're factual descriptions of the claims. If I say the sky is made of honey without any evidence to back my claim and you report on my statement describing it as having no evidence, you've done nothing wrong. Your description of my statement is not using superfluous adjectives.
Anyone making a claim of fact needs to be prepared to back it up. Far too many people game the media by making absurd claims knowing their claims will simply be reported verbatim. Accurately reporting a claim is presented without evidence or is repeating a previously debunked statement is a necessary counter against people making absurd factual claims.
There's a clear dividing line between making statement claiming fact and a statement of opinion. If I tell you I think the sky is made of honey I may be factually incorrect but I'm not claiming to be making a factual statement.
Claims of fact deserve much more scrutiny than opinions. You're entitled to any opinion you want but you are not entitled to your own facts. When your claims of facts pose a material danger to persons or simply the rule of law, especially when they come from people with a wide audience or power, they deserve even more scrutiny than some Joe Shmoe.