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Agent fired from literary agency for using Parler and Gab

newsweek.com

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Re: Agent fired from literary agency for using Parler and Gab

#131

Post by nilkn »

neartheplain wrote: post #128
filmgirlcw wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m very much against people being fired for their social media posts (unless we’re crossing way over a line that delves into calls for violence or is doing something illegal), but that situation was a bit more complicated. That author, who was PR professional and verified on Twitter, was using her account and her blue-checkmark to shame a worker on a train for eating on her break. She literally tried to get that emp…

You’ve gone and assumed the worst. “Trying to get that employee fired?” I just don’t see it. Anyway, the Metro employees union would never go for it. The no-eating rule is a fairly big deal on Metro. A twelve-year-old girl was famously arrested for eating a single French fry [0], in a case (Hedgepeth v. Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority) that went all the way to the U.S. Court of Appeals, where the arres…

As someone who's never been on the DC metro, my first reaction to this story was that it's pretty unreasonable to post an employee's photo to Twitter just because they ate on the train. While we can't say for sure that they wanted to get the employee fired, their intent was clearly for them to be held accountable in some way by their employer for this infraction.

That said, if it's true that metro passengers have effectively been harassed and abused and arrested for years over this no-eating rule, then I can see how it would be more offensive to see an employee breaking it publicly, and this person's reaction makes more sense to me.

Re: Agent fired from literary agency for using Parler and Gab

#132

Post by libraryatnight »

This is the plausible deniability the far right has baked into their platform that's gotten us where we are. Parler isn't for racists and far right nationalists - it's for free speech. Someone calls you out for hate speech? It was a joke. Ligthen up. I was edgelording. Can't say anything around these snowflakes. We don't hate minorities, we support the police, they're heroes - you're not talking bad about heroes are you?

That said, I don't agree with this firing. "The trouble with fighting for human freedom is that one spends most of one's time defending scoundrels. For it is against scoundrels that oppressive laws are first aimed, and oppression must be stopped at the beginning if it is to be stopped at all." - Mencken

Re: Agent fired from literary agency for using Parler and Gab

#133

Post by HDMI_Cable »

DaiPlusPlus wrote: post #41
HDMI_Cable wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If said employer is asking for your private social media, then they're probably not worth working for anyway.

Tens of millions of people in the US alone don't have the privilege of being on the supply-side for a high-demand skillset. "they're probably not worth working for anyway" is not a reasonable nor helpful response to people in that situation.

That's a sad thing though, that people don't have enough leverage against their employer for more benefits.

Re: Agent fired from literary agency for using Parler and Gab

#134

Post by ronenlh »

forgingahead wrote: post #113
tptacek wrote: post #63

Just a reminder that Newsweek ceased publication back in 2013, and the rights to its brand were purchased by an odd Christian sect, somewhat along the lines of The Washington Times and the Reunification Church. The new "Newsweek" capitalizes on the brand reputation of the old one, but has no connections to it; a good thing to do with Newsweek pieces is to check the byline and look up what their background is.

Honest question - it's obvious how you identify politically by all your posts here, but what has your comment got to do with the story? If it's a false story, say it. If it's not - what exactly are you saying with your comment?

I know it sounds like he’s “poisoning the well,” but this comment answered the question I had in my head. I thought the source was left-leaning but the article had a conservative voice.

It’s important to know who’s writing: The article is not an objective list of facts. They did not reach to the publication for comment. Some nuances might have been ironed out. This is true regardless of the political side talking.

Re: Agent fired from literary agency for using Parler and Gab

#135

Post by dguaraglia »

dehrmann wrote: post #88
tptacek wrote: post #63

Just a reminder that Newsweek ceased publication back in 2013, and the rights to its brand were purchased by an odd Christian sect, somewhat along the lines of The Washington Times and the Reunification Church. The new "Newsweek" capitalizes on the brand reputation of the old one, but has no connections to it; a good thing to do with Newsweek pieces is to check the byline and look up what their background is.

According to Wikipedia, it was bought by IBT Media in 2013, then spun-off as an independent entity in 2018 that I assume is owned by the same people as IBT. I found claims that IBT's other notable property, the International Business Times (which I haven't heard of), has been a content farm, but I only glossed over it. I can't seem to find Newsweek on the Median Bias chart, but it's ranked similarly to CNN. https://w…

See, the best trick for pushing propaganda isn't fabricating stories, but choosing carefully what stories you publish and which ones you don't.

The perfect example of that is Breitbart's infamous 'black crime' tag: Breitbart didn't need to invent stories, they'd just go and pick up out of the bunch of criminal prosecutions happening every single day in a country with >300 million inhabitants. But by choosing to focus on crimes committed by black people - and conveniently leaving out similar crimes committed by your average white criminal - it reaffirmed on their readers their 'intuition' that black people are clearly more inclined to commit crime.

So, you should always consider who is publishing a story and why.

Re: Agent fired from literary agency for using Parler and Gab

#136

Post by marton78 »

klausjensen wrote: post #96
common_crow wrote: post #10

Reminds me of Dawn Frederick, a literary agent who was "cancelled" for calling 911 on looters who rammed a van into the gas station on her apartment block: https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/p... This happened during the BLM protests this summer in St. Loius. The looters she reported were blocks away from any BLM protest, and other looting bands were setting fires on nearby blocks. Frederick w…

In case somebody else were wondering, I looked it up: PoC authors in this context refers to "Persons of Color"-authors. In hindsight it is probably clear from the context - but I didn't immediately get it. :)

I feel you, as an European engineer far away from such matters, PoC means "proof of concept" to me :)

Re: Agent fired from literary agency for using Parler and Gab

#138

Post by neartheplain »

dguaraglia wrote: post #130
filmgirlcw wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m very much against people being fired for their social media posts (unless we’re crossing way over a line that delves into calls for violence or is doing something illegal), but that situation was a bit more complicated. That author, who was PR professional and verified on Twitter, was using her account and her blue-checkmark to shame a worker on a train for eating on her break. She literally tried to get that emp…

Oh, get out of here with your nuanced and fair analysis! Don't you realize we just want reasons to be outraged about the 'cancel culture'?

The author and her family received death threats over this. She briefly left the US for her own safety, and was harassed and bullied “to the brink of suicide.” Flippant dismissal of the Internet hate mob is all well and good until it comes for you.

The Metro employee faced no disciplinary action.

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/tasneemnashrulla/dc-met...

Re: Agent fired from literary agency for using Parler and Gab

#139

Post by marton78 »

forgingahead wrote: post #116
tptacek wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That stories from "Newsweek" are routinely submitted here and often voted onto the front page, despite "Newsweek" being essentially an SEO scam.

Are the facts in the story false?

The claim is probably "they're likely false, please exercise caution"

Re: Agent fired from literary agency for using Parler and Gab

#140

Post by Natsu »

InTheArena wrote: post #54
sdenton4 wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The agency statement doesn't mention specific posts, but that doesn't mean they don't exist... Feels like there's /probably/ more here than we're hearing. There's plenty of space to be loudly outraged on the barest shreds of information, though! Meanwhile: There's presumably a lot of very free* speech in the Parler data dump, connected to people's verified accounts, which could easily be finding its way to employers,…

Right now, on /r/opendirectories, there is a dump of videos and pictures from parler that was hacked. Are there racist scumbags on Parler? Yes. Does that justify the disclosure of family pictures, and presumably a lot of NSFW content that is in every social network? Speech is speech. Think about the limits you want carefully. Especially if it starts with the thought that a particular ideological or ethnic group excer…

Wait, didn't Reddit have a policy against publishing "hacked information" just about two months ago?
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