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Speaking Freely: Why I resigned from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation

tarahenley.substack.com

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Re: Speaking Freely: Why I resigned from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation

#161

Post by boppo1 »

commandlinefan wrote: post #101
badRNG wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe I didn't word it well enough, but I intend to comment on a broad category of discussion that I don't think is necessarily inappropriate according to the guidelines, but tends to produce unproductive, hostile conversations. I understand that anti-diversity blogs often gain a lot of traction with a particular subset of HN readers, but it consistently winds up producing flame wars and can make HN a less friendly p…

It seems to me that HN is the last place you can discuss this topic - it's just preemptively deleted on Reddit, Facebook, Twitter, etc.

Well, technically there's another place, but we don't go there anymore. Like Ravenholm, and for similar reasons.

Re: Speaking Freely: Why I resigned from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation

#162

Post by space_fountain »

NikolaeVarius wrote: post #120
kbenson wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While I understand the sentiment, I think to some degree putting a pronoun down is for the benefit of those conversing with you, so they don't have to wonder or get it wrong. In lieu of this, and because I don't really care what pronoun is used for me, I sometimes just put "any" if it's an option to denote that I don't care.

I literally dont give a shit what you call me. People who hem and haw about getting pronouns wrong blow my mind of how weird this has all become

Do you actually not give a shit or do people just tend to properly guess what you'd want to be called? Pronouns are part of how we communicate gender and many people do get bothered when others perceive them differently than how they perceive themselves

Re: Speaking Freely: Why I resigned from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation

#163

Post by olivermarks »

Strange thread here ignoring the very important points about the media Tara is making.

'Those of us on the inside know just how swiftly — and how dramatically — the politics of the public broadcaster have shifted.

It used to be that I was the one furthest to the left in any newsroom, occasionally causing strain in story meetings with my views on issues like the housing crisis. I am now easily the most conservative, frequently sparking tension by questioning identity politics. This happened in the span of about 18 months. My own politics did not change.

To work at the CBC in the current climate is to embrace cognitive dissonance and to abandon journalistic integrity.'

I would argue the UK BBC & US NPR are also in dire straits because of similar erosions of impartialness.

Neilsen demonstrates that the legacy media are dying fast, fewer and fewer people are tuned in as the broadcasting becomes more and more toxic. This is a good thing imo.

https://apnews.com/article/coronavirus-pandemic-health-busin...

Re: Speaking Freely: Why I resigned from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation

#164

Post by coldtea »

hammock wrote: post #90
ineptech wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They very reliably rise to the front page (because people like arguing about this stuff) and then sink off again (because, I believe, the HN algorithm penalizes a low upvote-to-comment-count ratio). I predict this'll be gone in two hours...

>the HN algorithm More accurately, it's people flagging it and also manual nerfing by @dang

No post body was provided.

Re: Speaking Freely: Why I resigned from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation

#165

Post by CoastalCoder »

undoware wrote: post #25
dang wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

" Please respond to the strongest plausible interpretation of what someone says, not a weaker one that's easier to criticize. Assume good faith. " https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Quoted post unavailable.

I'm curious if taking a little time to organize your thoughts and expressing them succinctly would be a net-win for your argument.

I get the impression that you're really fired up about this topic. Partly because you're writing numerous, small comments. Unfortunately that commenting style makes it hard for (at least) me to understand your point(s).

Re: Speaking Freely: Why I resigned from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation

#166

Post by foobarian »

john_moscow wrote: post #60
badRNG wrote: post #22

I'm not sure these sorts of articles provide much value on HN. By "these sorts of articles", I mean the ones that have claimed that "diversity efforts have gone too far this time ." Regardless of your support or opposition to diversity, I think one would agree that these rapidly turn into unproductive, highly divisive comment sections that are out of place with the rest of HN.

I would argue that the article highlights the biggest problem of the West. It used to be a society of strong independent and happy individuals, capitalizing on their strengths and trading with each other in search of prosperity. We traded it in for a steady paycheck in exchange for mindlessly fulfilling standardized corporate jobs, and are now surprised that the human ambition got redirected from finding ways to crea…

In North America at least, I think this century will be the first time it has really run out of "unoccupied" land to grow into. Other parts of the world have been in this steady state for many centuries; it remains to be seen how the equilibrium will manifest here and where it will lead.

Re: Speaking Freely: Why I resigned from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation

#167

Post by inglor_cz »

ketzo wrote: post #136
hammock wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is the issue that all the people they talk to for stories is white? Or is that a symptom of the real issue, which is something else? And if it is something else, is there a better thing to track?

Even if it is a symptom – say they're interviewing CEOs for a piece on Canadian business, so it's tricky to find people who are not white men – then I would argue that what they're doing is important. There's a chicken and egg thing, and media can be a part of addressing the root cause. To me it seems logical that a young black woman who sees a black female CEO interviewed on TV is more likely to become a CEO herself…

"To me it seems logical that a young black woman who sees a black female CEO interviewed on TV is more likely to become a CEO herself. "

Beware logic in this case. A lot of claims in social sciences seem logical, but either aren't proven at all or the alleged proof fails to replicate.

A similar logic was used to argue for banning violent video games or porn.

Re: Speaking Freely: Why I resigned from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation

#168

Post by transcriptase »

aaronbrethorst wrote: post #8

Henley's departure from the CBC is a real blow to that organization. The loss of her reporting on critical issues like "Can hitting snooze and taking a long lunch be the real keys to success?" [0] or "Five West Coast hikes you probably don't know about (but should!)" [1] will be catastrophic to Canadians' ability to understand what's happening in the world around them. In all seriousness, I imagine that Henley decide…

She was a TV and radio producer. First paragraph of the linked page in case you missed it.

Re: Speaking Freely: Why I resigned from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation

#169

Post by lazyasciiart »

xienze wrote: post #144
kbenson wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While I understand the sentiment, I think to some degree putting a pronoun down is for the benefit of those conversing with you, so they don't have to wonder or get it wrong. In lieu of this, and because I don't really care what pronoun is used for me, I sometimes just put "any" if it's an option to denote that I don't care.

> putting a pronoun down is for the benefit of those conversing with you, so they don't have to wonder or get it wrong. The type of people concerned with being addressed by the "correct" pronouns will list them without being asked, believe me. And for the other 99.9% of people, it's pretty obvious what to use.

Maybe for you, but I don't know what pronoun to use to refer to someone named Xie that I have never met, and it's not exactly unusual for it to come up in email discussions.

Re: Speaking Freely: Why I resigned from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation

#170

Post by chongli »

mikepurvis wrote: post #36
newsclues wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I never fill out the preferred pronoun section that have suddenly made their way into forms.

Isn't preferred pronouns kind of orthogonal to the rest of the stuff? It has nothing to do with attempting to ensure representation and is instead about addressing a person in the manner of their choosing, akin to asking a woman if she prefers Ms, Miss, Mme, Mrs, etc. I expect it's probably way more appropriate in most contexts to directly ask a person what their preferred pronouns are than to ask what their gender i…

No, preferred pronouns are like he/him, she/her, they/them. These pronouns are only used when other people are talking about you. In most contexts it’s considered rude for people to talk about you like you’re not even there. So in fact, the only time your pronouns should be used is when people are talking about you and you’re not present!
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