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The Atlantic posts sponsored Scientology story, moderates comments

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Re: The Atlantic posts sponsored Scientology story, moderates comments

#201

Post by Gustomaximus »

tokenadult wrote: post #104

I have been one of the biggest submitters of Atlantic links to HN in the past year (and, no, The Atlantic doesn't pay me to post links) and I will now cease submitting Atlantic links. I used to submit a lot of Atlantic links to my Facebook wall too, also never, ever being paid to do so, and I will cease posting Atlantic links there too. And I think I had better write to the editors of The Atlantic, like James Fallows…

I'm always looking to trim my RRS feeds. This is a pretty good reason to drop The Atlantic. Such as a shame as I loved their journalism.

Re: The Atlantic posts sponsored Scientology story, moderates comments

#202

Post by neumann_alfred »

dinkumthinkum wrote: post #177
tnorthcutt wrote: post #150

I've asked PG to ban/delete links to theatlantic.com: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5058360

I think this is just way overreaction. I'm not happy about it and think the Atlantic should revise their policies but I don't think we should ban all links because of this. It's basically just an advertisement that has been allowed to parade itself as an article; nevertheless it does not take very long to realize it is a sponsored article.

It's basically just an advertisement that has been allowed to parade itself as an article

Yeah, and since the advertisement is for Scientology, punishment needs to be swift, precise und merciless. You can call a lot of things "just an ad", including NSDAP propaganda.

Re: The Atlantic posts sponsored Scientology story, moderates comments

#203

Post by lazugod »

cs702 wrote: post #122
kevinalexbrown wrote: post #95

Without delving into the specifics of Scientology, I am reminded of a grellas quotation: "The most valuable asset of a lawyer is his reputation." This applies to some journalistic endeavors as well. In some cases, I seek out the thoughts of those whose facts are unreliable, because their opinions are interesting or novel. But just as often, I seek out long-form, descriptive pieces to learn what reliable people believ…

Judging by this sponsored story, it seems that the people running The Atlantic have already decided to turn this august publication into an "interesting" brand. It's a shame. What doesn't make sense to me is that The Atlantic supposedly became profitable a couple of years ago -- see http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/13/business/media/13atlantic.... -- which, if true, means they didn't actually need to do this!

> The Atlantic supposedly became profitable couple of years ago

Things change fast.

Re: The Atlantic posts sponsored Scientology story, moderates comments

#204

Post by fludlight »

snogglethorpe wrote: post #118
kevinalexbrown wrote: post #95

Without delving into the specifics of Scientology, I am reminded of a grellas quotation: "The most valuable asset of a lawyer is his reputation." This applies to some journalistic endeavors as well. In some cases, I seek out the thoughts of those whose facts are unreliable, because their opinions are interesting or novel. But just as often, I seek out long-form, descriptive pieces to learn what reliable people believ…

Indeed ... and once lost, trust is very hard to regain. I subscribed to the Economist through most of the '90s, but did not renew my subscription following a rather blithe editorial saying Bill Clinton should resign. I still have a measure of respect for them on non-controversial topics—they're very good at explaining technical details in a simple way, for instance—but my faith in their judgment is gone.

I used to hold the Economist in similar high regard in the early 2000's. In 2004 they hired a new editor-in-chief and the quality of their articles began to suffer immediately. Their perceived thoughtfulness (as a function of independence and novelty, at least in my mind) took an abrupt turn for the worse right after the resignation of a single man. I can't remember the name of the editor, but I can remember lamenting his resignation to my friends.

Re: The Atlantic posts sponsored Scientology story, moderates comments

#205

Post by malandrew »

voltagex_ wrote: post #165
illuminate wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"they'll have to decide whether they want to be a trusted brand, or an interesting one." With sponsored stories to improve the PR of totalitarian cults, they're going to end up neither.

Well, they just destroyed my trust in them. Granted, I'm just one person, but I hope I'm not the only one who feels this way.

You most definitely are not. I'm disgusted as well by this. The concept of advertorials is reprehensible.

Re: The Atlantic posts sponsored Scientology story, moderates comments

#206

Post by radicaldreamer »

cheald wrote: post #179
illuminate wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's some anger there, but it calls out shills as it sees it. It's not a "left wing conspiracy" if those being targeted are literally being paid to sell a narrative.

Certainly - I'll readily admit that I didn't dig deep enough to form a solid opinion. It was just my impression after a quick scan through several pages. It's also worth noting that I didn't call it a "left wing conspiracy" - I said "left-wing conspiracy nutters", which is quite different! I can appreciate the desire to call out shills, but if you're going to pin someone to the wall for being biased, it's best to try…

Yeah, their style is off-putting to some at first glance, but the Exiled (and now nsfwcorp.com, where a bunch of exiled contributors continue to write) is pretty solid with the investigative journalism.

Re: The Atlantic posts sponsored Scientology story, moderates comments

#207

Post by biot »

sxcurry wrote: post #44
ryguytilidie wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep, will never read anything from the atlantic again, just added it to my host file.

Thanks for the idea - just added here as well.

For anyone else who wants to do this too:

  theatlantic.com        38.118.71.170

Re: The Atlantic posts sponsored Scientology story, moderates comments

#208

Post by malandrew »

swang wrote: post #18

So they're essentially letting Scientology use The Atlantic's "brand" to trick people into reading this? (Yes, I know it says Sponsored Post) This, on top of http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4108929 and http://www.forbes.com/sites/jeffbercovici/2012/06/13/reddit-... makes me pretty weary of trusting anything I read on TheAtlantic ever again

If I were to read something on there ever again, I now feel that I need to first look to see if it is a sponsored story or not every time.

Re: The Atlantic posts sponsored Scientology story, moderates comments

#209

Post by joshschreuder »

sandofsky wrote: post #199

The most interesting part of the story, to me, is that none of the links have rel="nofollow." I wonder how much of this is motivated by SEO.

I would think it's pretty common that news sites don't nofollow links (indeed, a quick scan of some other Atlantic pages says they don't).

If they don't do it normally, why would they do it especially if the point is to advertise Scientology?

Re: The Atlantic posts sponsored Scientology story, moderates comments

#210

Post by hindsightbias »

sentiental wrote: post #82
swang wrote: post #18

So they're essentially letting Scientology use The Atlantic's "brand" to trick people into reading this? (Yes, I know it says Sponsored Post) This, on top of http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4108929 and http://www.forbes.com/sites/jeffbercovici/2012/06/13/reddit-... makes me pretty weary of trusting anything I read on TheAtlantic ever again

I fear what will happen when the market for pure misinformation is fully realized. When it can be delivered as seamlessly as the real thing, the opportunity for profit is massive. The Atlantic is an example of media engineering for profit that fails to trick us -- but it is much closer than sponsored content has been in the past and certainly more effective at getting me to consume it than a regular ad. Call me a con…

I found this advertorial (common in newstand rags) to be incredibly informative. First, Scientology is expanding around the world. Second, I thought Scientology was banned in Germany but they opened a Church in Hamburg. Perhaps I'm just ignorant, but that was a surprise to me given their problems in the EU. They have clearly figured out how to "manage" there. Third, politicians from both parties, federal and local officials attended these events. They are becoming more and more "mainstream"

Finally, this expansion and the choice of buildings means they have a lot of money. They also have a very good taste when it comes to architecture (IMO) - they didn't build giant $100M sun temples or edifices, they've found what appear to be amazing examples of local architecture and have adapted it to their purposes.

Would that most "real" editorials were so informative.

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