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TED and inequality: The real story

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Re: TED and inequality: The real story

#21

Post by scott_s »

lukifer wrote: post #18
waterlesscloud wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Points made in an explicitly partisan manner are inherently less valuable to anyone other than the party being supported.

How many TED talks revolve around global warming, despite the fact that the right treats it not just as alarmism, but a liberal hoax? TED doesn't seem to be rushing to pull those down. I can understand their reluctance to give Fox News ammunition to smear the TED brand. But it was the parties who chose to politicize ideas and issues which should belong to all humanity. Whatever happened to respectfully listening to p…

Based on what Chris Anderson said, if a talk about global warming made direct statements about political parties, they would reject it. That's the difference between controversial and partisan.

Re: TED and inequality: The real story

#22

Post by borism »

If taxes on the rich go up, job creation will go down.

This idea is an article of faith for republicans and seldom challenged by democrats and has shaped much of today's economic landscape.

What's so f*cking partisan about it?

Re: TED and inequality: The real story

#23

Post by praptak »

lukifer wrote: post #18
waterlesscloud wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Points made in an explicitly partisan manner are inherently less valuable to anyone other than the party being supported.

How many TED talks revolve around global warming, despite the fact that the right treats it not just as alarmism, but a liberal hoax? TED doesn't seem to be rushing to pull those down. I can understand their reluctance to give Fox News ammunition to smear the TED brand. But it was the parties who chose to politicize ideas and issues which should belong to all humanity. Whatever happened to respectfully listening to p…

I believe this particular decision was not about the message but about the way it was delivered. My hypothesis is that the same topic presented in a wikipediish NPOV style would fare much better. And symmetrically if you spiced a talk about climate change with jabs at replublicans it would share the fate of the talk in question.

Re: TED and inequality: The real story

#25

Post by scott_s »

alecco wrote: post #17

Released video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBx2Y5HhplI "This idea is an oracle of faith for republicans and seldom challenged by democrats." Clearly against bi-partisan and not pro-democrat. Very bad move by TED. Also, the quality of many TED presentations is a joke so they can't pull that card.

The implication is that the Republicans are wrong and the Democrats should challenge it. In other words, "Hey, Democrats, here's an argument you should use." That's partisan.

Re: TED and inequality: The real story

#26

Post by daenz » 

    And we try to steer clear of talks that are bound to
    descend into the same dismal partisan head-butting
    people can find every day elsewhere in the media.
I read that as "it is controversial, so we don't want to talk about that." If some new science showed that human consciousness begins at X days after conception, would that not be aired because it is a hot-button topic too?

Re: TED and inequality: The real story

#29

Post by gee_totes »

spacemanaki wrote: post #15

What's up with the editorializing of the title? If you're going to post stuff that's on the edge of being too political for HN I think leaving the headline intact is the best approach. edit it's been fixed, but for reference the original title had something in it about "astroturfing in action"

Yeah I agree. For reference, 'astroturfing' is not what happened here. Astroturfing is when a large entity funds what looks like a grassroots, anti-establishment movement. Astroturfing is about orchestrating grassroots tactics to give the appearance of a genuine movement.

None of that happened here. Instead what happend was someone posted and article to the internet, the internet got outraged, and someone else issued an apology. Same cycle that happens every day.

Re: TED and inequality: The real story

#30

Post by trotsky »

astroturfing (ˈæstrəʊˌtɜːfɪŋ)

— n a PR tactic used in politics and advertising in which actors are paid to display overt and apparently spontaneous grassroots support for a particular product, policy, or event

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