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TED and inequality: The real story

tedchris.posterous.com

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Re: TED and inequality: The real story

#41

Post by thaumaturgy »

daniel_solano wrote: post #37
klochner wrote: post #10

If true, the aggressively planned PR campaign indicates that this was more than just a politically-sensitive topic, but rather a politically-motivated talk: He had hired a PR firm to promote the talk to MoveOn and others, and the PR firm warned us . . . TED should allow sensitive topics, but to allow others to use TED manipulatively as a pawn in the larger political debate subverts their mission and damages their cre…

Whether or not the talk was politically motivated, if this article is correct about what the speaker did as a result of rejection, the speaker is an attention-seeking demagogue that uses threats and deception for self-promotion.

...or, the speaker is simply passionate about a topic that he believes needs to be discussed as openly as possible.

Aren't you now committing the same mistake of guessing the speaker's motivations as everyone who criticized TED?

Re: TED and inequality: The real story

#43

Post by patdennis »

As someone who writes Democratic talking points for a living, I would like to point out that the original TED talk sounded like something I would write for work.

I do wholeheartedly agree with the central thesis, but if I were to put together a (nonpolitical) TED talk on the subject I would've been a lot lighter on the rhetoric and heavier on the case studies.

Re: TED and inequality: The real story

#45

Post by brudgers »

I wouldn't call this "the story behind" but rather "she said."

While I find it interesting that the author does not dispute the accuracy of the emails describing the talk as too controversial, what I find troubling is that the author insinuates that hiring a PR firm calls a person's character into question.

In 2010, the Sapling Foundation which owns TED spend more than $100,000 on PR:

http://dynamodata.fdncenter.org/990pf_pdf_archive/943/943235... [page 7].

See also "Who Owns TED?" http://www.ted.com/pages/42

Re: TED and inequality: The real story

#47

Post by daniel_solano »

thaumaturgy wrote: post #41
daniel_solano wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Whether or not the talk was politically motivated, if this article is correct about what the speaker did as a result of rejection, the speaker is an attention-seeking demagogue that uses threats and deception for self-promotion.

...or, the speaker is simply passionate about a topic that he believes needs to be discussed as openly as possible. Aren't you now committing the same mistake of guessing the speaker's motivations as everyone who criticized TED?

Perhaps, and I accept that it is possible that the facts as stated in the article are wrong. However, if we accept them as true, the speaker:

1. Hired a PR firm in an attempt to threaten TED into publishing his talk. 2. When that failed, he misrepresented TED (by selectively quoting private correspondence) to the media in order to create the subsequent firestorm.

I will accept that the speaker may be passionate about his views. However, he is not interested in open discussion, at least not if you mean honest by open. The ends does not justify the means.

Re: TED and inequality: The real story

#49

Post by dclowd9901 »

nkurz wrote: post #2

The response is eloquent, but I think it sidesteps the point that concerns me and many others. Yes, for the reasons stated, this talk is not the right one to be highlighted on Ted.com. It's not censorship, it's a valid editorial decision. But I think the real point is this quote from the NJ article: "But even if the talk was rated a home run, we couldn't release it, because it would be unquestionably regarded as out…

If you read the transcript, you get the distinct sense that what you're listening to isn't intellectual discovery based on empirical data. It reads like a speech from a political candidate. It truly is not TED worthy, and this is from someone who fully believes every word that man uttered.

TED is about sharing knowledge. Raw, unbiased, unignorable knowledge. Talks that are based entirely on anecdote and talking points have no place in the discussion.

After reading the transcript, I firmly believe they made the right choice. And it could simply be that the ambiguous nature of the study of economics prevents it from being an approached topic on TED, which is unfortunate, but I don't believe for one second they blacklist anything based on controversy alone.

Re: TED and inequality: The real story

#50

Post by chc »

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.

Many of those other bad presentations don't get posted either, so why can't they pull that card?
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