Jernalism!

[Thad]

On the one hand, don't let the door hit you, Jim.

On the other, this is a way bigger problem than any one editor, and this smacks of the Times' usual "solution" of attacking a symptom while failing to recognize the disease. Their reaction to the "Trump urges unity vs. racism" debacle last year was basically, "Okay, so that was a really bad headline, but aren't people overreacting to one bad headline?" They really don't seem to understand the extent of the problem they have. It's bigger than any one story or any one editor.

People aren't just mad about a single editorial taken in isolation -- even though yes, it was a particularly fucking egregious editorial. They're not mad because this editorial was so far outside the norm for the Times -- they're mad because it really wasn't that far outside the norm for the Times.

This problem didn't begin with James Bennet, and it won't end with him. Getting rid of Bennet is a good first step, but I don't think it's clear that management realizes it's not the last step.

[Mongrel]

Incidentally, that excerpt is some terrible copy. Dang.

[Mazian]

Fox News discovers that Seattle is insufficiently scary, breaks out Photoshop

[Friday]

I mean, we're only going to be seeing more and more of that. The future is nothing but the war of information.

Still despicable, of course, but expect more, and far worse. Deepfake worse.

[Büge]

Fox News discovers that Seattle is insufficiently scary, breaks out Photoshop

[Thad]

Pretty good interview with Jon Stewart over at the NYT. As usual he has some pretty incisive thoughts about what's broken about politics and the media (including the Times itself).

The interviewer asks some good, pointed questions, and some bad ones. The good ones are interesting because I tend to agree with them that Stewart seems to still believe a little too much in the notion that we can find some common ground with Trump supporters. The bad ones are interesting because Stewart points out that they're bad and concisely explains why they're bad.

[Friday]

Stewart is an optimist, despite his cynicism, his belief in the human heart is clear. He refuses to let go of that part of himself because it's core to his identity.

I've got several optimist friends, after hours of discussions they always eventually admit they don't want to agree with my darker positions about human nature because it would be sad. And I'm not talking about how I felt in my Edgelord 20s when I thought everyone was horrible, which is equally wrong.

[Mongrel]

[beatbandito]

The answer is: they would all be immediately defunded by their states.

[Mongrel]

I haven't read Slate Star Codex in years now, but apparently he's deleting the blog because the NYT feels it's "in the public interest" to dox him.

Look out, Dril!

[Blossom]

yeah, it's not the poisonously terrible takes that can now be linked to him, it's his confidentiality as a psychiatrist.

[Mongrel]

You're not wrong, but the NYT isn't putting out a quarter of the effort or resources (or sheer zeal) in uncovering, say, openly Fascist white nationalists as they are some bloviating ego.

[Blossom]

[Blossom]

More seriously: of course the NYT isn't doing that, because the NYT is at best only complicit with openly fascist white nationalists, if not explicitly allied. That said, SSC has been little more than a place to post virulently racist and eugenicist screeds under the veneer of liberal intellectualism, and I'm not gonna get whatabouted into mourning its demise.

[Mongrel]

More seriously: of course the NYT isn't doing that, because the NYT is at best only complicit with openly fascist white nationalists, if not explicitly allied. That said, SSC has been little more than a place to post virulently racist and eugenicist screeds under the veneer of liberal intellectualism, and I'm not gonna get whatabouted into mourning its demise.

Oh lord, mourning is the last thing that place needs.

"Scott Alexander" or whoever he is has long been a poster child for “If you can't dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with bullshit.”

[Blossom]

[mharr]

... I'm going to start requiring that anyone using the phrase 'extreme left wing' in anger gives an example or outline definition of 'regular everyday left wing'.

[zaratustra]

I haven't read Slate Star Codex in years now, but apparently he's deleting the blog because the NYT feels it's "in the public interest" to dox him.

Look out, Dril!

Correction: It's what Scott says the NYT is doing. And I'm sorry, but as a rational man, I must extend to the NYT the same benefit of the doubt Scott extended to Trump.

[Mongrel]

I must extend to the NYT the same benefit of the doubt Scott extended to Trump.

[Büge]