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It's common practice in media when dealing with court cases which have not been resolved to use language consistent with the non-resolution. So yes, they use t

It's common practice in media when dealing with court cases which have not been resolved to use language consistent with the non-resolution. So yes, they use the words "alleging" and "claiming," because it is consistent with what is going on in the courts.

SiVal 9y ago
If the use of "alleging" and "claiming" is proper for one side of the argument, and I allege and claim that it is, it is proper for the counterargument, especially when both are presented in the same paragraph as a contrast.
calculusftw 9y ago
Right, but just as SiVal pointed out, the article still issued an imbalanced and not-so-subtly biased "analysis" of the conflict. The first sentence introduces the "memo" (which--face it--is really just a curated list of emails copied-and-pasted into a Word doc, interspersed with a series accusations, posturing and name-calling). Two sentences later, the "memo" is promoted to a decidedly more substantive "new document, which illustrates that employees who spoke out in favor of diversity initiatives were reprimanded as well, and that senior leaders in the company discouraged discussion of diversity altogether." Further on, the article's author is blatantly dishonest in his "assessment" of Google's response to Altheide's self-serving account of the conflict. What the article's author purports is Altheide's reprimand by Google leadership for "[speaking] out in favor of diversity initiatives," as if Altheide is some whistleblower who suffered retaliation from Google leaders for some ground he stood against malevolent oppressors--is absolute rubbish. If you've read Altheide's retelling of his "reprimand" in his memo, it's clear his manager was forced to intercede––not in some nefarious effort to suppress diversity supporters at Google, but to defuse a totally inappropriate, tense and escalating feud between coworkers. Granted, the coworker by whom Altheide was so outraged appears to have been a bigot at the least, and possibly somewhat unstable, assuming he said what he's reported to have said. Still, no reasonable or rational person I've ever met would have responded in the way Altheide did. As Google's VP Sridhar Ramaswamy pointed out, it's about respecting other people's feelings. Altheide should have "stepped back," as Ramaswamy advised in the memo, and reported the colleague's bigoted mantra to the appropriate HR person. He definitely should not have escalated the tension by calling the guy out publicly in what I assume is a department-wide or company-wide forum. That sort of escalation, if his coworker had been imbalanced, could potentially have lead to a violent incident, as has happened elsewhere countless times. Ultimately, Altheide appears to have been on some sort of overzealous crusade. And while diversity and social justice are certainly honorable causes to defend, it's the context and manner in which Altheide did so, in his work environment, that resulted in his objectively necessary reprimand from his Google managers. So, I call bullshit on this tech blogger's attempt to exploit the sad affair for his own idealogical agenda, by portraying Altheide as some sort of "martyr of the cause" of diversity. I think you and I, and rational people everywhere can see that's just not what happened here.

SiVal 9y ago

If the use of "alleging" and "claiming" is proper for one side of the argument, and I allege and claim that it is, it is proper for the counterargument, especially when both are presented in the same paragraph as a contrast.

calculusftw 9y ago

Right, but just as SiVal pointed out, the article still issued an imbalanced and not-so-subtly biased "analysis" of the conflict. The first sentence introduces the "memo" (which--face it--is really just a curated list of emails copied-and-pasted into a Word doc, interspersed with a series accusations, posturing and name-calling). Two sentences later, the "memo" is promoted to a decidedly more substantive "new document, which illustrates that employees who spoke out in favor of diversity initiatives were reprimanded as well, and that senior leaders in the company discouraged discussion of diversity altogether." Further on, the article's author is blatantly dishonest in his "assessment" of Google's response to Altheide's self-serving account of the conflict. What the article's author purports is Altheide's reprimand by Google leadership for "[speaking] out in favor of diversity initiatives," as if Altheide is some whistleblower who suffered retaliation from Google leaders for some ground he stood against malevolent oppressors--is absolute rubbish. If you've read Altheide's retelling of his "reprimand" in his memo, it's clear his manager was forced to intercede––not in some nefarious effort to suppress diversity supporters at Google, but to defuse a totally inappropriate, tense and escalating feud between coworkers. Granted, the coworker by whom Altheide was so outraged appears to have been a bigot at the least, and possibly somewhat unstable, assuming he said what he's reported to have said. Still, no reasonable or rational person I've ever met would have responded in the way Altheide did. As Google's VP Sridhar Ramaswamy pointed out, it's about respecting other people's feelings. Altheide should have "stepped back," as Ramaswamy advised in the memo, and reported the colleague's bigoted mantra to the appropriate HR person. He definitely should not have escalated the tension by calling the guy out publicly in what I assume is a department-wide or company-wide forum. That sort of escalation, if his coworker had been imbalanced, could potentially have lead to a violent incident, as has happened elsewhere countless times. Ultimately, Altheide appears to have been on some sort of overzealous crusade. And while diversity and social justice are certainly honorable causes to defend, it's the context and manner in which Altheide did so, in his work environment, that resulted in his objectively necessary reprimand from his Google managers. So, I call bullshit on this tech blogger's attempt to exploit the sad affair for his own idealogical agenda, by portraying Altheide as some sort of "martyr of the cause" of diversity. I think you and I, and rational people everywhere can see that's just not what happened here.