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It's hard to care too much about the publication that hosts Sam "Bring Back Bullying" Biddle [0] and his reporting on technology and the people involved in it t

It's hard to care too much about the publication that hosts Sam "Bring Back Bullying" Biddle [0] and his reporting on technology and the people involved in it through a lens of deep personal contempt. Funding a reporter (he is their tech reporter, not an opinion columnist) to grind an axe about his own hatreds and social status anxieties is not a recipe for truthful engagement with real-world complexity. [0] https://archives.cjr.org/the_kicker/gawker_bullying.php https://archives.cjr.org/the_kicker/gawker_bullying.php

bdefore 8y ago
Making an ad hominem attack on one reporter who said something sarcy and twitterlike on Twitter (not in an article) five years ago, while employed at a different company, should hardly determine whether you care about The Intercept. His output for them is here if you care to identify how is 'hatred and social anxiety' is affecting his work: https://theintercept.com/staff/sambiddle/ https://theintercept.com/staff/sambiddle/
- reitzensteinm 8y ago
  Sarcy and Twitterlike isn't some kind of a defense. People that are assholes on Twitter are in fact assholes.
  - jessaustin 8y ago
    We're all assholes to some extent, but Twitter accentuates that aspect of many personalities. It seems fine-tuned to generate heat with no light. Many people have withdrawn from public life entirely because Twitter could never be arsed to implement decent blocking mechanisms.
- closeparen 8y ago
  Of course it doesn’t. His output is “look at all these villains in technology, and cheer on all these heroes who are coming to kick their asses,” exactly in line with his stated mission. Look, organizing and agitating against the tech community is valid work, but it’s distinct from journalism. For that I look to EFF, which has clearly disclosed set of principles to be activist about, and goes after anyone and everyone in defense of those principles. Often tech companies, but also everyone else. Not the same thing as choosing an enemy, looking for anything and everything you can use against it, and calling it journalism.
tomhoward 8y ago
I think some of Biddle's writing and conduct has been awful, but he's written of having anxiety and depression, and even that weren't the case, these kinds of personal attacks on staff writers are unfair. Better to criticize the publishers who encourage that behaviour, and perhaps exploit the writer's flaws for the traffic and drama it generates.
- closeparen 8y ago
  I don’t think it’s a personal attack to say that someone is telling the truth about the crusade he’s on. It’s your right to be an activist about whatever topic you want. I’m less amused that The Intercept sponsors it as reporting. Ideologically motivated writing targeted at the things I care about is fine, from a columnist who is part of an interesting stable of columnists. I don’t need NYT to fire Douthat. But they have the good sense not to make him an LGBT issues reporter.

bdefore 8y ago

Making an ad hominem attack on one reporter who said something sarcy and twitterlike on Twitter (not in an article) five years ago, while employed at a different company, should hardly determine whether you care about The Intercept. His output for them is here if you care to identify how is 'hatred and social anxiety' is affecting his work: https://theintercept.com/staff/sambiddle/ https://theintercept.com/staff/sambiddle/

reitzensteinm 8y ago
Sarcy and Twitterlike isn't some kind of a defense. People that are assholes on Twitter are in fact assholes.
- jessaustin 8y ago
  We're all assholes to some extent, but Twitter accentuates that aspect of many personalities. It seems fine-tuned to generate heat with no light. Many people have withdrawn from public life entirely because Twitter could never be arsed to implement decent blocking mechanisms.
closeparen 8y ago
Of course it doesn’t. His output is “look at all these villains in technology, and cheer on all these heroes who are coming to kick their asses,” exactly in line with his stated mission. Look, organizing and agitating against the tech community is valid work, but it’s distinct from journalism. For that I look to EFF, which has clearly disclosed set of principles to be activist about, and goes after anyone and everyone in defense of those principles. Often tech companies, but also everyone else. Not the same thing as choosing an enemy, looking for anything and everything you can use against it, and calling it journalism.

tomhoward 8y ago

I think some of Biddle's writing and conduct has been awful, but he's written of having anxiety and depression, and even that weren't the case, these kinds of personal attacks on staff writers are unfair. Better to criticize the publishers who encourage that behaviour, and perhaps exploit the writer's flaws for the traffic and drama it generates.

closeparen 8y ago
I don’t think it’s a personal attack to say that someone is telling the truth about the crusade he’s on. It’s your right to be an activist about whatever topic you want. I’m less amused that The Intercept sponsors it as reporting. Ideologically motivated writing targeted at the things I care about is fine, from a columnist who is part of an interesting stable of columnists. I don’t need NYT to fire Douthat. But they have the good sense not to make him an LGBT issues reporter.