4 ms·

Regardless, it’s problematic when you also have to be responsible for things you didn’t actually say.

geofft 7y ago
But that's also part of the job. It's certainly unfortunate and unfair, but it's not more unfair for him than any other public figure. That's why a qualified leader needs to be careful with words and so far above reproach that a) it's hard to accidentally mischaracterize what you say b) if someone does, it seems out of character with what you actually believe. Deliberately making public statements about controversial topics that have nothing to do with your leadership role is certainly your right, but it's a strategically risky move. It's like "defensive driving" - whether or not it's illegal to brake check a driver behind you, it's definitely a bad idea. RMS and the free software movement would both have been better off if he'd stepped into an internal technical leadership role and found someone else to take on the advocacy / moral leadership / public speaking role. It would have been a better use of his talents (and honestly it might have left fewer GNU maintainers bitter about how he isn't actually writing very much code anymore but still tries to overrule decisions every so often).
- deogeo 7y ago
  It's also part of the job of a journalist to not deceive their readers. But I guess we're going to let that slide, and demand public figures speak in such a way that is impossible to misrepresent or take wrongly out of context. Assuming that's even possible...
  - geofft 7y ago
    > But I guess we're going to let that slide, and demand public figures speak in such a way that is impossible to misrepresent or take wrongly out of context. Assuming that's even possible... That is literally the job description, yes. Sure, you will sometimes fail at it. Sure, I will sometimes write bugs in my code. If I deliberately write code without tests and ignore code review and cause problems in production, my employer would be justified in firing me - not because I wrote bugs, everyone writes bugs sometimes, but because I made no effort to avoid them. Similarly, the occasional gaffe is understandable, but using your official work email address to talk at length on irrelevant subjects in ways that are easy to misinterpret is being deliberately irresponsible. You should hold journalists accountable for telling wrong stories, but you should also expect that journalists, too, will get things wrong sometime. The robustness principle indicates that you'll have a better time in practice being careful and precise about what you say than having high expectations about how others interpret it.
    - panny 7y ago
      Headline news: geofft@HN states, "I deliberately write code without tests and ignore code review and cause problems in production" and goes on to say "my employer would be justified in firing me" - - vice.com
      - geofft 7y ago
        That's fine, because such a story is implausible to anyone who knows me or has heard of me. Go ahead and publish it. I support your right to free speech. Do you? (Also, my job is technical and not PR, and I have been arguing consistently that both RMS and the free software movement would have been better off if he had made himself a role that was primarily technical and not PR.)
        deogeo 7y ago
        > Go ahead and publish it. I support your right to free speech. Do you? Even free-speech extremists such as myself and the US Supreme Court don't support libel.
        geofft 7y ago
        I've long suspected that people who virtue signal about free speech don't actually believe in it nearly as much as the people who genuinely have something to say.
        panny 7y ago
        And now you have proof; The "it's free as in speech" FSF has fired their founder for something he said.
  - AnimalMuppet 7y ago
    "But I guess we're going to let that slide": I hope you realize that, with that phrase, you are exactly doing to geofft what you complain about the journalists doing - you're distorting his words to make them say something that they didn't say.
grawprog 7y ago
When I was going through school, we spent a bunch of time specifically on communicating with the press and the public. I was always taught to be very careful about what you put into a press release as it's expected the press will take everything you say will be taken and used out of context. When you give an interview or are using a method of communication that could become public you stick to the facts on the press release or whatever official speaking points you have and leave it at that because the press will take everything you say and spin it out of context. This was in relation to disclosing data and information to the public about scientific findings but the premise is the same for other public communication.
- panny 7y ago
  Stallman wasn't making a press release. He was defending a dead friend on an internal mailing list.

But that's also part of the job. It's certainly unfortunate and unfair, but it's not more unfair for him than any other public figure. That's why a qualified leader needs to be careful with words and so far above reproach that a) it's hard to accidentally mischaracterize what you say b) if someone does, it seems out of character with what you actually believe. Deliberately making public statements about controversial topics that have nothing to do with your leadership role is certainly your right, but it's a strategically risky move. It's like "defensive driving" - whether or not it's illegal to brake check a driver behind you, it's definitely a bad idea. RMS and the free software movement would both have been better off if he'd stepped into an internal technical leadership role and found someone else to take on the advocacy / moral leadership / public speaking role. It would have been a better use of his talents (and honestly it might have left fewer GNU maintainers bitter about how he isn't actually writing very much code anymore but still tries to overrule decisions every so often).

deogeo 7y ago
It's also part of the job of a journalist to not deceive their readers. But I guess we're going to let that slide, and demand public figures speak in such a way that is impossible to misrepresent or take wrongly out of context. Assuming that's even possible...
- geofft 7y ago
  > But I guess we're going to let that slide, and demand public figures speak in such a way that is impossible to misrepresent or take wrongly out of context. Assuming that's even possible... That is literally the job description, yes. Sure, you will sometimes fail at it. Sure, I will sometimes write bugs in my code. If I deliberately write code without tests and ignore code review and cause problems in production, my employer would be justified in firing me - not because I wrote bugs, everyone writes bugs sometimes, but because I made no effort to avoid them. Similarly, the occasional gaffe is understandable, but using your official work email address to talk at length on irrelevant subjects in ways that are easy to misinterpret is being deliberately irresponsible. You should hold journalists accountable for telling wrong stories, but you should also expect that journalists, too, will get things wrong sometime. The robustness principle indicates that you'll have a better time in practice being careful and precise about what you say than having high expectations about how others interpret it.
  - panny 7y ago
    Headline news: geofft@HN states, "I deliberately write code without tests and ignore code review and cause problems in production" and goes on to say "my employer would be justified in firing me" - - vice.com
    - geofft 7y ago
      That's fine, because such a story is implausible to anyone who knows me or has heard of me. Go ahead and publish it. I support your right to free speech. Do you? (Also, my job is technical and not PR, and I have been arguing consistently that both RMS and the free software movement would have been better off if he had made himself a role that was primarily technical and not PR.)
      - deogeo 7y ago
        > Go ahead and publish it. I support your right to free speech. Do you? Even free-speech extremists such as myself and the US Supreme Court don't support libel.
        geofft 7y ago
        I've long suspected that people who virtue signal about free speech don't actually believe in it nearly as much as the people who genuinely have something to say.
        panny 7y ago
        And now you have proof; The "it's free as in speech" FSF has fired their founder for something he said.
- AnimalMuppet 7y ago
  "But I guess we're going to let that slide": I hope you realize that, with that phrase, you are exactly doing to geofft what you complain about the journalists doing - you're distorting his words to make them say something that they didn't say.

grawprog 7y ago

When I was going through school, we spent a bunch of time specifically on communicating with the press and the public. I was always taught to be very careful about what you put into a press release as it's expected the press will take everything you say will be taken and used out of context. When you give an interview or are using a method of communication that could become public you stick to the facts on the press release or whatever official speaking points you have and leave it at that because the press will take everything you say and spin it out of context. This was in relation to disclosing data and information to the public about scientific findings but the premise is the same for other public communication.

panny 7y ago
Stallman wasn't making a press release. He was defending a dead friend on an internal mailing list.