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Do you realize that when covering chapo trap house the NYT referred to Virgil Texas by his pseudonym rather than revealing his real name, which he prefers to ke
by nprz 6y ago
Do you realize that when covering chapo trap house the NYT referred to Virgil Texas by his pseudonym rather than revealing his real name, which he prefers to keep private? It's just as easy to find his name online and it's often mentioned on message boards. Why provide anonymity to one but not the other?
- tptacek 6y agoI guess I just don't care how they chose to refer to Virgil Texas. If it was me, I'd probably have used his real name.
- lliamander 6y agoIt matters because either the NYT is inconsistent, or worse they are consistently biased, in how they respect the anonymity of their subject. But ultimately any justification they provide for publishing his real name rings hollow and comes across as a petty act of power.
- tptacek 6y agoI guess I just don't care how consistent the NYT is in offering people control of their portrayal in stories, because I don't believe the NYT has any obligation to offer anyone that control.
- nprz 6y agoYou don't think journalists should follow some sort of publicly stated code of conduct or held to a higher standard than an anonymous poster on 4chan when it comes to revealing an individual's personal info?
- tptacek 6y agoI think the norms of message boards and the norms of journalism have literally nothing to do with each other, and you can't learn anything about one by analyzing the other.
- lliamander 6y agoIt's not about offering subjects control, it's about weighing the impact to the individual against the public interest of the reporting. You seem to be under the impression that journalists are under no obligation with regard to how their reporting impacts their subjects, even when that subject is not a public figure per se. I'm pretty sure that's something that even most journalists (at least those working at relatively prestigious institutions) would disagree with. Again, you are justifying Gawker-style journalism, which is pretty atrocious and doesn't serve to create a better informed public.
- tptacek 6y agoThe subject here is a very public figure, as the article amply demonstrates.
- lliamander 6y ago"Very" is hardly the word I would use. Not to the same level as a politician, for example. And certainly wasn't a public figure under his real name.