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In my view, leaving people who want privacy to have privacy is what separates journalists from paparazzi. If NYT starts to act like paparazzi, I would no longer
by smnrchrds 6y ago
In my view, leaving people who want privacy to have privacy is what separates journalists from paparazzi. If NYT starts to act like paparazzi, I would no longer give their words any more weight than I do TMZ. In my opinion, NYT broke an ethical rule by damaging someone's privacy. You may say Scott's name was not fully secret before the NYT entered the picture either, so it's OK. But that's like saying it's OK to throw a stone and break someone's window because there already was a small crack on the glass. Privacy is not binary. NYT was taking his privacy from perhaps 85% to 2% and that's gotta count for something. I, for one, have been a reader of his blog for at least 5 years and I had no idea what his real name was until this fiasco happened.
I am not going to write a lengthy comment about this. Scott himself has written on the subject with more depth and eloquence that I could. I just want to add my own anecdote that I am done with NYT. After my Gell-Mann amnesia broke about NYT, I do not see myself ever becoming Gell-Mann amnesiac towards them again.
- handmodel 6y agoThe only news articles I've seen that profiled a subject where they didn't reveal the identity were cases of victims of crimes or whistleblowers. If I ran an influential comedy YouTube channel under a pseudonym, but I was a pre-school teacher on the side, the NYT absolutely should publish my name along with my pseudonym if they are doing a profile on me. Perhaps I could claim that I would unjustly lose clients if this got published...but if you are at the point of having hundreds-of-thousands of followers and accepting any press then I don't see how this is anyone's doing but your own.
- smnrchrds 6y agoI believe it is unethical to upend people's lives, except if they have committed a serious crime or done something truly heinous; and being a journalist and doing it in the course of writing an article is not a valid exception. You do not believe this. We have a disagreement in values, so I don't believe we can come to an agreement.
- drdeca 6y ago> the NYT absolutely should publish my name along with my pseudonym if they are doing a profile on me. This is a bad norm. The opposite norm should be in place.