It's hardly absurd. The NYT regularly uses the names people are known by rather than their literal names. For example, there is a rapper whose full name is Kend

It's hardly absurd. The NYT regularly uses the names people are known by rather than their literal names. For example, there is a rapper whose full name is Kendrick Lamar Duckworth but known to fans and the public as Kendrick Lamar. Similar, you might notice, to how Scott Alexander Sorkin is better known by his two first names. Example: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/16/arts/music/kendrick-lamar-pulitzer-prize-damn.html https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/16/arts/music/kendrick-lamar... It makes more sense to refer to people by the names they are known by rather than their actual names, unless there is some compelling reason not to. In this case, I think there was a decent reason to do leave the name out and no news value to be gained by including it. As the article mentions, Scott's name was easily Google-able, so it's not like they were breaking something new. I can't imagine treating casual sociopathy like this as okay in any other profession. Why would it be for journalists? "Oh, your business and personal life would be damaged if I did this thing I don't need to do and doesn't really matter? Ha ha, too bad, I'm doing it anyway."