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Somewhat related tweet thread from today: https://twitter.com/paulg/status/1461633512344326146?s=21 https://twitter.com/paulg/status/1461633512344326146?s=21 D

Somewhat related tweet thread from today: https://twitter.com/paulg/status/1461633512344326146?s=21 https://twitter.com/paulg/status/1461633512344326146?s=21 Don’t talk to journalists (at least if you work in tech, but probably outside of it) - they’re not your friends and your incentives are not aligned with theirs (and they’re not looking to tell the objective truth). You’re better off writing your own articles about what you’re doing. They historically owned distribution, but they don’t anymore. We don’t need them. If you do want to interview, find a smart individual. Like Zuckerberg’s recent interview with Ben Thompson of Stratechery. The difference in quality between someone like Byrne Hobart, Ben Thompson, Sam Harris, or Scott Alexander compared to someone at the NYT is night and day.

ravenstine 5y ago
"Don't talk to cops" is a popular idea, but nobody thinks the same of journalists even though most are effectively undercover idea-police for the establishment. Anything you say or do can and will be used against you by a journalist at no potential benefit to you. At best, they won't fuck up your public image.
morelisp 5y ago
Haha, you're all so fucking angry you don't have breathless useful idiots like Wu, Scoble, Kelly, Swisher, or Shirky dominating the tech press anymore. It's precious!
- gonehome 5y ago
  Swisher was hardly positive tech press. I'm just glad there's people like Ben Thompson where the quality is so much higher. It's nice to have real competition now with people that can own their own distribution and aren't writing everything as some dumb narrative hit piece. The only ones left at the large orgs when the dust settles will be the mediocre writers targeting engagement via controversy. There's no reason to give them access.
  - morelisp 5y ago
    > Swisher was hardly positive tech press. It would be more accurate to say Swisher is politically-connected press. When tech and political machines were in bed together (e.g., much of her time at AllThingsD and the founding of Recode, Obama in the whitehouse, Newsom in local SV politics...) she was extremely friendly to the industry. After the ca. 2016 fallout between the two she chose the politics side. The tech side of course sees this as a heel turn, rather than a fundamental shift in priorities from both parties. Ben Thompson is just John Gruber without the sense of taste. You couldn't design a better sycophant if you tried.
    - gonehome 5y ago
      [flagged]
- dang 5y ago
  Posting like this breaks the site guidelines badly. Please make your substantive points thoughtfully and drop the name-calling, flamebait, fulmination, and snark. We've had to ask you this more than once before. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
  - morelisp 5y ago
    Since the broad community direction is still set by asshats you’ll probably have to ask it again, too.
    - dang 5y ago
      Please don't make it worse.
Der_Einzige 5y ago
[flagged]

ravenstine 5y ago

"Don't talk to cops" is a popular idea, but nobody thinks the same of journalists even though most are effectively undercover idea-police for the establishment. Anything you say or do can and will be used against you by a journalist at no potential benefit to you. At best, they won't fuck up your public image.

morelisp 5y ago

Haha, you're all so fucking angry you don't have breathless useful idiots like Wu, Scoble, Kelly, Swisher, or Shirky dominating the tech press anymore. It's precious!

gonehome 5y ago
Swisher was hardly positive tech press. I'm just glad there's people like Ben Thompson where the quality is so much higher. It's nice to have real competition now with people that can own their own distribution and aren't writing everything as some dumb narrative hit piece. The only ones left at the large orgs when the dust settles will be the mediocre writers targeting engagement via controversy. There's no reason to give them access.
- morelisp 5y ago
  > Swisher was hardly positive tech press. It would be more accurate to say Swisher is politically-connected press. When tech and political machines were in bed together (e.g., much of her time at AllThingsD and the founding of Recode, Obama in the whitehouse, Newsom in local SV politics...) she was extremely friendly to the industry. After the ca. 2016 fallout between the two she chose the politics side. The tech side of course sees this as a heel turn, rather than a fundamental shift in priorities from both parties. Ben Thompson is just John Gruber without the sense of taste. You couldn't design a better sycophant if you tried.
  - gonehome 5y ago
    [flagged]
dang 5y ago
Posting like this breaks the site guidelines badly. Please make your substantive points thoughtfully and drop the name-calling, flamebait, fulmination, and snark. We've had to ask you this more than once before. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- morelisp 5y ago
  Since the broad community direction is still set by asshats you’ll probably have to ask it again, too.
  - dang 5y ago
    Please don't make it worse.

Der_Einzige 5y ago

[flagged]