4 ms·

It's pretty odd that the Verge and Platformer have had wall to wall coverage of every moment of Twitter the past few weeks, including live-tweeting content sour

It's pretty odd that the Verge and Platformer have had wall to wall coverage of every moment of Twitter the past few weeks, including live-tweeting content sourced from (perhaps appropriately) disgruntled ex-employees. And yet here, silence so far. It goes to show what we already knew. Every media outlet (or blogger, or influencer) has an audience, caters to that audience, grows that audience, monetizes that audience. Sometimes it's hard to tell if The Verge employs high-minded journalists, or just wants to hock a Z Fold 4 referral link in time for Christmas. Perhaps subscriptions will save us all, but then if your audience is more Twitter employees than Twitter owners, you'll certainly tend to bias your coverage accordingly. It seems business model is not the solution alone. I think all we can hope for is diversity and choice. I just hope quality can work its way through the algorithm. [Edit: The Verge did just post their first article on this just now, calling it "a flop."]

imnotjames 4y ago
You mean this? https://www.theverge.com/2022/12/2/23490863/elon-musk-twitter-expose-hunter-biden-flop-doxxed-multiple-people https://www.theverge.com/2022/12/2/23490863/elon-musk-twitte...
- alsodumb 4y ago
  Why does Verge try so hard to show that Elon did something bad? A congressman has to change his email address? Seriously? And these are journalists making these titles? A quick Google search reveals that his Gmail address is everywhere. In fact, he tweeted his personal Gmail address a while ago: https://twitter.com/RoKhanna/status/802758241570541568?s=20&t=NqtoDDoNt9j5cf-B0lDHlQ https://twitter.com/RoKhanna/status/802758241570541568?s=20&...
  - erlich 4y ago
    The obvious answer is revenue. Most of tech is left. The more outrage the more clicks. I don't think people realize how desperate these news orgs are.
    - rvz 4y ago
      There you go, they are unable to stop because that is where their readers and audience is. Still on Twitter. > I don't think people realize how desperate these news orgs are. This is why the Verge hasn't moved off of Twitter and had to grift their readers for Black Friday and Cyber Monday affiliate links littered everywhere on the homepage and advertised on Twitter. The desperation is there, and they are very good at hiding it.
- mrcwinn 4y ago
  It posted as I saved. I edited my comment to reflect that, though my point still holds. Calling it "a flop" is consistent with their recent bias (or pandering?) and ignores the substance of the matter almost entirely. Perhaps with some investigatory reporting The Verge could have broken this story themselves a year ago -- "the right way."
  - archagon 4y ago
    Or maybe the point is that there is no substance?
  - andreysolsty 4y ago
    You're probably ignoring your own bias in this (and I say this as someone with no stake in US politics and who cares very little about Twitter). I read the thread expecting some huge revelation and there was none. Flop describes it pretty accurately. 1. Governments and public figures ask social media company to review posts that may violate ToS and/or law. 2. Social media company reviews posts with some internal debate and comes to conclusion. Big deal. The only thing that's really concerning in this is how much importance Twitter has when it comes to US politics and that it's now owned by one billionaire who's openly political (and spreads conspiracy theories). I can't imagine much debate happening in these content reviews anymore when the boss openly fires people who have the nerve to disagree with him.
alsodumb 4y ago
I think Platformer essentially has a 'get clicks by hating Elon/showing Twitter under Elon' approach these days. I mean it makes sense, the tweets where they mention Elon or sources from Twitter have waaaay more interaction than any other articles they wrote. Like orders of magnitude different. I personally don't like them. 90% of the things they said about Twitter never happened and not a single word from them about that. Oh and Platformer is kinda ex-Verge people so there's that.
fishcrackers 4y ago
I mean it's the verge, who cares?
rvz 4y ago
we_never_see_it 4y ago
For me the biggest hypocirsy was crying over laid-off H1B visa employees of Twitter and what a monster Musk is. The H1B visa situation is there for decades. The party of humanitarians didn't do a single thing for H1B visa holders. Instead of they used H1B visa holders' accomplishemnts as a way to justify illegal immigration. [1] When working class gets affected by illegal immigration then they are racists. When the white collar class gets affected by jobs getting outsourced then it's the corporate greed. [1] https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/business/wp/2016/10/05/a-record-number-of-the-u-s-billionaires-are-immigrants/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/business/wp/2016/10/05/a...
- myvoiceismypass 4y ago
  You linked to a 6 year old article about the 400 richest Americans, of which 42 were immigrants. What does this have to do with H1Bs and illegal immigration?
  - we_never_see_it 4y ago
braingenious 4y ago
>And yet here, silence so far. What new information would you, as a journalist, find salient and worthy of a brand new post today?
mzs 4y ago
Cause he was given an exclusive to this spoon-fed narrative. >What I can say is that in exchange for the opportunity to cover a unique and explosive story, I had to agree to certain conditions. https://taibbi.substack.com/p/note-to-readers-8d4 https://taibbi.substack.com/p/note-to-readers-8d4

imnotjames 4y ago

You mean this? https://www.theverge.com/2022/12/2/23490863/elon-musk-twitter-expose-hunter-biden-flop-doxxed-multiple-people https://www.theverge.com/2022/12/2/23490863/elon-musk-twitte...

alsodumb 4y ago
Why does Verge try so hard to show that Elon did something bad? A congressman has to change his email address? Seriously? And these are journalists making these titles? A quick Google search reveals that his Gmail address is everywhere. In fact, he tweeted his personal Gmail address a while ago: https://twitter.com/RoKhanna/status/802758241570541568?s=20&t=NqtoDDoNt9j5cf-B0lDHlQ https://twitter.com/RoKhanna/status/802758241570541568?s=20&...
- erlich 4y ago
  The obvious answer is revenue. Most of tech is left. The more outrage the more clicks. I don't think people realize how desperate these news orgs are.
  - rvz 4y ago
    There you go, they are unable to stop because that is where their readers and audience is. Still on Twitter. > I don't think people realize how desperate these news orgs are. This is why the Verge hasn't moved off of Twitter and had to grift their readers for Black Friday and Cyber Monday affiliate links littered everywhere on the homepage and advertised on Twitter. The desperation is there, and they are very good at hiding it.
mrcwinn 4y ago
It posted as I saved. I edited my comment to reflect that, though my point still holds. Calling it "a flop" is consistent with their recent bias (or pandering?) and ignores the substance of the matter almost entirely. Perhaps with some investigatory reporting The Verge could have broken this story themselves a year ago -- "the right way."
- archagon 4y ago
  Or maybe the point is that there is no substance?
- andreysolsty 4y ago
  You're probably ignoring your own bias in this (and I say this as someone with no stake in US politics and who cares very little about Twitter). I read the thread expecting some huge revelation and there was none. Flop describes it pretty accurately. 1. Governments and public figures ask social media company to review posts that may violate ToS and/or law. 2. Social media company reviews posts with some internal debate and comes to conclusion. Big deal. The only thing that's really concerning in this is how much importance Twitter has when it comes to US politics and that it's now owned by one billionaire who's openly political (and spreads conspiracy theories). I can't imagine much debate happening in these content reviews anymore when the boss openly fires people who have the nerve to disagree with him.

alsodumb 4y ago

I think Platformer essentially has a 'get clicks by hating Elon/showing Twitter under Elon' approach these days. I mean it makes sense, the tweets where they mention Elon or sources from Twitter have waaaay more interaction than any other articles they wrote. Like orders of magnitude different. I personally don't like them. 90% of the things they said about Twitter never happened and not a single word from them about that. Oh and Platformer is kinda ex-Verge people so there's that.

fishcrackers 4y ago

I mean it's the verge, who cares?

rvz 4y ago

we_never_see_it 4y ago

For me the biggest hypocirsy was crying over laid-off H1B visa employees of Twitter and what a monster Musk is. The H1B visa situation is there for decades. The party of humanitarians didn't do a single thing for H1B visa holders. Instead of they used H1B visa holders' accomplishemnts as a way to justify illegal immigration. [1] When working class gets affected by illegal immigration then they are racists. When the white collar class gets affected by jobs getting outsourced then it's the corporate greed. [1] https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/business/wp/2016/10/05/a-record-number-of-the-u-s-billionaires-are-immigrants/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/business/wp/2016/10/05/a...

myvoiceismypass 4y ago
You linked to a 6 year old article about the 400 richest Americans, of which 42 were immigrants. What does this have to do with H1Bs and illegal immigration?
- we_never_see_it 4y ago

braingenious 4y ago

>And yet here, silence so far. What new information would you, as a journalist, find salient and worthy of a brand new post today?

mzs 4y ago

Cause he was given an exclusive to this spoon-fed narrative. >What I can say is that in exchange for the opportunity to cover a unique and explosive story, I had to agree to certain conditions. https://taibbi.substack.com/p/note-to-readers-8d4 https://taibbi.substack.com/p/note-to-readers-8d4