8 ms·
How would that notification go? "Hey guys, we're going to bully the boyfriend of a reporter for you. High five?"
by mjolk 13y ago
How would that notification go?
"Hey guys, we're going to bully the boyfriend of a reporter for you. High five?"
- saraid216 13y ago...it took me this long to realize "partner" was a personal relation, not a professional relation.
- mitchty 13y agoTo be honest it was confusing as hell because they said partner and his name is Miranda, more commonly a girls name. Seriously, boyfriend or husband, partner just sounds like some live in person or like you said business related. I'm also amused by just how hard these reporters seem to even avoid pronouns or other language that would indicate his gender. Strikes me as really really odd.
- outside1234 13y agoI'm not British but I lived in London for two years and I believe this is the way the British say "significant other." Its pretty forward thinking actually, because they use it for all of the options and therefore take the stigma out of same-sex couples using it to refer to themselves.
- alan_cx 13y agoYep, hands up, took me a while too. I wonder if the media and/or government(s) were bending over backwards to make damn sure no one could be accused of homophobia. Dunno about the US, but in the UK, if there were the slightest smell of homophobia, a whole new can of worms would have been opened. The gay rights folk would have, rightly IMHO, exploded, with quite a lot of public support. Oddly, I reckon if this had been some how made a gay issue, the government would have been in a lot more trouble. Last thing this UK government in particular wants is any more controversy over gay rights issues. Lining it to the spying would be both explosive, and kinda 1960's traditional!!! Or perhaps some credit is due in that some parts of the media have simply grown up, and the gay part really is a non issue. Which would be a good thing.
- mitchty 13y agoWhile I'd love to think the media has grown up, the past few years haven't given me much hope. :)
- vidarh 13y agoEven the Daily Mail's coverage was surprisingly good (I looked at it explicitly expecting a total hatchet job). You know they government has fucked this up when even the Daily Mail writes an article that sympathetic about terror law abuses directed at a gay couple closely linked to the Guardian.
- pessimizer 13y agoDavid Miranda.
- jusben1369 13y agoHey @drivebyacct2 you're account is dead just FYI.
- jlgreco 13y agoHe's been told more times than I can count at this point. I think he's decided that he doesn't care.
- jusben1369 13y agoOh ok.
- drivebyacct2 13y agoI'm sorry, it's only the second time I've noticed anyone trying to alert me. I was kind of using the hellbanned account for a reason (I'm too insulted by the policy to "beg" to be unbanned and I'm too amazed at the stupidity of using a rate/slow ban simultaneously with a hellban). Further, if I wanted, I would just register troll accounts since no one will take my suggestion to make them read-only for a certain time period. But, despite being too mean in that thread two months ago, I'm not that big of a dick. Though I do feel like a jerk if my replies are polluting threads with other people trying to inform me. Damned if I do, damned if I don't. Sorry guys.
- drivebyacct2 13y ago(This isn't meant to be attacking towards you, I use "you" generally here) Partner is the only gender neutral way of expressing this thought. (Yes, it matters. Ask me "Do you have a wife?" and "Do you have a partner?" and see which one makes me [and others] uncomfortable). * Every time you make gender assumptions, you're forcing someone to have to out themselves. It's why it's polite to strive for gender neutrality. * is certainly a personal problem, but it's one that I have to deal with weekly and it's extremely uncomfortable. My coworker stood in my office and told me about how she doesn't like American TV and went on and on about Glee because it had "homos" in it. Imagine how I felt the next day when she was making small talk and asked if I had a girl friend. "Um, no, I'm not dating anyone now" [followed by 4 hours of shame, great]
- hyperventilator 13y agodrivebyacct2 you are hellbanned. >Partner is the only gender neutral way of expressing this thought Not really. Significant other does the job fine and cannot be confused with a business partner.
- niuzeta 13y ago...wait, it wasn't a professional "partner"? I was under impression that the "partner" was in a professional sense throughout the article.
- frank_boyd 13y agoThe thing is: It doesn't matter at all. And it shouldn't. It will probably be used to create distraction etc. again.
- saraid216 13y agoIt does in this sense: people were talking about governments going after families. I thought this was just the now-typical bullshit overstatement that I've gotten used to seeing, so I wrote off all the criticism along that line as crackpot, because I assumed Miranda was just another journalist who happened to work directly with Greenwald a lot. This angle of understanding is now clearly incorrect. Now I have to go and look up whether or not Miranda is a Guardian reporter, for instance, because that's an assumption I made that may not be true after all.
- toble 13y agoIn the UK, 'partner' is a spouse. You need to say 'business partner' if you want to avoid the confusion.
- user24 13y agoNot really. Before I was able to call her my wife, a lot of people thought I was gay when I referred to my long-term girlfriend as my partner.
- freehunter 13y agoI deliberately leave that question unanswered when I'm speaking to groups I don't know personally (such as HN). When I'm talking about my significant other, I refer to them as my significant other. Not my boyfriend/girlfriend/wife/husband. In this day and age, that really only matters when you're speaking about legal rights as recognized by the state. The gender or legal status of the person I love doesn't generally make one bit of difference. On the other hand, my dad is a business owner and I've had people assume he was gay when I referred to his co-owner as "his partner, Jeff".
- tootie 13y agoWhole thing makes no sense. Unless they are planning on going full retard and abducting/killing/imprisoning someone, then minor harassment just makes you look like assholes. Impotent assholes at that. Cameron is bad, but he isn't Putin. Greenwald knows his threats are idle. Obama has been playing it cool and making some token concessions which is a much more media-savvy approach.
- frank_boyd 13y agoIt could be they were trying to score points with the US for their "special relationship". Show commitment etc. so they continue to get funding from the US for surveillance activities (I hope you do remember that revelation, a few weeks back!).
- rhizome 13y agoEvery turn by the governments has been an attempt to cast the issue as a personal one by unhinged opponents. With every revelation putting the spotlight on the government and the laws and processes they have put into place, they try to turn around and say it's just some lone spy nut or whatever. Hasn't been working too well, but I suppose this gives them a minute of breathing room on the news cycle. My sense is that if they're going after Greenwald's hubby, they don't really know what to do about all this. They certainly don't want any focus on the past, since they can't help but lie about it (and later be exposed for doing so), so this makes the story about "today." That means the governments can (finally) be the source of information in the story, rather than being wrongfooted as the subject. The western governments really don't seem to like the spotlight these days, but we'll see if they can convert this story to one favorable to them, if even for a couple of days until Greenwald/Gellman/Sanchez/etc.'s next story.
- jstalin 13y agoActs like this are designed to have a psychological effect on the target. Since government can't outright just kill the guy any more, they will do everything they can to make his life miserable by doing things like this. Imagine being in Greenwald's shoes and knowing that your spouse is bearing the brunt of consequences for your actions. It would make many people rethink what they're doing.
- SAS721 13y agoI am not sure why everyone thinks this has anything to do with bullying and intimidation. Greenwald implicated his partner by saying he had considered sending STOLEN documents to him in a previous interview. Of course British authorities would detain someone who might have stolen property with national security implications.
- Dosenpfand 13y agoDo you have a link to said interview?
- SAS721 13y agoSure, http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/06/25/greenwald-snowden-s-files-are-out-there-if-anything-happens-to-him.html http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/06/25/greenwald-s... "When I was in Hong Kong, I spoke to my partner in Rio via Skype and told him I would send an electronic encrypted copy of the documents,” Greenwald said. “I did not end up doing it. Two days later his laptop was stolen from our house and nothing else was taken. Nothing like that has happened before. I am not saying it’s connected to this, but obviously the possibility exists.”
- dreamfactory 13y agomakes you wonder if it was a honeypot
- mikkom 13y agoAnd what does that have to do with terrorism exactly?
- rhizome 13y agoA green account with "SAS" in the nickname, not too clever.
- SAS721 13y agoNice contribution.