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> Reading this article was like watching someone try to break into a really secure system. Isn't this what good critical journalism is about? There's nothing "

> Reading this article was like watching someone try to break into a really secure system. Isn't this what good critical journalism is about? There's nothing "default" or "lazy" about digging out uncomfortable facts and telling them. It's difficult to do well.

tptacek 13y ago
It is. But it does not follow that any kind of noisy door-rattling indicates serious investigation. Just like how in reality most breakin attempts come from bored teenagers posturing to IRC channels, this article basically namechecks controversies without really reporting on them. The article is full of little drive-bys, like "what about that neocolonialism?" What neocolonialism? Whose premise are they accepting? How does that premise, applied uniformly to all enterprise, implicate all of western civilization? Are we litigating modern capitalism through the lens of a tiny SF tech healthcare charity? Oh, wait, this is Salon; of course that's what we're doing. Or, "recently controversial investor [Paul Graham]" --- here Salon has literally synthesized a narrative from TechCrunch and Valleywag stories its reporter does not actually understand. Not only that, but it does so pointlessly; Graham's nonexistent controversy isn't relevant to the story even as written. If this was a Wikipedia article, half of the text in the article would have little blue superscripts; "weasel words", "citation needed", "who?".
- pg 13y ago
  Wow, you put that better than I did. I didn't know the term "namecheck" but that is the perfect name for it.
- jka 13y ago
  I've no evidence for it existing as a concept in reality, but I've been thinking of something I'd term 'defensive PR' - ensuring that when your business is mentioned in the press, all of the known attacks that would typically come up over a brief lunch/dinner conversation have associated defences, which would also likely then appear in the same conversation. I know very little about Watsi, so I don't feel comfortable commenting on it in particular, but there are so many new businesses cropping up, and people are so prone to being critical in the startup world, that it would seem to make sense to try to get your defences out along with your initial publicity.
  - tptacek 13y ago
    The word for this is "cynicism". I'm a cynic, too, but I recognize that my cynicism is usually unproductive.
    - jka 13y ago
      Slightly reluctantly, but agreed!
- thwest 13y ago
  > Are we litigating modern capitalism through the lens of a tiny SF tech healthcare charity? The author completely failed to do any real scrutiny here. Neocolonialism isn't about how awkward one westerner feels looking at pictures of others. Nothing was included about western Capital purchasing labor and resource rights from these countries, which could frame the need for the service in the first place. Namechecked indeed. However, the rhetoric around start-ups places them as the fixers, leaders and disruptors of the economic order. Those claims invite and deserve critical analysis. It wouldn't be fair to have Watsi be a punching bag stand-in for the Dutch East India Company, but let's please not pretend that Watsi somehow stands outside of the economic order or that we shouldn't be skeptical of claims of disruption.
  - tptacek 13y ago
    Tech industry solutionism (to ruefully borrow a term from Evgeny Morozov) concerns me too, but it's a problem when it attaches itself to public policy decision-making, not when it attaches itself to charity.

tptacek 13y ago

It is. But it does not follow that any kind of noisy door-rattling indicates serious investigation. Just like how in reality most breakin attempts come from bored teenagers posturing to IRC channels, this article basically namechecks controversies without really reporting on them. The article is full of little drive-bys, like "what about that neocolonialism?" What neocolonialism? Whose premise are they accepting? How does that premise, applied uniformly to all enterprise, implicate all of western civilization? Are we litigating modern capitalism through the lens of a tiny SF tech healthcare charity? Oh, wait, this is Salon; of course that's what we're doing. Or, "recently controversial investor [Paul Graham]" --- here Salon has literally synthesized a narrative from TechCrunch and Valleywag stories its reporter does not actually understand. Not only that, but it does so pointlessly; Graham's nonexistent controversy isn't relevant to the story even as written. If this was a Wikipedia article, half of the text in the article would have little blue superscripts; "weasel words", "citation needed", "who?".

pg 13y ago
Wow, you put that better than I did. I didn't know the term "namecheck" but that is the perfect name for it.
jka 13y ago
I've no evidence for it existing as a concept in reality, but I've been thinking of something I'd term 'defensive PR' - ensuring that when your business is mentioned in the press, all of the known attacks that would typically come up over a brief lunch/dinner conversation have associated defences, which would also likely then appear in the same conversation. I know very little about Watsi, so I don't feel comfortable commenting on it in particular, but there are so many new businesses cropping up, and people are so prone to being critical in the startup world, that it would seem to make sense to try to get your defences out along with your initial publicity.
- tptacek 13y ago
  The word for this is "cynicism". I'm a cynic, too, but I recognize that my cynicism is usually unproductive.
  - jka 13y ago
    Slightly reluctantly, but agreed!
thwest 13y ago
> Are we litigating modern capitalism through the lens of a tiny SF tech healthcare charity? The author completely failed to do any real scrutiny here. Neocolonialism isn't about how awkward one westerner feels looking at pictures of others. Nothing was included about western Capital purchasing labor and resource rights from these countries, which could frame the need for the service in the first place. Namechecked indeed. However, the rhetoric around start-ups places them as the fixers, leaders and disruptors of the economic order. Those claims invite and deserve critical analysis. It wouldn't be fair to have Watsi be a punching bag stand-in for the Dutch East India Company, but let's please not pretend that Watsi somehow stands outside of the economic order or that we shouldn't be skeptical of claims of disruption.
- tptacek 13y ago
  Tech industry solutionism (to ruefully borrow a term from Evgeny Morozov) concerns me too, but it's a problem when it attaches itself to public policy decision-making, not when it attaches itself to charity.