Discussion
Things I wish journalists knew
* If you report the right-wing dogwhistle, without explaining that it's a dogwhistle, all you're doing is right-wing propaganda
* CEO's/powerful people lie, and it's legal to remind your readers of this when you report on another lie
* Running at a loss due to private investment, then regulatory capture, followed by the inevitable rug-pull is the entire "tech" playbook, stop being naive
* Feel-good "success in adversity" articles are actually just victim-blamey
@researchfairy They know. There's just no money in it. In fact, it could get you fired.
@researchfairy@scholar.social I forget who said this but "don't repeat the debunked claim in the headline, lead with the truth" would go a long way.
@researchfairy For point 2: Legal and ETHICAL to remind the readers of that. People reporting on the news seem to have forgotten that the backbone of journalism is meant to be journalistic integrity, which includes *ethical reporting*, under which falls "tell people when they're being lied to".
It's genuinely pathetic to see that so few of them have even a single vertebra between them.
@researchfairy If politicians, CEOs, or other powerful people want their words published, they should be paying for ad space and getting a "sponsored content" disclaimer (and following applicable political propaganda regulations).
It is not news unless you actually research some facts. Anyone can claim they saw an UFO, or that their company will build a data center in space and increase their revenue tenfold.
@researchfairy *nods @ "success in adversity" stories*
Those success stories are such utterly normal experiences that they write magazine articles about them, ie not at all.
For every person who genuinely gets a boost out of those stories, there's at least one who definitely feels the implicit "so why can't you?" in those articles.
@researchfairy Still my favorite take on those "feel good success in adversity" stories
Reporters will be like "they just really care about parents' rights" as if providing cover for them and normalizing them wasn't about 90% of the job of far-right propaganda
* "They're just public health enthusiasts"
* "They just really care about babies"
* "They just hate voter fraud so much"
* "They just have traditional family values"
Sanitizing a dogwhistle by reporting on it as if it was something to be taken in good faith is doing a lot of work for the extreme right
Reporters will just pass on lies from a CEO or a politician
"Musk has promised self driving cars this year, omg!"
"ChatGPT passed the bar exam! Amazing!"
But the following questions are too spicy for journalists to ask:
* "Really?"
* "Can you prove it?"
* "Does a 3rd party also say so?"
* "Is there any possibility of accountability for this statement if it turns out to be false?"
* "How does this square with claims made in the past that have turned out to be false?"
@researchfairy @dyckron ask Musk what's changed since last time he said it?
Also a good question for the AGI
@researchfairy wait, I thought they called it a "press release" because it *releases* the press from any obligation or moral responsibility to ask follow-up questions, provide context, or do anything other than hit ctrl-c ctrl-v really
Reporters ignore how a "tech" company is flouting existing worker/consumer/environmental protection laws on a technicality, because they do it through an app
The loss-leader/monopolization/regulatory capture/enshittify "tech" playbook is so transparent that we have been making fun of it for a decade, but reporters refuse to mention it
I put "tech" in quotes because it's always an existing industry
There's nothing new or "tech" about it, except concealing fraud and exploitation with an app
How to read the feel-good "success in adversity" reporting:
* Skip to the ~3rd paragraph from the end where they admit that the "self-made" whatever actually came from money in the first place
* Ask yourself what it means for all the other people who are crushed in the system, and didn't "win the lottery"
* Identify the systemic power dynamics that this feel-good story is obscuring and get mad about that
Remember: They're showing you an exception, look for the rule
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