Stream of Reading (Prepare to be Forwarded) – An Archive of What I'm Reading
As you may have heard, last week we were sued for $15 million by Shiva Ayyadurai, who claims to have invented email. We have written, at great length, about his claims and our opinion — backed up by detailed and thorough evidence — that email existed long before Ayyadurai created any software. We believe the…
Photo credit: Evan Vucci/AP As you’re likely aware by now, yesterday evening BuzzFeed published a dossier of allegations about Donald Trump, including the instantly unforgettable description of a hotel-room piss party with Russian prostitutes. This set the internet on fire for much of last night and dominated a bizarre press conference held earlier today in…
Google Microdata Mobile only ad Article “Cover” The Trouble With Publishing the Trump Dossier In distributing a set of inflammatory allegations that it admitted it could not vouch for, BuzzFeed sidestepped a basic principle of journalism. Google Metadata Mike Segar / Reuters START “MORE ON” SINGLE STORY BOX v. 2 END “MORE ON” SINGLE STORY…
People often say that online behavior would improve if every comment system forced people to use their real names. It sounds like it should be true – surely nobody would say mean things if they faced consequences for their actions? Yet the balance of experimental evidence over the past thirty years suggests that this is not the case….
Anxious about the widespread consumption and spread of propaganda and fake news during this year’s election cycle, many progressives are calling for an increased commitment to media literacy programs. Others are clamoring for solutions that focus on expert fact-checking and labeling. Both of these approaches are likely to fail — not because they are bad ideas,…
Donald Trump is both addicted to media attention and prone to lying to suit his own needs. There is no reason—none—for journalists to allow him to harangue them off-the-record. So stop. What, exactly, is accomplished by “off the record” meetings between journalists and political figures? A simple breakdown: Politicians gain: A chance to convince journalists…
Laredo International Airport in Texas, July 23, 2015. Credit Tamir Kalifa for The New York Times The last year has not been the news media’s finest. Despite some outstanding coverage, over all we misled many people into thinking that Donald Trump would never win the Republican nomination, let alone the White House. Too often we…
Julian Assange is a deeply polarizing figure. Many admire him and many despise him (into which category one falls in any given year typically depends on one’s feelings about the subject of his most recent publication of leaked documents). But one’s views of Assange are completely irrelevant to this article, which is not about Assange. This article,…
Don’t stop your dog from barking at them. Don’t take their money. If you’re making coffee for them, make it wrong. Last week, Donald Trump was elected president by the United States. But he wasn’t elected by New Yorkers. In his hometown, Trump has for years been regarded as a clown—a tabloid regular, a Howard…
The new issue of Jacobin is out now. To mark its release, we’re offering discounted introductory subscriptions. The shooting at the Comet Pizzeria in Washington, DC last weekend brought the subject of fake news to national attention. The gunman was “self-investigating” the preposterous claim that Hillary Clinton and John Podesta operated a child sex ring out…