Thread by @JohnWHuber

This is such a great podcast interview that I'm going to excerpt parts of it in a thread below, but highly recommend you give it a listen 🎤

Topics covered:
—Journalism/social media
—Trump/#FakeNews
—Free speech
—No-platforming
—Identity politics
—Taking positions before facts

https://twitter.com/Renegade_Report/status/1034483110572945408

Trigger warning: this podcast (@Renegade_Report) is from South Africa and there are 3 white guys on it. And if you think that's a problem you're exactly the sort of person who SHOULD listen to it!

"I don't think we publish what we publish because we think, at last, we got to the 'absolute truth'. We think that if you are committed to truth-seeking then it is your responsibility to confront your audience and yourself with as many different views & set of facts as possible"

"This induces a healthy, robust conversation which is more likely to yield a reasonable position or the true facts"

"I think that there are too many doors through which many journalists [and members of the public] would not dare to go"

"It seems a lot of media these days takes a POSITION [before the facts] - so they know where they stand on the worldview that they have - and THEN they report on the news accordingly"

"I think that many reporters and journalism students are encouraged - prematurely, and wrongly - to develop twitter profiles and social media profiles before they develop reporting skills"

"They build for themselves a reputation as somebody who adheres to position A or B - [eg] 'fighters for social justice' before bothering to set out to find out what is the case"

"Which is of course a 'dangerous' thing. If you commit to finding out dispassionately what is the case...it might lead you to change your position [and] if your position is so entrenched that you can't change it without losing face it's a difficult thing"

"So you fall into the habit of only looking for facts [in] classical confirmation bias, facts that would confirm what you already believe"

"So I think these days many journalist's VIEWS on things are very well known, but the effort put in to unearthing/excavating the FACTS [is] often neglected"

"Identity politics has this idea of intersectionality, the problem is once you've dealt with one 'dominance hierarchy' you'll move onto the next [one] and the idea that it'll never come for you is very 'hopeful' to say the least"

"It seems as if journalism is attracting ACTIVISTS...it seems that you get pushed towards [it] because people are like: the way to spread your MESSAGE is to get into a major newspaper or onto television or whatever...that aligns with [a rise in] celebrity journalists"

"The same question was asked in recent years of Universities...are they there to 'make the world a better place' or are they there to aid the pursuit of truth? You can ask the same of journalism"

"If your belief is that you are there - in a newsroom, on Twitter - to 'make the world a better place', to fight for the 'voiceless'...and there are many journalists who see that as their role, then you see yourself more as an activist"

"In defence of my trade. I want to say many people are attracted to journalism because - yes they are idealists - but they have seen or read [of] tyranny. And [free speech] is a key tool in holding the powerful to account"

"[But] one must guard against becoming tyrants oneself"

"I find far too little tolerance for challenging of the orthodoxies now held by the mainstream media...in the fraternity"

"@CNN had a tag line...about how their reporters put themselves in the story...that is exactly the problem with journalism today, in my opinion. People insert THEMSELVES into the story and the story is not just the story but the journalist's subjective view [and] their feelings"

"We MUST be able to demonstrate to the public that chooses us - because we don't choose our public, the public chooses us - if we want to have the public fight in our corner when the tyrants come for us, we must demonstrate to the public that we are there for them"

"And [this must be] for ALL the different public(s) that exist, all those members of the public that have legitimate yearnings to be heard, who feel that their rights are being infringed"

"It is popular to report on the yearnings of A, B and C, but NOT D and E"

"You must have a fundamental respect for your audience and your readers"

"My main problem with [Trump attacking the media] is that he undermines all mainstream media as if all of them were equally guilty of X. The question is what is X?"

"Where he accuses some media of bias against his presidency, I'd say that's fair criticism"

"There's such polarization in the US that media who have become entrenched as "anti-Trump" cannot be seen to be giving him any credit for anything at all"

"Half of the audience accepts allegations as TRUE without asking for any evidence. The other half dismisses it as FAKE without being willing to be confronted with any evidence...we've lapsed into tribal politics"

Anyway, that's just a sample. The whole podcast is only 40 mins, well worth your time 👆

/ENDS