I'm late to this story
"David Wright has been suspended, and to avoid any possible appearance of bias, he will be reassigned away from political coverage when he returns."
usatoday.com/story/news/pol…
1/x
"David Wright has been suspended, and to avoid any possible appearance of bias, he will be reassigned away from political coverage when he returns."
usatoday.com/story/news/pol…
1/x
Meanwhile, over at CPAC, a headliner panel lamented how conservative speech is suppressed online
The CPAC panel builds on conservative anger at a recent court ruling that Facebook and YouTube are free, if they wish, to restrict access to some right-wing video content dailycaller.com/2020/02/27/pra…
Having lost in federal court, the producers of right-wing video content will now turn to California's more liberal state laws for remedy dailycaller.com/2020/02/27/pra…
In both ABC/Wright and YouTube/Prager, a big media corporation inflicted economic penalties in order to protect itself from perceived social pressures.
ABC has permanently limited Wright's career to appease right-wing complaints of "media bias."
YouTube has crimped Prager U's business model to protect itself from accusations of racism, sexism, and homophobia.
YouTube has crimped Prager U's business model to protect itself from accusations of racism, sexism, and homophobia.
Both ABC and YouTube acted within their legal rights. So did the pressure groups who squeezed ABC and YouTube into acting as they did. It's First Amendment-protected all around.
The people most indignant about what YouTube did to Prager are - no surprise - all in favor of what ABC did to Wright. projectveritas.com/2017/06/27/ame… And I am sure ... vice versa.
Everybody wants *somebody* cancelled. Me among them too! I personally think FB should be working harder to police anti-vaxxers and other health disinformers.
Social media have created new opportunities for fraud, abuse, vilification, etc.
Social media companies have new kinds of power to favor some people's speech and disfavor other people's.
Social media companies have new kinds of power to favor some people's speech and disfavor other people's.
The usual ways of talking about this new challenge - "cancel culture" ; "free speech" - are polemical and unhelpful.
When people complain about "cancel culture," they very often mean: I want to live in a world in which there are abundant social and economic rewards for saying and doing certain (but not all!) controversial things, and no social and economic penalties for those same things.
Thus the same prominent conservative journalist can write both / and
Social media magnifies the reach of individual voices, including those of bigots, cranks, charlatans, and crooks.
Inevitably, that new power summons new reactions.
Meanwhile, smart phones have democratized surveillance.
We all may be watched and recorded at any moment.
Inevitably, that new power summons new reactions.
Meanwhile, smart phones have democratized surveillance.
We all may be watched and recorded at any moment.
So this is our new world. It's not a comfortable place, and almost nobody is applying neutral principles. The answer, "Ok, anything goes" has brought us the return of measles. We need a better answer than that. For starters, we have to face how difficult that answer will be
