The Save Journalism Committee. Let’s make the news better.
Apr 11 • 5 tweets • 4 min read
Remember the Thai cave rescue and @elonmusk’s mini submarine? Here’s what you didn’t know about it, or rather what you were told about it that wasn’t true.
The story most heard was that this was just narcissistic meddling by Musk, that the sub wouldn’t have even fit, and that Musk’s ego alone led him to lash out at rescuer Vern Unsworth for rightly labelling the sub “a PR stunt” that had “absolutely no chance of working”.
I’ve worked with a partner for the last 5+ years on and end-to-end rescue lookback. We’ve spent 1,000+ hours on it and have some wild findings. This first instalment is the story of the submarine: why it was made, why it was criticized, and what we ought to learn from it all.
Though it also covers a lot more than just that.
Here’s a TLDR of what we found, all backed by extensive receipts in the full writeup:
1. As was also true of more important things, Unsworth was wrong about both the sub and Musk’s cave visit, and when put under oath was unable to name a single real basis for his claims. He wasn’t one of the rescue divers, and his sole source was a YouTube video.
2. Though Unsworth’s criticisms were originally made off the air, and though his legal team later lied about this, CNN had asked him to *repeat* his comments on camera for a soundbite, despite his having no relevant expertise or insight. A New York Times columnist (among others) then dogpiled on this, leading to Musk’s outburst.
3. Musk had been repeatedly encouraged to make the sub by the lead rescue diver, Rick Stanton, even *after* several of the boys had already been rescued via Plan A.
4. The sub was designed to the rough size specs that Stanton provided. The only fit concerns ever voiced by the British rescue team came from Unsworth (no firsthand knowledge) and an unnamed source who may have also been Unsworth.
5. Though fit was never likely to be an issue, Musk’s team had prepared a detailed set of contingencies there anyway, which went largely unreported.
6. Though Stanton never inspected the sub himself, at a rescue afterparty he and fellow rescue divers reportedly communicated an “11” level of excitement about it to Musk’s engineers, and even agreed to come to SpaceX to collaborate on a v2.
7. When Stanton was asked about the sub a few days after the rescue, his stance was that, not having been shown it, he couldn’t comment on it. He then started changing his tune some two months later, airing concerns that were either vague, subjective, or based on bad assumptions. He was happy to criticize, but not to explain.
Mar 18 • 12 tweets • 2 min read
So lots of you are going to wake up to mentions of a thing called Slerf. For those not in the crypto space (I follow it very loosely), I’m going to try to briefly summarize. It’s wild. But basically a $1bn flash casino emerged in the night after someone hit a wrong button.
This guy and a small team created a new memecoin called Slerf. It has something to do with sloths? Who knows. Anyway they pre-sold half the tokens for ~$10m to some 25k buyers. Then the other half were supposed to go on sale starting a few hours ago.
Jun 8, 2021 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
Ok, I got so messed up by ProPublica's billionaire taxes reporting that I spent four hours of my morning doing a writeup to explain how batshit their take is.
As ever, I pay cash for mistakes or points of unfairness.
Say you own a claim on 20% of Bezos’s Amazon shares. You can borrow money against this claim at 1% forever to pay your bills. If you let Bezos keep the shares they go up in value by 5% a year.
When do you want him to sell them?
Nov 5, 2020 • 10 tweets • 3 min read
So you’ve probably seen tweets flying around about William Bradley, a dead man in Michigan (b. 1902) who apparently voted by mail.
Let’s dive into it to get a sense of how these narratives form and why so many seem to believe them. /1
So the instigator here seems to be some dude named Austen who who goes by Fleccas online. He posted this 7h ago:
Friends have been asking questions about nomading during COVID. A quick thread to cover four big ones:
- Flying/transportation risks
- Visas/restrictions
- Testing
- Insurance
/1
Airplanes are fairly safe. Cabin air replaced every 2-4 mins. But lower passenger density is better. Look for redeyes / flights that carriers are obligated to run regardless of capacity.
I just did overnight Calgary to Paris (CDG). Was ~30% full. Lots of routes like that.
/2
Mar 3, 2020 • 9 tweets • 3 min read
On today’s instalment of “our Coronavirus response is revealing how broken our institutions are”:
To be clear, the science is overwhelmingly behind wearing masks.
1. COVID-19 has a long incubation period. You might be sick and not know it.
2. The person you’re talking to at work or the store might also be sick and not know it.
/2
Dec 28, 2019 • 7 tweets • 2 min read
I think the replies here are instructive as to why Musk is so polarizing. It’s not that he hasn’t done things that merit criticism. It’s that there’s this weird Twitter-media culture where dunking on him is a cheap path to sure engagement. This effect then compounds. /1
The top response here is “elitist billionaire just invented subways har har”. But that’s a lazy parallel that obscures what’s actually interesting about this idea. Subways are also tunnels, sure. But you can’t take your car in them. They leave you with a last mile problem. /2
Sep 7, 2018 • 26 tweets • 5 min read
Ten media outlets got my story about @elonmusk wrong. Let's talk about why many journalism-loving people still struggle with media trust. /thread
2/ To start, let’s be specific. When people say they distrust the media, I don't think most are devaluing/insulting all the great in-depth reporting out there. I think most are talking about the rapid-response/hot-take machine.
