Conor Friedersdorf

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

@JamesSurowiecki @ijbailey @CathyYoung63 @NGrossman81 (I am going to bed now, not ignoring you.) — PolitiTweet.org

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

@JamesSurowiecki @ijbailey @CathyYoung63 @NGrossman81 I'm not sure why you keep returning to the strange premise that the standards of a magazine journalist and the standards of a conversation podcast run by a comedian who smokes weed and drinks while recording should self-evidently be exactly the same. — PolitiTweet.org

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

@JamesSurowiecki @ijbailey @CathyYoung63 @NGrossman81 exacerbate rather than help. — PolitiTweet.org

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

@JamesSurowiecki @ijbailey @CathyYoung63 @NGrossman81 And that's because I don't think *factual error on podcast* is the main problem. I think *humans getting lots of stuff dead wrong on every possible subject by being bad at reason and bad at evaluating who to trust* is the problem. Also tribalism, which attacks on JRE — PolitiTweet.org

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

@JamesSurowiecki @ijbailey @CathyYoung63 @NGrossman81 Maybe that's wrong and on balance a fact check and edit would improve matters a lot. Like I said, I'm open to the possibility that it's the best outcome. But it's far less obvious a proposition to me than you think it is. — PolitiTweet.org

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

@JamesSurowiecki @ijbailey @CathyYoung63 @NGrossman81 fact check wouldn't solve most of the problem that is motivating your concern. And I find it very hard to believe that the JRE would deliver a perfect fact check given how many journalistic institutions fall well short of that standard. — PolitiTweet.org

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

@JamesSurowiecki @ijbailey @CathyYoung63 @NGrossman81 You fail to consider many other possibilities. Like: technical falsehoods are not the main problem causing people to be anti-vaxxers. A broadcast can be hugely misleading or steer people in the absolute wrong direction without having any factual mistakes. So even a perfect — PolitiTweet.org

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

@JamesSurowiecki @ijbailey @CathyYoung63 @NGrossman81 To me, the problem is the same with live tv, radio, and JRE: editing would make the shows less timely and spontaneous and conversational. For all I care, insist they all be fact-checked, just don't tell everyone who takes a different view that they don't care about falsehoods. — PolitiTweet.org

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

@ijbailey @JamesSurowiecki @CathyYoung63 @NGrossman81 But you don't say, as @JamesSurowiecki is with JRE, that all future TV broadcasts should be fact-checked before airing, and that doesn't make you unconcerned about falsehoods, right? — PolitiTweet.org

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

@ijbailey @JamesSurowiecki @CathyYoung63 @NGrossman81 You would pick a specific ramification and study whether a given broadcast affected it in an extraordinary way. — PolitiTweet.org

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

@JamesSurowiecki @ijbailey @CathyYoung63 @NGrossman81 You agree that live TV news broadcasts frequently include factually false statements. To adopt your logic, you have to either insist that they do tape + fact check, or I can say you're *okay with them broadcasting falsehoods*. Isn't that misleading? — PolitiTweet.org

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

@JamesSurowiecki @ijbailey @CathyYoung63 @NGrossman81 The positions I have actually taken are that 1) it is unreasonable to cancel Joe Rogan 2) claims that the JRE is dangerous or that it causes deaths are unsubstantiated. To add a third, I think you are holding him to a standard that you don't apply more generally. for example — PolitiTweet.org

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

@JamesSurowiecki @ijbailey @CathyYoung63 @NGrossman81 Yes, I agree that is false. I have never said otherwise. — PolitiTweet.org

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

@JamesSurowiecki @ijbailey @CathyYoung63 @NGrossman81 it is established fact that Dr. Malone's interview had "extraordinarily dangerous ramifications" or would you want to investigate that further or see some more evidence before stating that as fact? — PolitiTweet.org

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

@JamesSurowiecki @ijbailey @CathyYoung63 @NGrossman81 Here is a claim in the letter: "Dr. Malone’s interview has reached many tens of millions of listeners vulnerable to predatory medical misinformation. Mass-misinformation events of this scale have extraordinarily dangerous ramifications." Do you think — PolitiTweet.org

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

@JamesSurowiecki @PrimalHex @ijbailey @CathyYoung63 @NGrossman81 *The antivaxxers believe it to be so* isn't the strongest argument — PolitiTweet.org

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

@JamesSurowiecki @ijbailey @CathyYoung63 @NGrossman81 You seem to think that it's important to our conversation to acknowledge the unreasonableness of some of what a Joe Rogan guest said. I acknowledge its unreasonableness. I don't understand why you think it cuts against any position I've taken. — PolitiTweet.org

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

@JamesSurowiecki @ijbailey @CathyYoung63 @NGrossman81 Calling a view "wrongheaded" does not imply that a reasonable person could hold it. I'm trying to go back and find what Tweet about WG you're referring to. Regardless, let's assume a bad faith guest. What does that change? — PolitiTweet.org

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

@ijbailey @JamesSurowiecki @CathyYoung63 @NGrossman81 e.g https://t.co/49W7dz4mID — PolitiTweet.org

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

@JamesSurowiecki @ijbailey @CathyYoung63 @NGrossman81 Where have I pretended that? — PolitiTweet.org

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

@ijbailey @JamesSurowiecki @CathyYoung63 @NGrossman81 If they are going to claim his show causes more Covid deaths, they should substantiate that claim with evidence. If they can't offer any, they should stop making that specific claim. I believe the claim to be weak, myself. — PolitiTweet.org

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

@cen271 @ijbailey I didn't understand that "totalitarian" line, but elsewhere in the piece, he wrote "Spotify, Apple, Joe Rogan, and Neil Young are all private actors, and they can do as they wish. That is Liberalism 101." And I agree. — PolitiTweet.org

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

@JamesSurowiecki @ijbailey @CathyYoung63 @NGrossman81 I'm not sure if I think that would be a problem or not, for JRE. Maybe he should do that. Or maybe it would ruin the long interview format. As a general matter, I do not think even live broadcasts of information are inherently problematic, though they frequently get stuff wrong — PolitiTweet.org

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

@JamesSurowiecki @ijbailey @CathyYoung63 @NGrossman81 I don't understand what you mean when you say that I am treating this "like a debating society" or why you think it is a response to the argument "*the JRE led to more Covid deaths* is a factually unsubstantiated statement". — PolitiTweet.org

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

@ijbailey @JamesSurowiecki @CathyYoung63 @NGrossman81 I haven't said that it's bad for people to want factual accuracy. — PolitiTweet.org

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

@JamesSurowiecki @ijbailey @CathyYoung63 @NGrossman81 whether or not I would prefer everything to be 100 percent factual. Of course I would! Zero factual inaccuracies would be great. So would 100 percent excellent questions and a perfect bullshit detector and unusual wisdom in every interview. — PolitiTweet.org

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

@JamesSurowiecki @ijbailey @CathyYoung63 @NGrossman81 Let's talk specifically rather than vaguely. Many Rogan critics are alleging a specific harm: that more people are dying of Covid because of his show. That is the claim that I object to as *facts not in evidence.* My objection has nothing to do with — PolitiTweet.org

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

@ijbailey @JamesSurowiecki @CathyYoung63 @NGrossman81 I don't understand the relevance of the question, but the answer is *of course not*. I want my articles to be factually correct regardless; so does everyone at the magazine. — PolitiTweet.org

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

cosign: https://t.co/ww3k8Eh0Gm — PolitiTweet.org

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

@cen271 @ijbailey Noah, I understand that you believe speech about Covid should be held to a different standard but I don't, even though I am a strong proponent of vaccination and believe those foregoing it are mostly making terrible decisions. — PolitiTweet.org