Conor Friedersdorf

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

@WesleyLowery That actually helps a lot! — PolitiTweet.org

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

@WesleyLowery To be clear, *that* wasn't my conclusion. — PolitiTweet.org

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

@WesleyLowery *We could air the other side just to seem objective... but almost every intelligence agency in the world agrees* W/ that, I need to go eat, so take the last word if you want it, nice going back and forth, as ever, and my apologies if my first reply to you was too reductive — PolitiTweet.org

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

@WesleyLowery (a hypothetical meeting!) where they argued about whether to publish a Blix op-ed saying *there are no WMDs!* and someone saying, *Hussein is a tyrant who enslaves his people, we have actual Iraqi sources who tell us different, imagine the stakes if we publish this & he's wrong* — PolitiTweet.org

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

@WesleyLowery I think we disagree about that oped in some ways, but for purposes here, I think of old Hans Blix circa 2002, insisting again and again that Sadaam Hussein didn't have WMDs, back when most people, including at the NYT, were very confident that he did. I think of a meeting — PolitiTweet.org

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

@WesleyLowery it just means *be as truthful as you can," in which case I agree, but the essay makes it seem like it means more than that. In any case, I'll say again that it is clear you value lots of journalistic goods, whether we disagree on this or not. — PolitiTweet.org

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

@WesleyLowery Yeah, we very much agree on various shortcomings of objectivity. But most people juxtapose it with subjectivity, or epistemic modesty, or transparency about viewpoint. I'm having a hard time wrapping my mind around the "perception of objectivity"/moral clarity relationship unless — PolitiTweet.org

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

@WesleyLowery So if we just cut the words "moral clarity" from the essay would we be losing any part of its argument, or did you intend it merely as a synonym for *truth, fairness, rigor, and skepticism*? Those seem very different to me, but I can no longer tell what you see as the difference — PolitiTweet.org

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

@WesleyLowery None of which is at odds with your call for rigorous reporting, or newsroom diversity, both of which I agree with. But clearly there's *something* more than those things embedded in your argument. Again, maybe I don't understand exactly what. — PolitiTweet.org

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

@WesleyLowery We could summon a bunch of illustrations on both sides of this argument, but to me, when it comes to *platforming arguments* the 9/11 is a cautionary tale about the method of moral clarity, one that suggests different methods are superior — PolitiTweet.org

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

@WesleyLowery After 9/11, what I consider to be moral clarity would've been great, had it caused folks to think more carefully about arguing, say, against the Ground Zero mosque, but often, moral clarity was actually invoked against, for example, people opposed to removing Saddam Hussein — PolitiTweet.org

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

@WesleyLowery I'll give you an example that comes to mind. Here's another part of your column, where you write about the Tom Cotton op-ed: https://t.co/eWFBTT7X70 — PolitiTweet.org

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

@WesleyLowery Okay, well I don't want to strawman you, and I no longer understand what you think will take moral clarity — PolitiTweet.org

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

@WesleyLowery It seems like the column made a number of different points, not one, and I'm trying to be clear about the one that I disagreed with. I'm not sure there's a racial difference in what journalists believe about themselves but if there's evidence for it I'm happy to see it. — PolitiTweet.org

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

@WesleyLowery So substitute "lodestar" with whatever word seems accurate to you, but I disagree a presumption that we can possess moral clarity should guide us, even though I of course thing we should try our best to be moral. — PolitiTweet.org

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

@WesleyLowery In focusing on where we disagree, I'm sorry if it seemed like I was eliding other things you wrote that I in fact agree with, but it seems to me that those things are at odds with the moral clarity part, which is why you've gotten the most pushback on that. — PolitiTweet.org

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

@WesleyLowery I'd also observe how much your sentence resembles *if you don’t think it’s possible for journalism to call clear Islamofacism by its name then i don’t quite know what to say to you* — PolitiTweet.org

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

@WesleyLowery In my estimation, the overwhelming majority of journalists believe themselves willing to "call clear racism by its name"--I certainly am––and there is also lots of disagreement about what constitutes clear racism. — PolitiTweet.org

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

@WesleyLowery I like your work and its skepticism of power. I disagree with your bygone claim that "It’s possible to build journalism self-aware enough to bridge that gap. But it will take moral clarity..." because there is no way for most people to reliably possess that in the moment. — PolitiTweet.org

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

@WesleyLowery "...let’s not forget the abandonment by too many in journalism of the skepticism and rigorous reporting..." How do you square this with your advocacy of "moral clarity" as a lodestar? That's the approach that got journalists into trouble after 9/11, after all. — PolitiTweet.org

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

The regulatory bureaucracy is failing you. Ask @JoeBiden to order the @FDA to reduce regulatory barriers to getting… https://t.co/ouUCACxRsX — PolitiTweet.org

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

Yes, and this similarity helps explain why both terms were similarly reappropriated with negative connotations by t… https://t.co/BNZDd010lk — PolitiTweet.org

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

On the sudden shift from Western neoliberalism to patriarchy in Afghanistan https://t.co/AfcHaKwq5T — PolitiTweet.org

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

@SarahGrynpas @rasmansa @mjpost @Vampyricon The "and succeed" is a rather big qualification there! — PolitiTweet.org

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

RT @HistoryBoomer: The Economist making this their Sept 4 cover story is not a small thing. The mood in parts of MSM has shifted. On the li… — PolitiTweet.org

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

@EasterbrookG The mistake is a policy that allows drone strikes when the identity of the target is unknown. — PolitiTweet.org

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

@helaineolen This person needs Yelp. — PolitiTweet.org

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

@NateRethorn You know the exit! — PolitiTweet.org

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

This is the military version of SoCal police shooting up the car of newspaper delivery ladies while on high alert f… https://t.co/KYQqINARml — PolitiTweet.org

Conor Friedersdorf @conor64

@rasmansa @mjpost @Vampyricon California is graduating tons of high school students who are so bad at reading, writ… https://t.co/HSMWnrHP0s — PolitiTweet.org