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Alec Karakatsanis
@equalityAlec 2 years, 11 months ago 391 views

THREAD. I've been studying how the New York Times uses sources. If you look at many of its articles together, something disturbing emerges: NYT relies on police and corporate sources to subtly shape how we see social problems and solutions. I try my best to lay it out below.

First, some background. Reporters and editors are constantly making choices about who to speak with to get story ideas about what to cover, who to interview to describe a problem, who to interview to tell us about the universe of potential solutions.

Importantly, sources ultimately quoted in an article often played a vital role behind the scenes. Many people don’t realize that the people quoted in articles explaining what happened and what could be done about it are often the same people who brought the story to the reporter.

In this process, many reporters rely on police and allies (prosecutors, pro-police officials, punishment bureaucrats, consultants, and corporate profiteers) to decide which stories to cover and to tell us "the facts." But when you look across articles, the pattern is striking:

Let's take a look at a few examples from the New York Times. Here's one about "perceptions" of rising crime: https://t.co/8DussDKOQI

What do you notice?

\u201cPolice officials.\u201d
Commissioner
Commissioner
Commissioner
Professor
\u201cthe Police department\u201d
\u201cthe police department\u201d
\u201cofficials\u201d
Chief of detectives
— Alec Karakatsanis (@equalityAlec) April 8, 2022

Here's one about a supposed "cascade" of shoplifting: https://t.co/3igtgiV3K6

-store owner
\u201claw enforcement officials and business owners\u201d
\u201cofficials\u201d
-NYPD
-\u201csome workers\u201d
-\u201claw enforcement officials.\u201d
-eric adams
-legislators
-business owners
-NYPD
-owner
-\u201cmany small business owners\u201d
-owner
-store worker
-DA
-Legal aid
-Store workers
— Alec Karakatsanis (@equalityAlec) February 28, 2022

Or this one concocting a panic over supposed theft from trains: https://t.co/yb1y2ASo7y

-\u201cAuthorities\u201d
-LAPD Captain
-\u201cThe police\u201d
-LAPD Captain (twice more)
-Railroad corporation (twice)
-Railroad corp. spokesperson
-Association of American Railroads
-LAPD Captain
-Asst. prof. of "marketing"
-Railroad corp.
-Railroad spokesperson
-DA
-LAPD Captain (5 more times)
— Alec Karakatsanis (@equalityAlec) January 22, 2022

Or this one shaping the narrative after the police killed a girl trying on a dress in a Burlington Coat Factory: https://t.co/ASVpBdJWZV

Here are the sources NYT chose to educate readers, in order:

-Spokesperson for cop union
-Lawyer for cop (humanizing, defending him)
-Person mentored by the cop
-New person mentored by the cop
-AG
-Professor (former cop)
-Lawyer for family
-Lawyer for cop (again, twice more)
— Alec Karakatsanis (@equalityAlec) January 4, 2022

What do these articles have in common? They empower government and corporate bureaucrats invested in massive investment in the profitable punishment bureaucracy as a solution to social harm as sources to tell us the story.

In article after article, 100s of times a month and 1000s of times during our adult lives, we are bombarded with a carefully curated selection of facts about the world. This cannot help but change our perception of reality. And people are invested in manipulating that reality.

So, whenever you read a news article, take a look at the sources the reporters and editors chose to present to readers to tell "the full story," in chronological order. Ask yourself these questions:

-Who benefits from their point of view being presented as news?

-Whose views were prioritized?
-Was anyone with an opposing viewpoint critical of the punishment bureaucracy included?
-How did the reporter choose which voices to quote and which to ignore?
-Where in the article were any sources challenging the narrative put forward?

-Which sources were granted anonymity and why?
-Did the reporter include any journalistic skepticism for claims made by police, or note whether the source has a history of dishonesty?

There are a lot of amazing journalists, including at major media outlets, who are intentional about the vital issue of who their sources are and who is allowed to shape public perceptions of what's important. But we must notice the implications of who controls news sources.

I've previously written about how what counts as news is one of the most important and overlooked issues in our society. Well, sources often determine what is news and what is said about it: https://t.co/eEB6mSvEcZ

If you want to read more about sources, with more analysis and lots more examples, I wrote it up in my free newsletter here. Also, I hope you like my paintings! https://t.co/CENjsr19cN

If you don't have time to read the entire article or thread, here is the conclusion about why this matters for all people who care about all forms of inequality and injustice:

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Tomi T Ahonen Stands W...
@tomiahonen

Three Little Pigs 1/

So what about the Senators? We saw that at least 7 Republican House Members were so certain they had committed federal crimes, they begged for Presidential pardons from Trump

What about the Senators? Let's look at Trump's Three Little Pigs in a this Thread

Three Little Pigs 2/

First off is the Kentucky Swamp Creature, #MoscowMitch McTurtle. Many associate Mitch McConnell with Trump & Trumpism & connect many of Trump's horrors like SCOTUS as enabled by Mitch

The reality is quite different, however. It is Mitch who played Trump

Three Little Pigs 3/

Yes, Mitch is a monster & had caused irreparable damage to America, partly during Trump. But this is more like Hitler & Stalin. Both men were vile monsters, but sometimes allied, sometimes enemies

Mitch HATES Trump, always hated him, to this day

Three Little Pigs 4/

I would argue that the Teenage Mutant Mitch McTurtle has caused MORE lasting damage to America (through SCOTUS in particular) than Trump. But McConnell used Trump to his own ends, and importantly, DENIED Trump what Trump most wanted

Three Little Pigs 5/

The one thing Donald the Duck McTrump wanted more than anything in the whole wide world - was to have his silly little Wall. Which would not have cost much (compared to tax cuts etc)

And Mitch denied this to Trump. Trump even shut down his OWN government..

Staff Sergeant Gonell,...
@SergeantAqGo

I wish people who were at the White House on J6 could swap their “emotionally drained” day with our injured, scarred and shattered lives…the lives y’all ruined. Unbelievable

$Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene\U0001f1fa\U0001f1f8$

Rep. Marjorie Taylor G...
@RepMTG

No one agrees with the riot at the Capitol on Jan 6th, as a matter of fact, it upset and shocked me very much.

But the political persecution happening in our country upsets me even more.

I toured the DC Jail and will never forget the broken men singing the National Anthem as

their due process and human rights are violated by the very government in power.

Yes they did wrong, but no different than every single Antifa/BLM rioter that were bailed out by money raised from Democrat leaders like Kamala Harris & Ilhan Omar and

then had their charges dropped by liberal DA’s who probably cheer on the persecution of J6’ers.

The two tiered justice system needs to end.

Ashley Babbit’s mother & supporters are gathering nightly outside the DC Jail from 7-9:30 pm.

Garden Gnome
@Gnominitup

@yamihere333 @4talkingpolitic @benshapiro You have been mis-informed. Presidents do not have the power to declassify any TS/SCI document.

$\U0001f499 E.Didrik$

💙 E.Didrik
@e_didrik

@DonaldJTrumpJr 💙this one makes me smile 😊

The best way to know if people like your product is NOT:

- Have a lot of emails in the waiting list
- Become #1 on PH
- Become #1 of HN or Reddit
- Have people that saing "I'll pay"
- Have a lot of free users

The best way to know if they're actually pay for it.

The only thing that matters is your product providing a value, and you can't know this until people will pay money for it.

We can have a first signal of a product/market fit after the launch by check how many sales we've got in the first 24h. Some scale:

200+ This has a high potential.
100+: This has a potential.
50+: Some people need it.
10+: People almost don't need it.
0+: People don't need it.

This is for a single time payment product. For a subscription probably it should be less because people hate subscription.

And obviously, you should have a lot of traffic like 3-5k+.

Here is a stat for my products (macOS apps) for the first 24h after the launch:

Lindsey Simmons
@LynzforCongress

Joshua Hawley, Missouri's Junior Senator, is an autocrat in waiting.

His arrogance and ambition prohibit any allegiance to morality or character.

Thus far, his plan to seize the presidency has fallen into place.

An explanation in photographs.

🧵

Joshua grew up in the next town over from mine, in Lexington, Missouri. A a teenager he wrote a column for the local paper, where he perfected his political condescension.

2/

By the time he reached high-school, however, he attended an elite private high-school 60 miles away in Kansas City.

This is a piece of his history he works to erase as he builds up his counterfeit image as a rural farm boy from a small town who grew up farming.

3/

After graduating from Rockhurst High School, he attended Stanford University where he wrote for the Stanford Review--a libertarian publication founded by Peter Thiel..

4/

(Full Link: https://t.co/zixs1HazLk)

Hawley's writing during his early 20s reveals that he wished for the curriculum at Stanford and other "liberal institutions" to change and to incorporate more conservative moral values.

This led him to create the "Freedom Forum."

5/