
NSFW: Don’t bullshit a reformed bullshitter - boundlessdreamz
http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/08/08/nsfw-dont-bullshit-a-reformed-bullshitter-the-off-the-record-gravy-train-stops-here/
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physcab
Honestly, there are more important things to life than to be posting random
diatribes on a somewhat professional blog. I'm not sure why I read that story
(or even the background stories he referenced--hey, its saturday), but after
getting a gist of the situation, I have to say to everyone involved: "Get over
it. Don't let these personal rants further pollute what otherwise could be a
great technology blog." Ah, now I understand people's disgust for TC.

~~~
joshuaxls
More important things in life, or at least more important things for this
community. The top two stories right now are two dudes complaining on their
blog. One giving the same old tired reasons why Apple is turning sour, and the
other telling a personal vendetta that I don't give a shit about. Sometimes I
don't understand this community. There's a few stories on the front page that
deserve to be much higher than these two.

~~~
jhancock
I regularly visit the "new" page in attempt to upvote stories (sometimes flag
them) I feel will make the home page a better place. I encourage other to do
the same.

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param
1 line summary: Reporter/columnist decides he will not honor the privacy
request of 'off-the-record' disclosures if he discovers that the source was
lying to him.

However, who determines that the source was lying? If the journo in question
_thinks_ he was lying to? This would discourage any insider from talking to
him anonymously

~~~
tptacek
He's not a reporter/columnist. He works for TechCrunch. Did you seriously
think he'd go to jail to protect sources? Look at all the other journalistic
ethics they've declared "irrelevant".

~~~
dsingleton
Although I'm not a huge fan of Paul Carr, he did work for the Guardian, and
now for the Telegraph, so I wouldn't judge him by TC association alone.

~~~
tptacek
I took the word "irrelevant" and its association to actual journalism from
_his own post_.

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pavs
Since I can't "down vote" is it possible to not see stories from certain
domain like techcrunch? YN doesn't get updated at the same rate as other
social media sites like reddit and more than half the time there are 2-3
articles from TC. This is seriously annoying since there is not way I can
prevent this annoyance from showing up on my YN.

~~~
kirubakaran
May be this might help : <http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/25039>

~~~
pavs
Thanks. I don't use GS, but I might have to start using it - will give it a
shot.

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pmorici
I don't see what he is so pissed about. Yeah he was lied to but he found out
and didn't publish the bad information. Isn't that what journalism is all
about, verifying facts?

~~~
tptacek
He's pissed that he didn't have this week's magnet for page views, and he took
action by further demonstrating how TechCrunch is an inadequate substitute for
real journalism.

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po
This is what bothers me about this: He points out that journalists have a name
for one type of sourcing (presumably to indicate that he knows something about
journalism). He then mocks them for being irrelevant.

After this, he goes on about his own struggle with sourcing in today's age. He
invents his own (probably not unique) rule for anonymous sourcing and
announces it and says he's going to spread the word. The "Techcrunch House
Rule" for anonymous sourcing I guess.

Aren't these the issues that journalists deal with all the time? That's why
they made those rules; the same reason he just made one. His smugness drives
me crazy. It's like watching a wannabe physicist mock Newton and then declare
that he's discovered this special kind of thing that pulls objects downward.

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makmanalp
He assumed that people were telling the truth, let alone their shady
affiliation or desire to stay anonymous. Gee, I wonder what they teach in
journalism class.

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xcombinator
Honestly, I don't get this.

Can someone please help me get out of my ignorance?.

NSFW for me is "not save for work", it doesn't make sense to me.

About the story, I don't understand why this is the second "hot" history. Is
it because it is from techcrunch or something, and HNews needs to post every
single history there?

~~~
tlrobinson
"NSFW" is the name of his column: <http://www.techcrunch.com/author/paul/>

Apparently it's supposed to be edgy or something.

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eli
So he's been writing for how long? And just now he's learning the pitfalls of
off-the-record covered in Journalism 101?

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noamsml
This will just drive away sources.

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gojomo
It's easy to pose all macho and righteous on this issue. But there's a reason
journalists protect sources; on balance it helps them do their job, even with
the reality some sources abuse the confidence to dissemble.

And what happens when Carr mistakenly believes a source lied, burns them, but
then discovers the source was telling the truth? The betrayal of confidence
and repercussions for the source may be irreversible.

Arrignton made a similar pledge that TC would promise to respect embargoes,
but then break them. How many embargoes has TC broken since?

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pwmanagerdied
I'm just curious: what's the NSFW label for? I don't see any material that
seems to warrant it.

~~~
philwelch
There's swearing.

~~~
calcnerd256
I thought not-safe-for-work was that guy's column's name.

