
NSA chief who oversaw sweeping domestic phone surveillance joins Amazon board - markus_zhang
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/longtime-nsa-chief-who-oversaw-illegal-domestic-surveillance-joins-amazon-board-directors
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dang
We've merged some of the comments into
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24426500](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24426500)
and left the ones complaining about ZH here.

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woodruffw
Mods: would you consider updating the link to another source[1][2]? The
current source is both a general distraction and is itself a common source of
misinformation (even when the news itself is factual).

[1]: [https://www.cnbc.com/2020/09/09/amazon-adds-former-nsa-
direc...](https://www.cnbc.com/2020/09/09/amazon-adds-former-nsa-director-to-
board-after-jedi-fight.html)

[2]: [https://www.reuters.com/article/us-amazon-board/ex-nsa-
chief...](https://www.reuters.com/article/us-amazon-board/ex-nsa-chief-keith-
alexander-joins-amazon-board-idUSKBN2603A7)

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jkhdigital
Is ZH the only source reporting this story? I mean, I love me some ZH, but it
can turn some people off so it might be better if a less controversial outlet
was reporting this...

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troughway
Why though?

ZH is the only one willing to report things that others would rather you not
know about.

If every so often they report something batshit crazy, that’s a small price to
pay.

I don’t see an issue with linking the good stuff. And ZH has plenty.

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TaupeRanger
Every other post is a misleading conspiracy theory with cherry picked facts
and data. ZH is awful.

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ycombonator
How did you determine the posts are conspiracy theories ? Is that your
personal opinion?

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TaupeRanger
No. It is based on the fact that they objective cherry pick facts and data,
over and over again, to support conspiratorial narratives.

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humaniania
ZeroHedge is an anonymous conspiracy blog. It is not a reputable source of
information. It is a constant source of fear, uncertainty, and doubt. They
occasionally post rehashed actual news to appear legitimate. Please be
cautious about entering that rabbit hole.

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ArchD
What's your point? Is the report false? I see similar reports elsewhere.

[https://www.cnbc.com/2020/09/09/amazon-adds-former-nsa-
direc...](https://www.cnbc.com/2020/09/09/amazon-adds-former-nsa-director-to-
board-after-jedi-fight.html)

I suppose you just meant to warn against other content there that are
inaccurate? Which ones, though? I'm not familiar with that site.

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ActorNightly
What we know:

* JEDI contract was awarded to Microsoft

* Amazon brought the case that this contract was not awarded fairly, specifically because AWS was proven to be cheaper for the same capability, indicating favoritism.

* Amazon adds national security director to its board (which is different then giving him a director position in charge of a program btw)

* Amazon provided/provides cloud service to CIA

What is extrapolated without any sort of proof

* Amazon wants to spy on citizens

Be aware of news sources that focus on the latter rather than the former.
Because you can also extrapolate that Amazon just REALLY wants the JEDI
contract for no other reason than money just as well as you can any conspiracy
theory.

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jjcon
I can’t believe the amount of conspiracy nonsense pervading HN recently.
Seriously what is going on? We’re pushing a zerohedge article? What’s next,
infowars?

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blackearl
Is it really so unbelievable to be wary of the former director of the NSA
joining a company that has enormous amounts of data as well as literal
microphones in millions of homes? I don't really care about the source, facts
are facts and this appointment is a bit scary.

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Tehchops
"Chink in one's armor" for YC when anything from ZH oozes its way onto the
front page.

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mellow2020
Well, there's other sources for this, becauses it's actually true. I wonder
what "armor" you think HN even has as inane tripe like
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24426407](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24426407)
is glued to #1, while something that actually matters and pertains to the
responsibilities of this crowd is, once again, penalized.

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Tehchops
I'm not arguing that the story itself isn't frontpage newsworthy... just we
should not be validating that particular source with pageviews/clicks.

ZH has pushed Coronavirus misinformation, Seth Rich conspiracies, and openly
labels itself as "far-right libertarian". Of course this unsurprisingly
attracts some slice of the HN demographic :)

