As Twitchy reported yesterday, Ellen Pao, CEO of Reddit, resigned amid a revolt of angry Redditors upset that Victoria Taylor, director of communications and liason between the site’s users and its volunteer moderators, had been terminated without explanation.
The New York Times gave its take — or takes — on Pao’s resignation today is a piece which some say started as a news item and became an opinion piece.
Get me rewrite! @nytimes story on Reddit-Pao split lacked egregious bias so the paper went back to insert some http://t.co/oHRvsrglKy
— Walter Olson (@walterolson) July 11, 2015
@walterolson Saying the @nytimes added "egregious bias"… is like after gaining 20 lbs saying you added weight. @MZHemingway
— Max (@MHB2012) July 11, 2015
@walterolson @Daddy_Warpig @nytimes the SJWs got to them
— adam mcbride (@adammcb) July 11, 2015
So, like two words from the original article remain.
Why bother mentioning the original author at all?@walterolson @nytimes @CHSommers— PixelJanosz.blend ?? ?? (@PixelJanosz) July 11, 2015
The site newsdiffs.org shows how this:
Ellen Pao, the interim chief executive of Reddit, resigned from the online message board on Friday after a week of ceaseless criticism from scores of angry users over the handling of an employee departure.
…
Her exit, which the company described as a mutual agreement between her and Reddit’s board, follows a week of unrest in the Reddit community, which is made up of more than 160 million regular users who use the site to talk about anything from current events to viral cat photos.
At one point became this:
Ellen Pao became a hero to many when she took on the entrenched sexist culture of Silicon Valley. But sentiment is a fickle thing, and late Friday the entrepreneur fell victim to a shrill crowd demanding her ouster as chief executive of the popular social media site Reddit.
Ms. Pao’s abrupt downfall in the face of a torrent of sexist and racist attacks, many of them on Reddit itself, is likely to renew charges that bullying, harrassment and ugly behavior are out of control on the web — and that Silicon Valley’s well-publicized lack of interest in hiring anyone who is not male and white is contributing to the problem.
Amazing: read before-and-after vers. of NYT story on Pao/Reddit split, where you SEE bias inserted into 2nd draft. https://t.co/fCvXTUV7k8
— The Nats Won The World Series (@EsotericCD) July 11, 2015
Original NYT piece, by @MikeIsaac, straight news. Then new byline is added and it becomes a funhouse distortion of why Pao brought down.
— The Nats Won The World Series (@EsotericCD) July 11, 2015
BTW, hilariously biased NYT article on Ellen Pao/Reddit? Revised a THIRD time, to scale back howlers in 2nd version: http://t.co/21Lzv3kUg8
— The Nats Won The World Series (@EsotericCD) July 11, 2015
So a story about a female CEO who resigns after firing a popular female employee somehow becomes the tale of a “fighter of sexism” taking on sexist Silicon Valley.
Notice the lines that were removed from David Streitfeld's activist rewrite. How did they ever get past an editor in the first place?
— The Nats Won The World Series (@EsotericCD) July 11, 2015
Looks as if @MikeIsaac wrote solid news story and then @DavidStreitfeld sexed it up with spin. Why @nytimes ? http://t.co/oHMfTqxKam
— Christina Sommers ? (@CHSommers) July 11, 2015
@CHSommers @MikeIsaac @DavidStreitfeld @nytimes she asks rhetorically
— Pierre (@phoneyman) July 11, 2015
@CHSommers @MikeIsaac @nytimes Why did @DavidStreitfeld focus on the very rare sexist comments as if that was a motivator? Why the spin?
— Ad Nausica (@adnausica) July 11, 2015
@CHSommers Did @MikeIsaac write *any* of that second version, apart from his name? @nytimes @DavidStreitfeld
— Adrian Lopez (@PaladinZilch) July 11, 2015
@CHSommers @MikeIsaac @DavidStreitfeld If that's not a spin, I dunno what it is. Any comment on it, @nytimes ?
— Yan Raphael (@KvalHdura) July 11, 2015
@CHSommers @MikeIsaac @DavidStreitfeld @nytimes
Smells like agenda driven reporting to me.— Norman Doering (@DoeringNorman) July 11, 2015
In other words, sounds like the New York Times.
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