Red-tops, was: Clarification about krooger's platform
Joey Hess <joeyh@debian.org> wrote:
> I'll leave the rest of your bile to someone else, but for the record, as
> the founder of DWN, I resent the implication that the newsleatter is
> modeled on a US tabloid, which I have never read (except for headlines
> about two-headed cows while standing in line with my milk). If it wasn't
> so sad, that alligation would be histerical.
Why? There are more than a few similarities, by luck or not:
* Neither feels that the groups it reports on are their main
audience.
* Any item included in either has to be sexy enough to match
the red top and that means accuracy sometimes gets left out.
* They are not afraid to pull cunning stunts like reporting
statements single-sourced from fairly new contributors as if
it's a consensus view of a group, or "inflating" articles with
inaccurate or irrelevant spin.
* They have friends who get puffed regularly, but "good news"
stories about groups on the blacklist can get ignored and/or
stuffed at the bottom of the issue.
* The editors take the traditional approach of completely ignoring
most criticism and either accusing the complainer or trying to
game them in the broken system. There is no recommended route
to seek clarification or retraction and those misrepresented
or injured just have to punt.
I suspect others could add to the list, if they thought it
worthwhile. Even I could, but it's better just to ignore DWN
most of the time. Sadly, there is a tendency for people to
look to DWN to help solve debian communication problems and
DPL elections often include discussion of communications. It's
worrying that other groups think similar "Newsletter of Record"
publications will help them and so make rods for their own backs.
If you mean "hysterical", I'm surprised that you use it in this context.
--
MJR/slef
My Opinion Only: see http://people.debian.org/~mjr/
Subscribed to this list. No need to Cc, thanks.
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