BE SMART: This is dumb and treats Axios readers as if they're dumb. 1/ https://t.co/usibB2G952 pic.twitter.com/WbCYkXc12e
— James Poniewozik (@poniewozik) October 21, 2018Does Axios believe that, as long as their staff never share opinions, its readers will assume they have none? 2/
— James Poniewozik (@poniewozik) October 21, 2018Of course not! So this sort of policy says: Yes, we have opinions and attitudes and sensibilities, like any intelligent person, but we will *conceal them from you.* And therefore you should trust us more! 3/
— James Poniewozik (@poniewozik) October 21, 2018What idiot would believe that? In what other aspect of journalism do we believe that hiding information from the public serves the public? 4/
— James Poniewozik (@poniewozik) October 21, 2018People don’t want you to be a robot. They want you to be FAIR. That applies to straight news and opinion alike. If you show that you are a human being, capable of feeling and analysis, and yet you will pursue a story where it goes regardless, that makes you more trustworthy. 5/
— James Poniewozik (@poniewozik) October 21, 2018If you covered the tech industry and you never formed an opinion, based on your years of research, on the issues facing that field, you would be a got-damn idiot I would not want to get my news from. Same with politics. Same with ANYTHING. 6/
— James Poniewozik (@poniewozik) October 21, 2018If I could change one thing in media, it would be: no news outlet, ever again, would base its policy on perception and “How will this make us look?” It serves no one, we get too cute by half, we look phony—because it IS phony—and bad-faith critics will attack us regardless. 7/7
— James Poniewozik (@poniewozik) October 21, 2018
👓 poniewozik tweetstorm: Response to Axios op ed
A human take on the Twitter portion of the Axios’ 4 ways we all can work to fix “fake news”