The reporters tactics frankly aren't that unethical. It's the story itself that is. He's dredging for info, which is fine. What's not fine is that he's clearly trying to source up a story about how PV is a right wing corporate propaganda site (because they may or may not have taken money from Peter Thiel). It's a stupid, dishonest story, because Wired is itself a big corporate funded rag, run by CondeNast.
Also, PV is a nonprofit that accepts donations, so it's not really a hard hitting story that someone donated to them.
Eh. He's a freelancer. Maybe Wired told him to dig, or he come up with the angle and Wired said "If you get anything, we'll publish it." When he says "I'm working for Wired" that could be true, and just as easily not be true. Reporters, I'm told, lie all the time about who they're working for, because nobody checks on it.
It's nothing new, either. The only slightly interesting thing here is, it's on camera.
I keep thinking a custom camera that looks like "normal professional camera gear" but with the actual recording being designed (via smaller, cheaper webcam-ish camera) to instead do panorama's of the press at any of these evens would be an excellent thing for the free press to do. (In a single party consent state, or a state whose 'free press' rules allow general public recording, naturally.)
The few 'hot mic' comments we already get wildly infuriating already.
The reporters tactics frankly aren't that unethical. It's the story itself that is. He's dredging for info, which is fine. What's not fine is that he's clearly trying to source up a story about how PV is a right wing corporate propaganda site (because they may or may not have taken money from Peter Thiel). It's a stupid, dishonest story, because Wired is itself a big corporate funded rag, run by CondeNast.
Also, PV is a nonprofit that accepts donations, so it's not really a hard hitting story that someone donated to them.
Eh. He's a freelancer. Maybe Wired told him to dig, or he come up with the angle and Wired said "If you get anything, we'll publish it." When he says "I'm working for Wired" that could be true, and just as easily not be true. Reporters, I'm told, lie all the time about who they're working for, because nobody checks on it.
It's nothing new, either. The only slightly interesting thing here is, it's on camera.
I keep thinking a custom camera that looks like "normal professional camera gear" but with the actual recording being designed (via smaller, cheaper webcam-ish camera) to instead do panorama's of the press at any of these evens would be an excellent thing for the free press to do. (In a single party consent state, or a state whose 'free press' rules allow general public recording, naturally.)
The few 'hot mic' comments we already get wildly infuriating already.