Nieman Foundation at Harvard
There’s no need to enumerate the breadth and variety of godawful content published by millennial angst engine Thought Catalog. The site’s propensity for publishing garbage is so well known, they actually address it in the FAQs.
But today, the site published and tweeted a short article so egregiously racist, it could not be ignored.
Ferguson, Missouri Looks Like A Rap Video http://t.co/RZgCqc90AD pic.twitter.com/GERC66l8LX
— Thought Catalog (@ThoughtCatalog) August 14, 2014
The Internet responded emphatically. From the comments: “This ‘article’ is absolutely disgusting.” “This is an absolute embarrassment.” “This is some racist shit. Good Job TC — you are now a White Supremacist publication.” From Twitter:
@ThoughtCatalog y'all should…..take this down probably.
— Dottie Ray. (@iWRIGHTmymemoir) August 14, 2014
Though author Anthony Rogers wasn’t the only person to point out today that looting is illegal, the offensive nature — not to mention incomprehensibility — of his post was enough to make me wonder how it could have gotten past a human editor or producer at Thought Catalog.
In an email, Thought Catalog publisher Chris Lavergne told me that, in fact, “This particular piece was not screened by a producer.” The bar is extremely low for becoming an approved Thought Catalog contributor — “basically just email us,” according to Lavergne — and then you can publish whatever you want. Then, via SocialFlow, a tweet will be sent from the Thought Catalog account automatically. Writes Lavergne:
Today, in response, we deployed code that blocks community uploads from going straight to our social feeds without human approval. Only staff, independent contractors, and vetted community contributors will now be put into the SocialFlow queue.
The inherent risk of giving contributors free rein of your publishing platform was raised earlier this week when Gawker Media was overrun by users posting abusive gore and rape GIFs on Kinja. Gawker responded, shutting down image posting or comments entirely on some posts. Thought Catalog, which hasn’t taken down Rogers’ post, would appear to prefer allowing the trolls to have their way.
Editor’s note: Caroline tried very hard to avoid using the word “platisher” in this post, but it really does need to be mentioned here. Platisher.
9 comments:
Free “rein,” you journalism expert.
Well, it does look like a rap video. Just like the Negro Felon League. What do you call African-American women who have abotrions? Crime stoppers.
“Journalism Lab” sounds like a rather high-minded pose to take when you’re making every effort to get people to silence their own speech.
Well, it DOES look like a rap video. What do you call African American women who have abortions? Crime stoppers.
Why do these young leftists (who claim to promote tolerance and open-mindedness) always insist on removing/censoring content they disagree with? My not discuss why it’s an invalid opinion instead? I think this is just a gut reaction by people who can’t articulate their own opinions.
So what was “egregiously racist” about the piece? The lousy quality of the writing was the only thing I found offensive, the rest seemed to be straight-up factual.
Kathy Shaidle destroys this article (and NJL) at Taki’s Magazine. I mean,she grabs it by the back of the neck, slams its head into a wall, slaps it silly, then kicks its ass until it is crying and begging for mercy and promising never to be a self-righteous, hypocritical bucket of snark again.
But *if* those photos do look like some rap videos, doesn’t that say soothing about the rap culture?
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