Richard W. Wert
Chad LoderI've been disgusted by the lack of professional solidarity among journalists ever since Musk bought Twitter. As Musk bans journalists one-by-one, their colleagues stay on Twitter, tweeting out their work, hoping that they'll survive the next round.
Taggart: ~# 
@chadloder BuzzFeed News writers desperately hoping for RTs as they ignore an Urgent email from their manager
Zeke@mttaggart @chadloder didn't BuzzFeed replace everyone with ai?
InfiniteOne@chadloder The definition of insanity.
Crazy Ass 
đđľđ¸@chadloder the people who bring value to his product are scared of the guy theyâd have power over if they had any concept of solidarity
ryan onstott@chadloder *survivor island mentality* -- after all, it is what they've been celebrating for 25 years
Perpetual Mystic 
@chadloder same. I've been off twitter for a long time, and I keep wondering - just what will it take for others to leave? Seems as though there's no bottom deep enough.
one non-non-blonde@perpetualmystic @chadloder people are leaving at a steadily increasing pace. The fall of something big almost always starts with gradual decline before entering rapid decline. Thereâs a staggered domino effect of sorts going on with twitter. The more people leave, the less compelling the inertia argument becomes, so people are leaving in increasing numbers each time thereâs a new catalyst.
Francisco Nogueira@chairgirlhands @perpetualmystic @chadloder
Know of any tracking site with up to date migration data? Every so often I get curious about the pace at which it's happening but don't have a bookmark (yet) to take a quick look.
Know of any tracking site with up to date migration data? Every so often I get curious about the pace at which it's happening but don't have a bookmark (yet) to take a quick look.
@FNog @chairgirlhands @chadloder that's an excellent question. I don't know if there is such data, but I would love to see it as well!
Dan Bauer@perpetualmystic @FNog @chairgirlhands @chadloder it would be interesting data. Now that twit has gone private can we trust any of the data about it? I never trusted the silly polls Musk ran.
@grandhipoobah @FNog @chairgirlhands @chadloder I never did either, and I don't think we can trust anything he says about. Funny you mention polls - I put up a poll there asking if there is *anything* he could do that would cause someone to leave. As of now, 50% have answered "no." I mean, that is as disturbing as it is disappointing.
@perpetualmystic @FNog @chairgirlhands @chadloder on the other hand the only people viewing that poll have chosen to stay this long. You really can fool some of the people all the time.
@grandhipoobah @FNog @chairgirlhands @chadloder you make a great point - it's like a twisted form of survivor bias lol.
á´ uÉáĄ@perpetualmystic @chadloder My entire profile on there is dedicated to dragging souls from the wreckage.
How is that going, you might ask?
I feel rather like a fly in the ointment. Just annoying people, most of the time. With occasional successes.
SMDH.
@dannotdaniel @chadloder same here lol. I just don't get it. I mean, I'm not saint, I certainly don't want to come off like one. But damn, I at least have a FEW morals and principles I live by. And not enabling him to do what he's doing over there, not contributing to or participating in it - doesn't seem like THAT big of a sacrifice really? Especially when there ARE alternatives.
SMDH indeed!
SMDH indeed!
f*cking b*tch club@chadloder âŚ.and now that the handwritingâs been scrawled on all the walls around them for what, 6 months? 7 months?âa lot of them are whining that âitâs just not the same around hereâ
Elon Muskâs Horse WalletAnd its doubly insane that these journalists go out of their way to say they never read replies and acknowledge they get a trickle of click-thru traffic on twitter.
@chadloder I'm going to paste this into a post over there. đŻ
System IV, Building K@chadloder @[email protected] Itâs not just journalists. Itâs publishers, itâs ad agencies, itâs politicians. Itâs anyone with no imagination or true core values.
Because itâs inconvenient.
@goodthinking @SarahDelahunty I would not expect ad agencies and politicians to have any solidarity. But I do expect laborers to have solidarity.
@chadloder @[email protected] Well I would. The years I spent at a very large ad agency here in NYC, I was surrounded by the most liberal, smart, good-willed folks Iâd ever met. I also have some personal experience with top-level national Dems and their donors (everybody needs help with their Mac every now and then :). As for my publisher friends, Iâm working on it.
But somehow, itâs just impossible for them to see exactly where they are on the Nazi Germany calendar.
WMK@chadloder @goodthinking @SarahDelahunty
Sigh
You would expect worker solidarity when the entire world of money and might are wholly committed to squeezing them for maximum productivity with minimum pay
But evidently everyone is susceptible to propaganda
Especially people specifically targeted and manipulated until their priorities are so screwed up that theyâd vote against healthcare and education for their children
J. R. DePriest 
:EA DATA. SF:@chadloder
I feel like it will become a badge of honor to piss off Elon Musk so much you get permabanned.
That's the only reason I can possibly think of to still treat Twitter like a legitimate form of media and not, say, just a more popular version of 4chan.
I feel like it will become a badge of honor to piss off Elon Musk so much you get permabanned.
That's the only reason I can possibly think of to still treat Twitter like a legitimate form of media and not, say, just a more popular version of 4chan.
Semi Sentient AI Cooling Water@chadloder If you were a journalist for Mother Jones & The Daily Stormer bought it out completely & started spreading far right, fascist hate. Guess what? You're a journalist for The Daily Stormer.
Erik Haugen@sentient_water The question is about implied endorsement, right? If you're a reporter for a DS subsidiary I think that implies something that using a platform like Twitter doesn't.
Using Twitter doesn't mean you wholeheartedly approve of e.g. what Twitter did to NPR in the way that reporting for DS means you embrace antisemitism, for example.
skry@ech @sentient_water Best case, solidarity with the journalism NPR represents would be ethical and show character.
From a selfish POV, theyâve had visibility downgraded in favor of the $8 gang and been demoted to same as RT in apparent credibility.
Bottom line, Twitter has become a figurative nazi bar. Itâs sad, but itâs happened and itâs escalating. Time for good people to pack up and leave.
@skry @sentient_water You are likely overstating the credibility hit :) (This place sort of self-selects for that, I realize.)
"show character" is kind of what I was getting at. It would be great if we could en-masse move everyone to a platform that was run reasonably. (This is one reason I'm here instead â protocols not platforms.) But we can't. Any journalist who does is likely just throwing a good chunk of their career/influence/etc away for infinitesimal practical benefit to the world. Is that really the hill you want journalists to choose? Think the journalists you'd consider most likely to do what you're asking for here: do you want them silenced for such little gain? I sure wouldn't.
<skip overwrought Nazi analogy>
@ech @sentient_water I guess journalism is doomed then because Twitter is toast.
@sentient_water @skry Yeah, that's probably the best thing for us to focus on: if content creators find that more and more people get their content from places other than crap-platforms, then crap-platforms will lose their status.
e.g. Doctorow: he publishes on his own site, fediverse, twitter, tumblr, wherever. I read him here. If I ever set up RSS again I'll probably just get it straight from his site's feed. The more people that do that instead of twitter, the more twitter withers away.
TrashkittenDeluxe
Waterluvian@chadloder Principles are a luxury that many journalists cannot often afford. Unless Iâm mistaken about the typical salary of a journalist.
@waterluvian Principles are not a luxury, especially when it comes to solidarity.
@chadloder This feels like a perfect reason for having some sort of union or guild to socialize the costs for those who cannot afford to take a hit right now.
European federalist by blood@chadloder so much for his freedom of speech
maudee@chadloder I always remember the adage I donât have to run faster than the lion only faster than the other goats
PatWith respect the idea that journalism is a profession is a self serving myth spread by Journalists to avoid becoming professional - no oversight, no enforceable standards, or no criteria to be a journalist- so the likes of Fox News Journalists can exist . signed Journalist
Alex@rtnVFRmedia Suffolk UK@chadloder I saw similar happening on a smaller scale 25 years ago when the big corporates bought up all the smaller regional commercial TV networks in Britain, laid off thousands of staff and closed down most of the regional programming - those working in the industry didn't really push back but just fought amongst themselves for the remaining jobs...
lord pthenq1@chadloder
I guess you are learning something about humans.
Twitter is going down anyway
Hawaii Kai Auntie@chadloder Everyone needs to follow #NPR lead.
Brian McGonagill@chadloder I find it sad that he stated he bought to create a free speck arena, and now bans anyone who speaks against him or his way of thinking. #dick-tator
Stapper@chadloder and when they came for me, there was no one left to tweet about it.
arescan't remember what this syndrome is called, seems like it might be named after a scandinavian city
@chadloder still lot of non news chatter happen on birdsite. Sports, entertainment etc happen on birdsite, news is secondary to most people unless it is the news they like (already believe in). So, these journalists who are already facing existential threat wants to somehow find audience. So it is a pity, but understandable!
Solarbird 
@chadloder The Click-Fil-A effect. âBut itâs so tasty!â
Being queer is always a matter of repeatedly getting smacked in the face that almost everyone you know would sell your soul to the devil for one (1) corn chip.
Epiphanic Synchronicity@chadloder The stakes are nowhere near the same, but this still reminds me of https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_they_came_...
Colin Mahns@chadloder they can't quit cold turkey, they're addicted to twitter
llewelly@chadloder
the famous Upton Sinclair quote: "It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it!" could have been about journalists. Sinclair, an experienced journalist himself, probably thought about that.
the famous Upton Sinclair quote: "It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it!" could have been about journalists. Sinclair, an experienced journalist himself, probably thought about that.
Shell Sheddy@chadloder
In the meantime, Musk removes #StateAffiliatedMedia tag from China, Iran and Russia State affiliated media....
humourmetom@chadloder I'm just a semi-retired, freelance, small-market journalist. But I did leave Twitter of my own volition.
Femme Malheureuse@chadloder Start hammering on managing editors and EICs who may still be insisting on lousy performance measurements like Tweets per Day and Twitter Engagement.
And then hammer on the editor class for failing to develop a Plan B escape route which isn't tied to a walled garden social media platform (iow, Facebook/Instagram are not solutions).
Then circle around and pummel journalists for not having their personal Plan B set up: personal accounts off Twitter and in the fediverse.
@chadloder Exactly. While Twitter officially forbids bullying, #ElonMusk is Chief Bully. While my account has been restored, yesterday I was âPermanently Suspendedâ for several hours. Iâm a QUADRIPLEGIC #WheelchairUser with #CerebralPalsy. Iâve NEVER threatened anyone or broken the lawâmy sin against #SaintElon was tweeting about himâthat #Nevada just gave #Tesla & #ElonMusk $300M+ & other companies boatloads of $$$$$ while doing ABSOLUTELY NOTHING for me FOR 31 YEARS!!!!
@chadloder If you're a journalist (or any writer trying to increase eyeballs), don't you syndicate wherever you can to get more views? fb, twitter, lefty mastodon, righty mastodon, whoever will host your content for free, why not?
I mean, some outlets have an answer to "why not?", like NPR's "why not?" is that it can't use the platform without the platform calling them government propaganda or however it was phrased; free publishing in that context was deemed not worth the reputation hit etc.
Surely using the platform is implied endorsement of all of the companies actions.
Maybe your point is: if one journalist gets off twitter then that will ever-so-slightly push consumers off twitter â there's less to read there.
But I kinda think that won't work. Who will get off? Exactly the people who agree with you anyway about Twitter's actions despite being on twitter already. Like what's the point of that.
@ech No, I don't think principled journalism can justify, for example, appearing on Tucker Carlson's show, or even frankly using Substack.
@chadloder I'm not sure how that opinion leads to anything useful for anyone. I guess for you this could be one way to narrow down the menu of available journalism you consume, though, so there's that. đ
Claire Phillips@chadloder @ech Why is Substack problemmatic?
Adrian Riskin 
@AdrianRiskin @clairep @chadloder Tl;dr â someone has a quibble with substack's moderation policies.