{"id":56951,"date":"2021-03-01T20:09:02","date_gmt":"2021-03-02T01:09:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=56951"},"modified":"2021-03-01T20:12:11","modified_gmt":"2021-03-02T01:12:11","slug":"in-defense-of-substack","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=56951","title":{"rendered":"In Defense Of Substack"},"content":{"rendered":"
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In Defense Of Substack<\/a><\/h3>\n

UCLA professor Sarah T. Roberts mourns the good old days of gatekeeping and credential-worship<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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UCLA professor Sarah Roberts, co-leader of something called the UCLA Center for Critical Internet Inquiry \u2014 media critics whose stated goal is \u201cstrengthening democracy through culture-making<\/a>\u201d \u2014 went on a lengthy Twitter tirade against Substack last night, one that gained a lot of attention. I should probably respond since, as one prominent reporter put it to Glenn Greenwald and me this morning, \u201cShit, it\u2019s like she wrote this for the two of you.\u201d<\/p>\n

The main thread:<\/p>\n

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\"TwitterDr. Sarah T. Roberts <\/span>@ubiquity75<\/span><\/div>\n

Substack is a dangerous direct threat to traditional news media. But more importantly? It is a threat to journalism.<\/a><\/p>\n

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February 28th 2021<\/p>\n

127<\/span> Retweets<\/span>577<\/span> Likes<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\"TwitterDr. Sarah T. Roberts <\/span>@ubiquity75<\/span><\/div>\n

\u201cGreat!\u201d you say! Journalism needs to be disrupted!\u201d But here\u2019s the problem. Journalists make their name doing reporting. This is governed by norms and practices and by ethics. Flawed and not always achieved, true. But present and guiding what newsrooms do in every way? Yes.<\/a><\/p>\n

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February 28th 2021<\/p>\n

12<\/span> Retweets<\/span>153<\/span> Likes<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\"TwitterDr. Sarah T. Roberts <\/span>@ubiquity75<\/span><\/div>\n

People not inside journalism or media may not know the specifics, but they often have a nebulous sense that there are norms \u2014 independence, disclosure of compromise, editorial oversight and vetting of the reporting. That\u2019s what makes them trust enough to buy and read or watch.<\/a><\/p>\n

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February 28th 2021<\/p>\n

9<\/span> Retweets<\/span>112<\/span> Likes<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\"TwitterDr. Sarah T. Roberts <\/span>@ubiquity75<\/span><\/div>\n

What is much less obvious to them is what it means when there is a reporter who makes her name in a newsroom \u2014 traditional paper or fully online outlet \u2014 and then leaves for Substack (or any analog). Taking that name, reputation earned from work done in the context I just stated.<\/a><\/p>\n

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February 28th 2021<\/p>\n

6<\/span> Retweets<\/span>97<\/span> Likes<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\u2026click on the above link to read the rest of the article\u2026<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In Defense Of Substack UCLA professor Sarah T. Roberts mourns the good old days of gatekeeping and credential-worship UCLA professor Sarah Roberts, co-leader of something called the UCLA Center for Critical Internet Inquiry \u2014 media critics whose stated goal is \u201cstrengthening democracy through culture-making\u201d \u2014 went on a lengthy Twitter tirade against Substack last night, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[204,462,3733,30990],"class_list":["post-56951","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-liberty","tag-democracy","tag-journalism","tag-matt-taibbi","tag-substack"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56951","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=56951"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56951\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":56953,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56951\/revisions\/56953"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=56951"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=56951"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=56951"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}