Fresh from an embarrassing controversy over runaway “wokeness” — a star science reporter forced out for a nearly two-year-old offense of “repeating a racist slur in the context of a conversation about racist language” because some outraged staffers decided a reprimand at the time wasn’t enough; a statement conveying that intent doesn’t matter which the leadership then had to walk back — The New York Times has wandered into an even worse culture-war skirmish. This one involves bad (and arguably dishonest) reporting as well as accusations of vindictiveness and violation of privacy. It’s a clash pitting the Times against a prominent blogger critical of the social justice progressivism that has become the mainstream media’s dominant ideology in the past decade. The Times does not look good.
The skirmish began last June when the semi-pseudonymous Scott Alexander, a Bay Area psychiatrist who had been writing a blog called Slate Star Codex since 2013, abruptly deleted all his posts. The reason: A New York Times technology reporter was working on a story about Slate Star Codex and was insistent on disclosing his real identity. While Alexander had the impression that the story would be positive, focusing on his early warnings to take COVID-19 seriously, he also believed that being “outed” could not only undermine his relationship with his patients but put him and his household members in danger. He got a huge wave of support, much of it from conservatives and libertarians; while they tended to think the threatened “doxxing” was an attempt to silence an independent voice, Alexander himself believed the Times was simply being cavalier about his concerns.
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