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1/ Earlier this week, the NPR show 1A told God knows how many listeners all over the country that I had made "transphobic comments." This falsehood was presented as a fact, with zero evidence or context. Now NPR has posted this response from me to the episode's webpage. (This
2/was not the host's fault -- she was working off others' research/scripting, so don't bother her [or anyone].) I think 1A should've offered to correct this on-air given how few of the people who heard the claim will see my statement, but I'm going to let this drop.* I appreciate
3/ the chance to respond, but the extent to which major, trusted mainstream outlets refuse to engage in even the most basic due diligence when covering controversial subjects is staggering. The New York Times, Slate, TNR, and now NPR have all acknowledged misrepresenting my work
4/ via either corrections or, in the case of the Times, running a letter to the editor. If on the single subject I'm most familiar with -- my own work -- these outlets cannot achieve high-school-reporter levels of accuracy, why should I trust them on subjects where I am much less
5/knowledgeable? All these outlets have exceptionally talented, fastidious journalists working for them, including friends of mine, but this has been such a disheartening time-suck. And it's only dumb luck I have the platform and experience to fend off this nonsense -- when these
6/ outlets apply their subpar journalistic standards to more vulnerable people, it likely does considerably greater harm.
It is not fun having major national outlets misrepresent you over and over and over, and I really hope it stops.
It is not fun having major national outlets misrepresent you over and over and over, and I really hope it stops.
7/ *As of now, the statement has been posted to the show's own page, but not the NPR version: https://www.npr.org/2020/07/20/893034155/what-we-talk-about-when-we-talk-about-cancel-culture
I have an email out asking them to post it there too. As long as they do that, I'll drop it, but of course it needs to be on both. I'm also dropping it because
I have an email out asking them to post it there too. As long as they do that, I'll drop it, but of course it needs to be on both. I'm also dropping it because
8/ the cut of the show that will live on forever on the web is a bit shorter and doesn't contain the claim. If it did, I would have asked them to edit it out and insert a correction.
