Me, then you:
But I think his (and Gruber’s) posts were both light-hearted barbs, and when corrected, Siegler was perfectly amiable in the comments thread of that Google+ post. So is DeWitt Clinton. So am I, if I’m doing this worth a damn.
Are you?
When journalists screw up they publish corrections, retractions. They explain they were mistaken, that they were misinformed. They don’t post a glib update at the end of the existing incorrect post acting like they were half-right all along when they were actually fully wrong.
M.G. Siegler’s dramatics were insipid, juvenile nonsense meant to turn a simple question (“Where’d Andy Rubin’s tweet go?”) with a simple answer (“It was deleted because it was no longer correct.”) into a sensational blog post. When called out on it, he didn’t behave gentlemanly and apologize for writing crap, he just whistled another sarcastic quip (“Phew, that was close!”) and moved on.
The pageviews are already his, there’s no getting those back, so he has no incentive to actually explain to his misinformed audience that he was mistaken. “Light-hearted barbs” or not, they create assumptions in the minds of readers that they carry off into the wild, and a decent writer who finds himself corrected should feel the need to inform the people he misinformed.
I hope I’m never such a jerk that I just don’t care anymore.
Yeah, more or less. I hear you.
“insipid, juvenile nonsense” is a bit overblown IMO but that’s your prerogative. I’d say it was more of a curio, lightly spun. Your reaction will depend largely on your feelings toward Siegler going into it.
I’m not sold on the whole “they create assumptions in the minds of readers that they carry off into the wild” thing because what does that even mean? But if I were him I’d follow up.
For what it’s worth, the post does have an update at the bottom. It’s not worth much, really, just the least he could do.
But to what extent is he poisoning impressionable minds, really? And what’s the harm? I think that’s at the heart of your project here. This isn’t life-and-death, obviously, so what are the stakes?
(Source: daringfireball.net, via johngruber-deactivated20120326)
A Max Jacobson joint
