Nick Bilton's Removal of Anil Dash from a Story on Bullying
Dear Ms. Sullivan,
Re:
Is the Internet a Mob Without Consequences
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/12/24/is-the-internet-a-mob-without-consequence/?_r=0
12/24/2013
Web
I am writing to urge you to investigate a situation whereby Nick Bilton, a writer for the Bits column, completely removed a subject of his story -- Anil Dash -- and his comments about Dash being "angry" -- merely because this influential Silicon Alley entrepreneur protested on Twitter about the way he was covered.
This publication -- and then removal under pressure -- was documented by Loren Feldman here:
http://www.lorenfeldman.com/how-nick-bilton-compromised-himself-and-the-ny-times-for-anil-dash/
As many of us know, Anil Dash is responsible for getting the CTO of Business Insider fired over a few off-colour and ill-advised misogynist tweets. Not only did he get him fired, he met with him in person and then threatened him with never getting funding for any start-up in Silicon Valley again -- over a few tweets! Fortunately, the man has now found a new job despite Dash's thuggish threats.
Dash is selective in his concern for such cases -- not every Silicon Valley personage will get this treatment for similar offenses or even real-life behaviour involving rape allegations.
It is hugely creepy when an influential person can force a New York Times journalist to erase something he wrote completely and put it down the memory hole. This is especially true when the NYT has a practice of putting elaborate correction statements below articles even for slightly mispelled names or incorrect locations. When a change of this magnitude is made to a story after publication, you owe it to the reader to print a correction and explanation. In this case, the text really should be restored, and if Dash doesn't like what is said about him, he can write a comment or a letter to the editor.
My blog post:
http://3dblogger.typepad.com/wired_state/2013/12/anil-dash-silences-nick-bilton-at-the-new-york-times-in-bullying-article.html
Catherine A. Fitzpatrick
New York, New York
[telephone number]
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