I common criticism seems to be “this won’t change anything” see (here and here). People often believe that journalists can’t choose their headlines and so it is unfair to hold them accountable for them. I think this is wrong for about 3 reasons:
We have a loud of journalists pretty near to us whose behaviour we absolutely can change. Zvi, Scott and Kelsey don’t tend to print misleading headlines but they are quite a big deal and to act as if creating better incentives because we can’t change everything seems to strawman my position
Journalists can control their headlines. I have seen 1-2 times journalists change headlines after pushback. I don’t think it was the editors who read the comments and changed the headlines of their own accord. I imagine that the journalists said they were taking too much pushback and asked for the change. This is probably therefore an existence proof that journalists can affect headlines. I think reality is even further in my direction. I imagine that journalists and their editors are involved in the same social transactions as exist between many employees and their bosses. If they ask to change a headline, often they can probably shift it a bit. Getting good sources might be enough to buy this from them.
I am not saying that they must have good headlines, I am just holding the threat of their messages against them. I’ve only done this twice, but in one case a journalist was happy to give me this leverage. And having it, I felt more confident about the interview.
I think there is a failure mode where some rats hear a system described and imagine that reality matches it as they imagine it. In this case, I think that’s mistaken—journalists have incentives to misdescribe their power of their own headlines. And reality is a bit messier than the simple model suggests. And we have more power than I think some commenters think.
I recommend trying this norm. It doesn’t cost you much, it is a good red flag if someone gets angry when you suggest it and if they agree you get leverage to use if they betray you. Seems like a good trade that only gets better the more of us do it. Rarely is reality so kind (and hence I may be mistaken)
I common criticism seems to be “this won’t change anything” see (here and here). People often believe that journalists can’t choose their headlines and so it is unfair to hold them accountable for them. I think this is wrong for about 3 reasons:
We have a loud of journalists pretty near to us whose behaviour we absolutely can change. Zvi, Scott and Kelsey don’t tend to print misleading headlines but they are quite a big deal and to act as if creating better incentives because we can’t change everything seems to strawman my position
Journalists can control their headlines. I have seen 1-2 times journalists change headlines after pushback. I don’t think it was the editors who read the comments and changed the headlines of their own accord. I imagine that the journalists said they were taking too much pushback and asked for the change. This is probably therefore an existence proof that journalists can affect headlines. I think reality is even further in my direction. I imagine that journalists and their editors are involved in the same social transactions as exist between many employees and their bosses. If they ask to change a headline, often they can probably shift it a bit. Getting good sources might be enough to buy this from them.
I am not saying that they must have good headlines, I am just holding the threat of their messages against them. I’ve only done this twice, but in one case a journalist was happy to give me this leverage. And having it, I felt more confident about the interview.
I think there is a failure mode where some rats hear a system described and imagine that reality matches it as they imagine it. In this case, I think that’s mistaken—journalists have incentives to misdescribe their power of their own headlines. And reality is a bit messier than the simple model suggests. And we have more power than I think some commenters think.
I recommend trying this norm. It doesn’t cost you much, it is a good red flag if someone gets angry when you suggest it and if they agree you get leverage to use if they betray you. Seems like a good trade that only gets better the more of us do it. Rarely is reality so kind (and hence I may be mistaken)