Look at the “Selected stories” section of the page you linked. This is the kind of thing that person writes.
My experience with journalists (not this specific one) is negative. They usually come to you after the story is already written in their mind. What they are looking for are the words they could quote to support their story. So whatever you tell them, it probably won’t change the article in general, but if they have already decided to say something, and you happen to say something that sounds similar, than that specific sentence (and nothing else) will be added to the story, along with your name, to make it seem that the story is the result of talking to multiple people.
Anything you say that would disagree with the article will simply be ignored, even if that means ignoring 99% of what you said. It doesn’t matter. If they interview 10 people, they will get 10 sentences they can quote; that is quite enough for one article to make it seem like the story has a lot of outside support.
Writing negative stuff about Zizians sounds like… not bad, per se; they are indeed horrible people. But you don’t know what else will be in the article, who else will be associated with them (and your sentence, taken out of original context, might support that association). Perhaps the conclusion will be that Zizians are representative of the rationalist community in general. Will you get the opportunity to see the new context for your words before they are published?
I think sending him a link to https://zizians.info/ should be safe, because most likely he can google it anyway. Answering a list of questions, using mostly one-sentence answers (to avoid the possibility of a tangential sentence being taken out of the whole paragraph), maaaaaybe okay. Anything else, I think there is 80% chance you will be unhappy about the outcome.
I generally think it’s good to answer journalists on substantive questions.
Do you model journalists as truth-seeking people? I don’t; based on my previous experience with some of them. (I could still make an exception for a specific person, if I considered their previous articles fair and well reasoned.)
This journalist wants to talk to me about the Zizian stuff.
https://www.businessinsider.com/author/rob-price
I know about as much as the median rat, but I generally think it’s good to answer journalists on substantive questions.
Do you think is a particularly good or bad idea, do you have any comments about this particular journalist. Feel free to DM me.
Look at the “Selected stories” section of the page you linked. This is the kind of thing that person writes.
My experience with journalists (not this specific one) is negative. They usually come to you after the story is already written in their mind. What they are looking for are the words they could quote to support their story. So whatever you tell them, it probably won’t change the article in general, but if they have already decided to say something, and you happen to say something that sounds similar, than that specific sentence (and nothing else) will be added to the story, along with your name, to make it seem that the story is the result of talking to multiple people.
Anything you say that would disagree with the article will simply be ignored, even if that means ignoring 99% of what you said. It doesn’t matter. If they interview 10 people, they will get 10 sentences they can quote; that is quite enough for one article to make it seem like the story has a lot of outside support.
Writing negative stuff about Zizians sounds like… not bad, per se; they are indeed horrible people. But you don’t know what else will be in the article, who else will be associated with them (and your sentence, taken out of original context, might support that association). Perhaps the conclusion will be that Zizians are representative of the rationalist community in general. Will you get the opportunity to see the new context for your words before they are published?
I think sending him a link to https://zizians.info/ should be safe, because most likely he can google it anyway. Answering a list of questions, using mostly one-sentence answers (to avoid the possibility of a tangential sentence being taken out of the whole paragraph), maaaaaybe okay. Anything else, I think there is 80% chance you will be unhappy about the outcome.
Do you model journalists as truth-seeking people? I don’t; based on my previous experience with some of them. (I could still make an exception for a specific person, if I considered their previous articles fair and well reasoned.)