Using the word 'muggle' is now transphobic

submitted by JulienMayfair from (self.LGBDropTheT)

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[–]GoValidateYourselfuseful lesbian 12 insightful - 1 fun12 insightful - 0 fun13 insightful - 1 fun -  (4 children)

Most of the news articles posted about her, calling her "transphobic" and other bullshit, were copying each other! That was what shocked me the most about the news coverage, is that so much of the articles from separate newspapers read almost exactly the same, and almost none of them cited her essay, or explained what or how she was "transphobic". The "anti-trans" and "transphobic" labels were just taken as a given, and not questioned whatsoever. She was absolutely smeared and libelled by false coverage, to the point that she hired libel lawyers and made one of the newspapers publish an apology and redaction!

The main problem, as I see it, is that the damage from false coverage is done: more people will have read the original false story than the redaction. They just copy and repeat what they've heard others claim, and others copy them. It's like a vicious game of telephone, but through the news.

The first news stories though, that spread the libel, were written by Twitterati types, or people who erroneously believe Twitter is a "reflection of public opinion".

The fact JK was denounced so widely, to the point otherwise intelligent people bought the lie, and the fact that the transactivists who threatened to rape and kill her were not denounced, is a prime example of modern propaganda.

[–][deleted] 7 insightful - 1 fun7 insightful - 0 fun8 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

Agree with everything here. When I saw the news that I did, I had to go back and check her statement, which I had read prior. Something smelled really fishy to me, and I'm already familiar with how far trans activists like to bend the truth, which is to put it mildly. Someone who isn't aware of TRA behavior or had not read her essay would probably just buy the headline that JKR is a transphobe.

Yeah, it did seem like a coordinated hit. Either that was planned, or TRA all think exactly alike. It's also a warning to the common person. If they can do this to JKR, they'll just as well do it to you, someone who does not have "fuck you money." JKR could at this point just be chilling on her own private island.

Redactions should not get to be buried in the footnotes.

people who erroneously believe Twitter is a "reflection of public opinion".

This is journalism today though. They all sit on Twitter and think it's gospel. It's amazing. Makes their jobs pretty easy, they just report what happened on Twitter and nobody has to do any real hard work of interviewing people, checking facts, doing research... maybe because Twitter hits first these days, journalism is all about not being scooped? But to your point, they pick and choose what they report from Twitter, right? JKR is a supposedly a transphobe, they can take that seriously, but the large number, thus important aspect, of people sending her death threats isn't also newsworthy?

[–]GoValidateYourselfuseful lesbian 8 insightful - 1 fun8 insightful - 0 fun9 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

maybe because Twitter hits first these days, journalism is all about not being scooped?

I think you hit the nail on the head with this statement, and it explains how a blatant lie that can easily be fast-checked can get around so quickly! This seems like a serious problem with social media. I don't know what the answer is to fix this. Maybe Twitter should just be deleted? The very nature of the character limit format seems especially prone to distortions. It's possible the only reason why it has not become a full-blown propaganda mill is the ability to link to other sites.

Redactions should not get to be buried in the footnotes.

100%. [REDACTED] needs to accompany the headline when stories have been proven false, and it needs to accompany citations to that story.

[–]fuck_reddit 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Under US law, redactions and corrections are supposed to be given equal prominence to the original story... which has been interpreted to be an unannounced footnote at the end of an article that was the TOP story for days the week before...

[–]fuck_reddit 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

That’s how it’s been for a while. There are montages of TV news reports all the way back in the Bush era of dozens of reports saying the exact same thing when reporting.