Showing posts with label Ellen Pao. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ellen Pao. Show all posts

July 11, 2015

Ridiculously opinionated article at the NYT about Ellen Pao's ouster at Reddit.

"It’s Silicon Valley 2, Ellen Pao 0: Fighter of Sexism Is Out at Reddit."

I know, you're going to say, why are you surprised? It's the New York Times. Why do you even read it? But put the usual reflexive retorts aside for a moment and take a look at how bad this example is. It's a news report, not an opinion piece, and it assumes, over and over, that Pao is the victim of sexism (even though her downfall had to do with her involvement in the firing of another woman):
Ellen Pao became a hero to many when she took on the entrenched male-dominated culture of Silicon Valley...

Ms. Pao’s abrupt downfall in the face of a torrent of sexist and racist comments, many of them on Reddit itself, is quite likely to renew charges that bullying, harassment and cruel behavior are out of control on the web — and that Silicon Valley’s well-publicized problem with gender and ethnic diversity in its work force persists....