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There is definitely a motte and bailey going on between just moms in basements and very important and very noble journalism.
I don't actually follow LoTT all that closely, so the above is my general understanding, and I stand by for correction. That being said, I don't see it.
LoTT is, in fact, a mom in a basement, is she not? She aggregates publicly available information, and the overwhelming majority of the information she aggregates is both obviously real and speaks entirely for itself. Trace demonstrated that you can, with a moderate amount of effort, feed her false information that she will repeat, because she doesn't actually check all that carefully. The problem with that critique is that it doesn't seem to generalize; when he made the post, I considered a response of simply pulling random items from her feed for the next couple weeks, and checking one by one whether they were legit, on the expectation that they would be. If I were to do that, what outcome would you bet on? Compare that to Social Text, or Progressive Academia generally. Okay, we know the Sokal Squared articles were bogus; are you actually confident that the rest of their content was significantly more reliable?
What is the actual critique here? LoTT is a shitposter, and receives low trust. On the other hand, her output is optimized to be extremely effective despite that low trust. The overwhelming majority of her content is posting public receipts, and her vulnerability to hoaxing doesn't significantly undermine the reliability of those receipts, because you can generally click through and see the actual record for yourself. She is valued by Reds because she provides a fire-hose of solid evidence that is highly inconvenient for the Progressive narrative. She shows up here because stuff she has actually found has led to significant cultural disputes a number of times. I don't trust her for analysis or for picking my stocks. I trust her that her link to a facebook comment goes to facebook, especially since it's trivial to check myself. Is that foolishness on my part? If so, where does my foolishness actually cash out? What foolish predictions or positions actually result? How does this foolishness compare to people who, say, genuinely believe that Trump was a Russian plant, or that the Hunter laptop was fake news?
I don't have to believe that she is a Very Important And Very Noble Journalist to think that the information she aggregates is timely and relevant in many cases. My basic critique of Trace's hoax isn't that he hoaxed her, which to my mind is entirely fair game; it's that he seems to think that the hoax discredits the rest of her information in some way. That because he fooled her, I should now discount an archive link to comments on facebook or a CNN clip on CNN's own servers because she's the one that handed it to me. At least, that's how the Trace's criticism comes across, and this seems similar.
@Chrisprattalpharaptor posits that it's absurd to claim that LoTT has less social influence that Social Text, and presumably the Academic consensus it represents. I think there's a reasonably clear line from that academic consensus to the operating interpretations of Federal law and HR policy. Would you disagree?
LoTT, on the other hand, operates by exploiting coordination failures within Blue Tribe. Blues in one place deny a thing exists, Blues in another place are publicly doing that thing, LoTT provides reciepts. The Blues who denied the thing was happening are shamed, and turn against the Blues who embarrassed them, or else are forced to pivot publicly. Reds benefit either way, but why should this be objectionable? You can say that she's nutpicking, but that has to be balanced against ubiquitous Blue denials that the nuts exist at all, and then there's the further problem of isolated demands for rigor.
Which of these statements seem indefensible to you? If there's a motte and bailey here, where is it?
The bailey I observed after Trace’s piece goes like this: LoTT is performing a valuable service. Therefore, it is right and proper that she be awarded with money, prestige, weird political appointments, et cetera. Prominent in this bailey are claims that she is very definitely an a “media/news company”, “probably the top journalist in the country”.
When faced with criticism—such as a dumb hoax—supporters retreat to the motte. She has less money/prestige/power than the NYT, so she cannot be expected to keep up with their standards.
You can see the excluded middle. Professional standards would be unreasonable, so the standard evaporates entirely. At the same time, supporters don’t want to give up on the legitimacy of having a serious journalist fighting the good fight. Swapping real news stories at the water cooler is normal; quoting Twitter randos is cringe.
It looks like Social Text is still chugging along. Yet the only time I’ve ever heard about it has been in the context of a twenty-year-old hoax. Anyone who tries to convince an outsider that it’s prestigious is going to have a hard time. I think that’s a correct judgment.
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