A few days ago, @arrington called it that there was a big hit piece in the works based on the Coinbase memo. The piece is now live, & it's remarkable for both what it contains & what it doesn't. https://twitter.com/arrington/status/1314342451553816577

First, it's just as slanted as anyone who's following this expected. Both the headline & excerpt, which the journos often don't write themselves, are false on multiple counts. These internal company clashes are about many issues, not just BLM.

The Coinbase memo doesn't express or imply "Don't be liberal." It says don't do activism of any kind at work in public channels -- huge leap there to "don't have a certain political position." Worse, the author is confused about what's "liberal." But that's another thread...

The entire piece, from the opener to the kicker, reflects this slant that those opposed to woke activism in the workplace on work hours are right-leaning reactionaries. The whole thing is structured to smear the memo & anyone who supports it w/ the stink of "alt-right" & Trumpism

Also, yet again, the memo isn't aimed at restricting political speech generically. It's aimed pretty narrowly at work hours, & in practice they've said it's really about public Slack channels. None of that nuance is in this piece, though. She didn't even try to bring it out.

But my favorite part of this piece is what's not in it. Check this out. The jig is up. None of the targets feel obliged to participate in these smear-fests anymore. The audience for such is growing narrower, & I'm rooting against authors & outlets that publish this stuff.

Not even her allies like Costolo and Calrson would give her a comment.

The near-unanimous refusal to give these hit-piece writers further ammo is glorious. @balajis deserves a lot of credit for leading the charge, there.

What's fascinating is that her WIRED story on internal political clashes at Google was pretty good & deeply reported. It was far from the drive-by that this WaPo thing is. The outlet and the editing matter a lot. https://www.wired.com/story/inside-google-three-years-misery-happiest-company-tech/

I think probably the saddest thing about this piece is that most of the people who declined to comment could have written it, beat by beat, all by themselves. From the Proud Boys opener to the quotes from diversity consultants, everyone knew exactly what would be in this.

The only surprising moment in this to me was her inclusion of the Costolo tweet. I was surprised that it showed up, and surprised at how this open fantasy of revolutionary violence (involving gunz!!) from a major tech figure occasioned zero commentary or editorializing from her.

You would think in a piece about the alleged adjacency to extremist political violence of a group of white, powerful Valley VC's, an actual quote from EXACTLY such a character featuring his political enemies being gunned down would've occupied a different place in the piece.