A couple of years ago I had a different blog. It was fun being snarky for a while, but I provided very little original commentary. Not exactly the best way to generate page views and give myself an ego boost. The best way to describe my point of view at the time was Catholic and conservative with a dash of libertarian thrown in for good measure.
I had been blogging for maybe two months, mostly entertaining my friends and pissing off the LTR (she’s from a mainline protestant faith and a unexamined socialist when it comes to politics) when a reporterette contacted me about a post I had made. She asked if she could interview me about the things I had written in my post. I agreed to answer her questions fully expecting she would ask them in such a way as to make any answer I gave her make me look like a bigoted right wing loon. Needless to say, I wasn’t disappointed. What she may not have expected was that instead of answering directly, I tried to first go after her erroneous assumptions, and then tried to reframe her questions in a different way. A standard debate tactic.
This reporterette and I had a fairly long exchange via email. After I had answered all her questions she hit me with a request for my full name. Not really wanting my full name out there, I demurred. Her response was that she couldn’t use any of the answers I gave her unless she had my full name. So much for anonymity. I suspect, but don’t know for certain that something similar happened to Roissy for his Globe and Mail story.
I have also been interviewed and/or peripherally involved in news stories covered locally here in the big city. Every time I have found that what gets reported rarely has more than a loose association to the truth or the facts surrounding the events covered. I’ve seen quotes that I was present for taken out of context, twisted, truncated, and/or presented as answers to questions that weren’t asked, all in an attempt to fit a predetermined narrative.
I don’t trust reporters. I believe most of them don’t have the knowledge to understand much of what they are reporting about. I believe the news is dumbed down and spoon fed to the masses. As I stated in my fear mongering post, much of what is covered has more to do with generating fear in the female viewing audience and/or an emotional reaction than providing actual facts.
So, to the rest of the bloggers in the MRA/PUA/MGTOW sphere, here is my advice. Don’t do interviews. Ever.
