Singaled Out

I feel like I need to clarify something, but it’s as much for myself as anybody else, as I’m certain there’s no one else going about their day burdened by a desperate need to know what my opinions are on anything.

The issue that’s been going round in my head lately is one of when someone should lose their job due to their own behaviour. In principle, I think there should always be a very good reason before potentially jeopardising someone’s livelihood, but the issue can become complicated by an unavoidable sense of justice being done when some awful person ends up out on their ear. The issue for me is whether simply being a bit of a cunt is a good enough reason for someone to lose their source of income.

What sparked this particular internal debate was New York Magazine journalist and pro-celebrity Twitter-ranter Jesse Singal’s recent conduct over his piece about SocialAutopsy founder Candace Owens. Owens’ account of his dealings with her are detailed here, and her petition to have Singal’s hitpiece removed is here. It’s fairly obvious to see that he completely played her by acting as a naive, concerned third party, while all the time maintaining close ties with the individuals who’d set themselves against Owens. He persuades Owens to hold off posting her own account of recent events, “for her own good”, while offering her a larger platform to give her side of the story in his own publication. What actually ended up happening was that Singal engineered an opportunity to put his friends’ version of events first while completely trashing Owens in the process.

Did Singal do anything wrong? Legally, I don’t think so. Ethically? Possibly, but probably nothing worse than plenty of other journos might consider fair game. Granted that’s hardly a ringing endorsement of anyone’s character. An apparent attempt by Singal to get Owens to provide a list of potential backers to her project under the guise of trying to shield Owens from a ‘scam’ he claimed was about to be perpetrated on her seemed to skate about as close to the line as anything it’s possible to directly link him to, but even then I suspect some would argue social engineering can be a valid tool for a journalist. Quite what he actually intended to do with such information though is less certain.

So while it seems Singal is certainly a skeezeball of even more epic proportions than I quite realised, unfortunately that’s not usually grounds for dismissal in most professions. Indeed, it’s often considered an asset.

I was reminded of Ellen Pao, the former Reddit CEO who was ousted after a petition urging her removal gained over 200,000 signatures. I didn’t sign that petition myself, because I don’t use Reddit very much, and didn’t feel that I had a right to take direct action like that against someone on that basis. Which isn’t to say I thought Pao was a good CEO, or that Reddit had no problems it needed to address. Whether every bad idea that sparked the Reddit Revolt originated from Pao herself though seems unlikely, but as CEO ultimately the buck stopped with her.

I however see that situation as somewhat different to many cases where people end up calling for someone’s head; being CEO of a company is an order of magnitude different from someone much further down a food chain, where losing their job is likely to have a much more significant impact on their life.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying no one ever deserves to lose their job, or that no wrongdoing should ever be brought to light just in case that might be the ultimate consequence; if people have done some genuinely bad shit, by all means shine a light on that particular turdish behaviour. All I would ask is that people make absolutely sure they have their facts straight before doing so.

It’s also not to say I would cry especially hard if Mr. Singal found himself without a gig due to the result of his own actions. In fact, I rather wish there’d been a better springboard than him and his antics to launch me into addressing this issue, as it could be very easy to read this as some kind of mitigation of the things he’s done, which I can assure you is no defence team I’d choose to be part of.

The point of all this isn’t to say stop bringing shitty behaviour to light, simply to weigh the consequences before doing so, and not push for anyone to lose their job just because you think they’re not good people and somehow deserve punishment for it, as that brings to mind Gawker’s Sam Biddle and his smug glee in derailing Justine Sacco’s life over a single joke that it’s fair to say didn’t land as well as she hoped.

TL;DR, don’t become Sam Biddle. Something which I believe is sound advice on a number of levels.