Gatekeepers or Censors? How Tech Manages Online Speech; The New York Times, August 7, 2018

Jack Nicas, The New York Times; 

Gatekeepers or Censors? How Tech Manages Online Speech

"Apple, Google and Facebook this week erased from their services many — but not all — videos, podcasts and posts from the right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones and his Infowars site. And Twitter left Mr. Jones’s posts untouched.

The differing approaches to Mr. Jones exposed how unevenly tech companies enforce their rules on hate speech and offensive content. There are only a few cases in which the companies appear to consistently apply their policies, such as their ban on child pornography and instances in which the law required them to remove content, like Nazi imagery in Germany.

When left to make their own decisions, the tech companies often struggle with their roles as the arbiters of speech and leave false information, upset users and confusing decisions in their wake. Here is a look at what the companies, which control the world’s most popular public forums, allow and ban."

The Gatekeepers; Radio West, August 2, 2017

Doug Fabrizio, Radio West; The Gatekeepers

[Kip Currier: Heard some very interesting comments from Chris Whipple (author of The Gatekeepers: How the White House Chiefs of Staff Define Every Presidency) on either CNN or MSNBC while I was driving this morning:

[Paraphrasing]

Chiefs of Staff have to manage up, as well as manage down. 

Chiefs of Staff have to be the one person able and willing to close the Oval Office door and tell the President how things really are.

Chiefs of Staff who don't do their jobs well and allow things to happen that shouldn't, commit "Chief of Staff malpractice".]

"Wednesday, journalist Chris Whipple joins us to talk about what’s been called the toughest job in Washington. White House Chiefs of Staff serves as gatekeepers to the Oval Office, and they help define the course of the country. Whipple interviewed all 17 men still living who have served in the position. Ultimately, he says, their style makes or breaks each presidency. We’ll examine the job’s unique challenges and ask how new chief of staff John Kelly might shake up the current West Wing.

CHRIS WHIPPLE is a writer, journalist, documentary filmmaker, and speaker. He earned multiple Peabody and Emmy Awards as a producer CBS’s 60 Minutes and ABC’s Primetime. Most recently, he was the executive producer and writer of Showtime’s The Spymasters: CIA in the Crosshairs. His new book is called The Gatekeepers: How the White House Chiefs of Staff Define Every Presidency [Independent booksellers|Amazon|Audible]"