report responsibly, y'all!!!!!!!

Two quicks links to necessary reads about the Aziz Ansari story on everyone’s minds, and how it was, at the end of the day, unquestionably a journalistic shitfest:

From Jezebel’s Babe, what are you doing?:

Because of the amateurish way the Babe report was handled (her wine choices; her outfit), and the way it was written with an almost prurient and unnecessarily macabre interest in the minute details of their interaction (“the claw”), it left the subject open to further attacks, the kind that are entirely, exhaustingly predictable...

Because Babe did not have the range or depth to present Grace’s story for what it is—a starting point to discuss the ways consent can feel blurring, no matter how clear we might wish it were, and our lack of language to describe this—we all ended up opening up a conversation that did us no good at all.

And The Guardian’s The poorly reported Aziz Ansari exposé was a missed opportunity:

“Babe published it as a bizarre hybrid of reported piece and personal essay, with editorial comments inappropriately interjected. (After the woman in the story, pseudonymously called Grace, says she carefully selected an outfit to wear on her date with Ansari, the reporter adds: “She showed me a picture, it was a good outfit.”)

Babe did not interview Ansari before publishing the piece, and barely gave him time (just over five hours) to respond – the right of response is one of the most basic of journalistic requirements when you’re publicly accusing someone of wrongdoing.”

Like Deez Links? Forward to someone who can teach this in J school.