Lisa might be gone, but I wanted to share a little story about Sarah Kenzior and The Correspondent.
Earlier today / yesterday Sarah Kenzior was very vocal about how her work had been deleted from the archives of The Correspondent.
If you don't know who she is, she's an American journalist who writes about authoritarianism and how it quickly escalates. Her warnings about Trump have been ahead of others. One of her best articles was called 'we are headed into dark times' and was writen for The Correspondent.
Her original complaint starts like this
Sarah Kendizor @Sarahkenzior
I am horrified. The Correspondent abruptly deleted all of my articles.
This includes my very well-known and influential article "We're heading into dark times: This is how to be your own light in the age of Trump."
All of my work, erased, with no resson or warning.
The thread continued saying that the editorial line of The Correspondent had changed, she was owed money and made allegations about how she was treated.
It sparked another bunch of journalists to speak out about their treatment by the correspondent.
Flavia Dzodan @redlightvoices
some folks think I was "mean" to The Correspondent last week but I've been critical of their ethics for years. I also faced a lot of hostility for this back in 2016 because according to Correspondent writers "I was trying to make them look bad". Look where things are now...
I am deeply saddened by @sarahkendzior mistreatment. Her work has been vital to so many folks trying to understand the rise of right wing violence. And not to minimize Sarah's mistreatment but they have been equally uncaring to many local Dutch folks.
I've been quite vocal about them for years. I stopped talking about them because any critique of The Correspondent in The Netherlands is met with hostile responses from those associated with them. Usually white men with a lot of visibility and connections in NL
When @sarahkendzior came to The Netherlands, my DMs exploded with PoC asking me to engage with her so that she would take a public stand against some of the ways The Correspondent operates locally. They were asking me because they were afraid to speak publicly
One reason I only write in English (and this leads some folks to believe I don't speak Dutch) is because there is no place for me anywhere in Dutch media. The hostility that Correspondent has deployed against @sarahkendzior is a small sample of what goes on here
this is an extremely insular, white male dominated media landscape. People hang out together regardless of where they work. This is why you can have folks who claim to be progressive or "left" forming friendships with very right wing media types
and they operate on the belief that "all ideas are equal" even if those on the right are publishing "debates" about the benefits of mass deportation. But come Friday, they can all have a beer together. it's all very violent and feudal in a way
I quickly learned to spot attempts to use me as an attack dog, to say shit others won't or can't. BUT I also know when my DM explode with people asking me to talk about something, it's because doing so in NL can mean you never get a job in media again
for all their marketing around diversity and progressive values and all the nice sounding words, The Correspondent has always taken advantage of this system to silence vocal critics in The Netherlands. Blocks, dismissive remarks, deplatforming, erasure etc etc
In the replies to this thread was this
Trey Menefee @Comparativist
I followed Sarah before she became a Resistance Star but I muted her account a year ago. Today is a perfect illustration of why: she’s too quick to jump to the most paranoid conspiratorial conclusions.
No, a Jay Rosen project isn’t censoring her. The new website has a glitch.
... there’s a deep narcissism running through her tweets, framing herself as a Cassandra who alone predicted how authoritarian Trump was [lol]. Even more obnoxious is the persistent theme that her Truth is so powerful that she must accept her inevitable fate as Resistance Martyr.
... seriously, she predicted she’ll be killled because of her writing and tweets. Since that hasn’t happened, she’s being unpersoned by The Correspondent at the hands of that treacherous NYU media critic Jay Rosen.
Sarah then denied the rebuttal the Correspondent itself put out
Sarah Kendizor @ sarahkenzior
The Correspondent is now tweeting a letter slandering me to everyone who responds to them.
I'm very grateful to those standing up for me. It is difficult as an independent journalist to be slandered by a wealthy conglomerate.
My work speaks for itself -- as do their actions.
So why am I posting this on a thread about Lisa?
Well because of the striking pattern which is in a similar vein. The Correspondent could easily be replaced with the a media out let in this country.
I don't ultimately know exactly when happened in either case with Sarah or Lisa. But there's something uncannily familiar going on.
Sarah did get her articles restored in the end, but the complaints of others seem unresolved.
I think this needs some daylight sped on it, so that it can be seen.