Claims

Factual · Their own work or organisation

“In early 2020, I learned the New York Times wanted to write an article about me.”

Scott Alexander, blog author · 14 February 2021 · Statement on New York Times Article (Astral Codex Ten)

In early 2020, Scott Alexander learned the New York Times wanted to write an article about him.

Mixed Partly true and partly false in roughly equal measure.

The second judge would not resolve this claim; the verdict shown is the first judge's.

What would count as true or false

True: contemporaneous or later records (his June 2020 statement about the New York Times, the reporter's or the Times's own accounts, or dated correspondence) show he learned of the Times's plan to write about him in roughly January to April 2020. Mostly true: he learned in late 2019 or around May to early June 2020. Mostly false: the Times had planned an article but he learned of it clearly outside the first half of 2020. False: the evidence shows the Times never planned such an article, or that he learned of it at a clearly different time, such as 2019 or earlier, or after mid-2020.

Evidence

1. NYT Is Threatening My Safety By Revealing My Real Name, So I Am Deleting The Blog Slate Star Codex · 22 June 2020 Own record

   “Last week I talked to a *New York Times* technology reporter who was planning to write a story on Slate Star Codex.”

2. Silicon Valley's Safe Space The New York Times (Cade Metz), PDF copy hosted at pdf.stafforini.com · 13 February 2021

   “In late June of last year, not long after talking to Mr. Altman, the OpenAI chief executive, I approached the writer known as Scott Alexander, hoping to get his views on the Rationalist way and its effect on Silicon Valley.”

3. The Slate Star Codex saga proves a new blasphemy code is emerging among liberals New Statesman · 24 February 2021

   “When Cade Metz, the author of the *Times* report, contacted Alexander at the beginning of last year to tell him that he would be writing a piece, Metz allegedly led him to believe that the focus would be on Alexander's prescient warnings about Covid 19.”

4. SlateStarCodex deleted because NYT wants to dox Scott — LessWrong LessWrong

   “Also, Metz contacted me on June 1, wanting to ask questions about the rationality community and its overlap with Silicon Valley (he did not mention SSC).”

Reasoning

Alexander's own post of 22 June 2020 says he spoke "last week" with a Times reporter who was planning a story, which puts that conversation in mid-June 2020; it does not say when he first learned of the plan (E1). The reporter's own account says he approached Alexander in late June 2020 (E2). Both place it at or just past the end of the criteria's "mostly true" window (May to early June), not in January to April. E3, an independent commentary, states that Metz contacted Alexander at the beginning of 2020, which conflicts with the reporter's own account of a late-June approach (E2), so the evidence conflicts and only partly supports "early 2020".

Cite this claim

Scott Alexander, “In early 2020, Scott Alexander learned the New York Times wanted to write an article about him.” (said 14 February 2021). Verdict: mixed. Reliability API, claim c_79cbcc24db6d, method 0.1.0+8bea457b. https://epistacklabs.com/claims/c_79cbcc24db6d