1X executive Dar Sleeper criticizes WIRED for focus on sexualization and freaky fingers in robotics coverage · Digg

1X executive Dar Sleeper criticizes WIRED for focus on sexualization and freaky fingers in robotics coverage · Digg

In a post on X, 1X executive Dar Sleeper said the company gave WIRED an exclusive on its robot-hands launch, then felt "pretty betrayed" when the resulting WIRED story, "The 1X Neo Robot Has Freaky Fast Fingers" was, in his view, framed around sexualization and the word "freaky" rather than what he saw as the engineering milestone. The complaint spread across X, where founders, investors and reporters argued less about the robot itself than about what an exclusive does and does not buy a company.

Original post

I gave WIRED the exclusive on our hands launch, and they wrote a really weird article about how we are sexualizing robotics… https://www.wired.com/story/the-1x-neo-robot-has-freaky-fast-fingers/ I felt pretty betrayed because that’s not what they told me they were writing about not is that what I’ve ever been about… actually I stand for quite the opposite… But I’ve come to find a lot of dishonesty and malice in the journalism community so I wasn’t surprised. This is what I sent the author… I’m only sharing this because I hope it encourages journalists to resist the click bait trap and tell truly awesome stories because I for one don’t believe journalism is dead— I think it’s just starting and just needs to evolve past the weird corner of the internet where data driven optimization turns everything into smooth brained shocking brain rot bullshit. The technological revolution we are going through should inspire a journalism renaissance. Not let it fall into further decay. There is so much brilliance at play in the world and the stories should be told! My note: “[author name redacted], it was nice talking to you, but I wanted to let you know that I didn’t enjoy your article at all. I understand the need to be inflammatory because that seems to be the only thing that gets clicks these days but that doesnt mean you shouldn’t recognize when something special is in front of you. I trusted our PR team in saying we should offer you the exclusive on what is one of the most important technological developments in the history of Mankind and I deeply regret it. Good luck with the rest of your writing career. -Dar Sleeper

DdarTECHvia X

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ThDamagerX@dropit25678TECH

@stevenmarkryan Report me faggot

Tolu@Tolu_AtandaTECH

@brian_armstrong ❤️

Brian Armstrong@brian_armstrongTECH

Sad state of affairs when most mainstream media journalists can’t be trusted to tell the truth at this point. As a founder, you have to hunt to find the good ones and spend more of your time going direct or with new media, bypassing them entirely. Many traditional media companies got disrupted by tech, and therefore came to hate tech. So they have a conflict of interest in all tech reporting, even if they don’t disclose it. Others are mainly political propaganda organizations at this point (Marxist etc) and try to label it journalism to prey on ignorant people. Actual journalism is important and even heroic at times (war zones etc), it just isn’t practiced very often by traditional media companies any more, which is a shame and why we need new media companies.

Justine Moore@venturetwinsTECH

It really sucks that journalists have become so untrustworthy. I’ve seen SO many cases where they take a story and twist it to fit a pre-existing narrative (that’s almost always anti-tech). This why it’s so important to go direct on platforms like X. https://twitter.com/radbackwards/status/2076022602955686063

.@WIRED is so bad its writers won’t even engage on twitterX! 😂😂😂 Founders: never talk to the main stream media; if you do record everything and only give answers by email — never on the phone https://twitter.com/jessegenet/status/2076132502549487785

Founders: Go direct One hour a day doing media is a fine use of your time. Podcast, emails and twitterX https://twitter.com/radbackwards/status/2076022602955686063

If you believe Wired is doing damage then don't advertise in it or subscribe to it https://twitter.com/radbackwards/status/2076022602955686063

1. Go direct 2. Only trust indie media with based founders https://twitter.com/radbackwards/status/2076022602955686063