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The Price of Dissent: A Reuters data scientist questioned the Black Lives Matter narrative—so the company fired him.
City Journal ^ | January 5, 2022 | Christopher F. Rufo

Posted on 01/05/2022 7:42:05 PM PST by karpov

Zac Kriegman had the ideal résumé for the professional-managerial class: a bachelors in economics from Michigan and a J.D. from Harvard and years of experience with high-tech startups, a white-shoe law firm, and an econometrics research consultancy. He then spent six years at Thomson Reuters Corporation, the international media conglomerate, spearheading the company’s efforts on artificial intelligence, machine learning, and advanced software engineering. By the beginning of 2020, Kriegman had assumed the title of Director of Data Science and was leading a team tasked with implementing deep learning throughout the organization.

But within a few months, this would all collapse. A chain of events—beginning with the death of George Floyd and culminating with a statistical analysis of Black Lives Matter’s claims—would turn the 44-year-old data scientist’s life upside-down. By June 2020, as riots raged across the country, Kriegman would be locked out of Reuters’s servers, denounced by his colleagues, and fired by email. Kriegman had committed an unpardonable offense: he directly criticized the Black Lives Matter movement in the company’s internal communications forum, debunked Reuters’s own biased reporting, and violated a corporate taboo. Driven by what he called a “moral obligation” to speak out, Kriegman refused to celebrate unquestioningly the BLM narrative and his company’s “diversity and inclusion” programming; to the contrary, he argued that Reuters was exhibiting significant left-wing bias in the newsroom and that the ongoing BLM protests, riots, and calls to “defund the police” would wreak havoc on minority communities. Week after week, Kriegman felt increasingly disillusioned by the Thomson Reuters line. Finally, on the first Tuesday in May 2021, he posted a long, data-intensive critique of BLM’s and his company’s hypocrisy. He was sent to Human Resources and Diversity & Inclusion for the chance to reform his thoughts.

He refused—so they fired him.

(Excerpt) Read more at city-journal.org ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; Extended News; Politics/Elections; US: Massachusetts
KEYWORDS: blm; burnlootmurder; cancelculture; doublestandard; freespeech; freespeechmatters; massachusetts; racism; reuters
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1 posted on 01/05/2022 7:42:06 PM PST by karpov
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To: karpov

Lawsuit time.


2 posted on 01/05/2022 7:44:33 PM PST by ealgeone
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To: karpov

“Human Resources and Diversity & Inclusion”

Wholly p0wn3d be Joe Stalin [and now Joe Stolen...].


3 posted on 01/05/2022 7:45:38 PM PST by Paladin2
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To: karpov

“Human Resources and Diversity & Inclusion”

Wholly p0wn3d by Joe Stalin [and now Joe Stolen...].


4 posted on 01/05/2022 7:46:04 PM PST by Paladin2
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To: karpov

He’ll land on his feet. Hopefully on the necks of the true insurrectionists.


5 posted on 01/05/2022 7:50:49 PM PST by swingdoc
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To: karpov

Bump


6 posted on 01/05/2022 7:51:44 PM PST by Incorrigible (If I lead, follow me; If I pause, push me; If I retreat, kill me.)
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To: karpov

“ Out of every one hundred men, ten shouldn’t even be there, eighty are just targets, nine are the real fighters, and we are lucky to have them, for they make the battle. Ah, but the one, one is a warrior, and he will bring the others back. ” — Heraclitus

This is true in work too. Wokists are busy removing that one from everywhere and the 9 too if they can, and will be shocked to find how little happens when they’re gone.


7 posted on 01/05/2022 7:52:34 PM PST by No.6
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To: karpov
This is what one calls a first-world problem.

We have a remarkably-high standard of living courtesy of the industrial revolution and modern medicine, but it's come at a very high price: we've basically been assimilated into the Borg.

Resistance may not be futile, but it's going to cost us that standard of living.

8 posted on 01/05/2022 7:54:26 PM PST by Captain Walker ("The side that has Truth gets Humor as a bonus.")
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To: karpov

Problem here: when was he fired? It states June 2020, then May 2021.


9 posted on 01/05/2022 7:54:45 PM PST by the OlLine Rebel (Common sense is an uncommon virtue./Federal-run medical care is as good as state-run DMV)
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To: karpov

“But how can 13% of the population commit more than 50%...”

“GET OUT! NOW!”


10 posted on 01/05/2022 7:58:48 PM PST by struggle
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To: Paladin2

The Main Stream medias loss for Data Reporting, is some Private Equity shops Gain. I dont see this guy on LinkedIN so I figure he has word of mouth offers lining up.

Finance firms really dont care about this guys politics if he has a 85% confidence in an obscure financial instrument or market driving condition. There is a way to play shipping rate from India to London. Data scientist outside of ivory towers are either useful or they are not by a metric related to their efforts market rate. He is the typical late recurite for Wall Street or three letter agentcy, cast out by Harvard Peers, with a back story and one hell of diverse former client set.

Utility of numbers people is the predictive nature of their observations. Utility of Engineers is avoiding catastrophic failures by Architects. Utility of Woke Reporters and Politicians is only mesured in twitter followers, and fake asian teens blow away the entire NYTimes Staff in engagement ratings combined. A long dead Grumpy cat video pulls more eyeballs than fox news and CNN combined daily. A dancing baby rendering got more views and had more IT zeitgeist than all the apple ads ever bought for primetime.


11 posted on 01/05/2022 8:05:33 PM PST by protoconservative (Been Conservative Before You Were Born )
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To: Paladin2

Just occurred to me that the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) departments are functioning in the same way that political commissars functioned in the old Soviet political model; ensuring conformity at every organizational level to the party’s doctrine and direction.


12 posted on 01/05/2022 8:27:08 PM PST by Captain Rhino (Determined effort today forges tomorrow. )
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To: karpov

The Wall Street Journal was under assault for years to fire Heather MacDonald. They couldn’t because in her research about the myth of Black Lives Matter, she dotted all of her “i”s and crossed all of her “t”s.

She was public, well known, and used government supplied numbers. This poor guy probably used her statistics.


13 posted on 01/05/2022 8:28:07 PM PST by rlmorel (Nothing can foster principles of freedom more effectively than the imposition of tyranny.)
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To: karpov

Black Lies Matter


“You can’t discuss race unless you agree to use our Marxist comprehension of race! How can you discuss race without our Marxist comprehension?!?”


Everything is racist
In its own way
Like a statue or a book
They’ll dispose of them all someday!

Every white is racist
It’s in their jeans they say
Mommas kicking out oppressors
And daddy’s staying home
The world needs a cleansing of whites

There are none so blind,
Who don’t see the color of skin
They must make all children
Nurture bitterness deep within

(Chorus)


Boop boop boop
Another one under the bus
Boop boop boop
Another one under the bus
Another gets thrown, another gets throw,
Thrown under the bus
Hey, they’ll get Woke on you and throw you under the bus!


14 posted on 01/05/2022 8:46:52 PM PST by Rurudyne (Standup Philosopher)
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To: karpov

In the sort of world that BLM wants, he would be in a Gulag.


15 posted on 01/05/2022 8:51:33 PM PST by Telepathic Intruder
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To: Telepathic Intruder
Only until he recants his ways, then it's off to the killing fields.
16 posted on 01/05/2022 9:08:15 PM PST by Dogbert41 ("Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled" (Matthew 5:6).)
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To: karpov

This guy seems pretty smart. Assuming he wanted to keep his job, I have a hard time figuring out how HE couldn’t figure out how his maverick opinions and findings would not cost him his job.


17 posted on 01/05/2022 9:16:52 PM PST by Attention Surplus Disorder (Apoplectic is where we want them)
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To: karpov

Reuters has been far-left,anti-America for many years. Just doing what Reds do. This just proves that they haven’t changed!!


18 posted on 01/05/2022 9:28:48 PM PST by MadMax, the Grinning Reaper (Figures )
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To: ealgeone

yup


19 posted on 01/05/2022 10:46:12 PM PST by Secret Agent Man (Gone Galt; not averse to Going Bronson.)
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To: karpov

bkmk


20 posted on 01/05/2022 11:00:51 PM PST by linMcHlp
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