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Afternoon Links: C is for Crazy Kid’s Books, Pardon Tonya Harding, and Revenge of the Trolls

By Jim Swift

C is for Crazy Children’s Books. There’s a new book project being hawked on Kickstarter called C is for Consent: “a board book for babies, toddlers, and thoughtful parents.” Consent is important, but is this really an appropriate concept for babies and toddlers? Especially given that the term itself has now taken on a sexual meaning? I don’t think so. But the book’s author has an example here we should all consider. Forcing kids to hug their grandparents can be harmful!

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Despite recommendations by the American Academy of Pediatrics and recent publicity efforts by the Girl Scouts, many people still feel that making their kid hug grandma is harmless. Unfortunately, doing so teaches kids that (1) what happens to your body is not always up to you, and (2) it is okay to push other people to do things with their body that they don’t want to do. Yes, most of us love hugs from adorable children, and it feels nice to encourage that connection between your child and another person. But we can and should be more thoughtful about allowing our children to decide if it is also a positive experience for them! Faye and I are hopeful there’s an audience out there for this book right now, and that the audience will grow over time as norms shift.

Tommy Lawrence, dead at 77. The star goalkeeper for Liverpool has died. Here’s a chance man-on-the street interview the BBC did, asking the subject if he remembered a certain famous match. Turns out the man remembered it, because he was Tommy Lawrence and he played in it. You can see him perk up when he realizes it was his match. RIP.

Pardon Tonya Harding! If President Trump is needing a new distraction that will suck up the news cycle, a pardon for Tonya Harding could be the ticket! (Update: The President can’t pardon Harding, who plead guilty to a state crime.) You simply must read this New York Times profile of Harding by Taffy Brodesser-Akner. I am not going to tease it at all because I don’t want to spoil a thing.

Revenge of the trolls. Charles C. Johnson, the first man ever to be permanently banned from Twitter, is suing the company to get back onto the site. Johnson’s case is being watched by racist losers who are being banned right and left, hoping their novel (read: wrong) view that this is a free speech matter will get them back on Twitter. It won’t, and that’s good.

“Biased compared to what?” People love to argue about bias, something we all have. But Columbia Journalism Review has a worthwhile look at the concept of bias in the news:

Researchers have also come up with new ways to think about baselines, addressing the pesky question of what to treat as normal or desirable. If I say an article is biased, you’d be right to ask, “Biased compared to what?” Choosing a baseline is fraught with issues, journalistic and philosophical. How can we judge an individual outlet’s choice of stories without knowing the whole universe of stories the outlet had to choose from? Should major-party candidates get equal amounts of coverage—even when one has said or done things considered more “newsworthy”? Depending on the question you’re asking of the data, a widely acceptable baseline may not always be possible.

Folks who complain about news bias (a real thing that exists!) often use it as an excuse to bludgeon opponents with logical fallacies, thus avoiding discussing the complexities of the issue at hand. This will never change, but as CJR asks, even if we could measure “bias” … would we want to?

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