Re: nytimes

[Carl Malamud <xxxx@media.org>]

On Feb 10, 2009, at 4:25 PM, Aaron Swartz wrote:

> > this isn't about saving 3 days, this is about making sure we're  
> > still a real
> > ongoing news item.  if we do nothing, that is how you get cut.
>
> If you think that might happen, you should talk to Schwartz about it
> first. I'm sure he wants the article to see print too.

i've been talking to him 5-10 times per day.  this isn't a rash move.

> > PACER.  Part of my aim is to flush out the nytimes, but I also want  
> > to make
> > sure we've got an ask on the table when the profile of this issue  
> > goes up.
>
> I thought our ask was the rest of PACER.

exactly ... but, it is an old ask.  I want to reaffirm that.  See  
below ...

> > down) if we are just sitting around.  Editors don't like to hear  
> > that the
> > story they're reading was really cool 2 weeks ago.  :))
>
> This story is largely about things that happened months ago, not  
> weeks ago.

hmm ... I don't feel comfortable without a plan b.  it isn't right to  
put 100% faith in one event.  you can hope for plan a, do everything  
possible to make plan a happen, but it isn't right to not do anything.

more importantly, if you play to the media, you are no longer a story.

but, I hear you ... I will leave your name out of any decisions I  
make.  And, I do intend to sit on my hands until at least noon  
tomorrow, at which point I'm somewhat confident there is a chance that  
Schwartz simply tells me he is running the story.  Either way, he and  
I will be talking ... it is our aim to see this hit the copydesk by  
noon.  He's at home nursing a kid just coming out of oral surgery,  
I've got a bunch of other stuff, but we agreed to touch base early in  
the day and then mid-day to see what the copy desk is doing.  And, if  
he tells me it isn't going tomorrow, but the editor is ready to call  
it something real, then I'm also happy to sit.

One reason John takes me seriously is that I have a real agenda that  
is not press-driven.  If I am just sitting back and doing nothing, he  
gets suspicious and thinks I'm playing to the gallery.  So, I tell him  
honestly (every day) where I am and where I intend to take my agenda.   
The last six weeks have not been about a nytimes piece, they have been  
a day-to-day battle to get the district courts to behave.  I'm  
confident that continuing to roll this out to the general public in  
the next day or two is the right thing to do, and John knows we are  
very, very close to that point.  For example, he knows my paper trail  
went live, he knows WIRED has been chasing me, he saw the scribd stuff  
go up.  The FBI and the jack-booted thugs are the lede, but the real  
story is the courts have changed their policies ... that is the point  
I am trying to reaffirm.

Carl