The Upsides of a Surveillance Society

theodp writes Citing the comeuppance of ESPN reporter Britt McHenry, who was suspended from her job after her filmed ad-hominem attack on a person McHenry deemed to be beneath her in terms of appearance, education, wealth, class, status went viral, The Atlantic's Megan Garber writes that one silver lining of the omnipresence of cameras it that the possibility of exposure can also encourage us to be a little kinder to each other. "Terrible behavior," Garber writes, "whether cruel or violent or something in between, has a greater possibility than it ever has before of being exposed. Just as Uber tracks ratings for both its drivers and its users, and just as Yelp can be a source of shaming for businesses and customers alike, technology at large has afforded a reciprocity between people who, in a previous era, would have occupied different places on the spectrum of power. Which can, again, be a bad thing — but which can also, in McHenry's case, be an extremely beneficial one. It's good that her behavior has been exposed. It's good that her story going viral might discourage similar behavior from other people. It's good that she has publicly promised 'to learn from this mistake.'"

Comments

I don't know about that surveillance thing

[lucm]

But what a cunt. I just wanted to clarify that.

Re:The Reporter Video Wasn't Even An Upside

[BarbaraHudson]

That reporter clearly just lost her temper and was trying to say whatever seemed like it would be most hurtful.

In other words, she's an asshole.

It's not clear at all that she is any more elitist than most people in positions of prestige.

Being in a position of prestige is no excuse for acting like an asshole. To the contrary, if your "prestige" depends on your reputation, you'd better watch what comes out of your mouth. Look what happened to (now former) Clippers basketball team owner David Sterling after he went on a racist rant.