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News & ArtsThursday, May 17, 2012
Tech Nick Hanauer's TED Talk Now on YouTube
Posted by Dominic Holden on Thu, May 17, 2012 at 2:02 PM
The kerfuffle—over TED allegedly banning Nick Hanauer's talk on income inequality because it was too political—didn't take long to resolve:
TED head Chris Anderson says, more or less, that the talk wasn't banned—it just wasn't good enough to be chosen—and accuses Hanauer off blowing up the controversy. Here's Anderson on his blog:
Here's what actually happened.
At TED this year, an attendee pitched a 3-minute audience talk on inequality. The talk tapped into a really important and timely issue. But it framed the issue in a way that was explicitly partisan. And it included a number of arguments that were unconvincing, even to those of us who supported his overall stance. The audience at TED who heard it live (and who are often accused of being overly enthusiastic about left-leaning ideas) gave it, on average, mediocre ratings. [...]
We discussed internally and ultimately told the speaker we did not plan to post. He did not react well. He had hired a PR firm to promote the talk to MoveOn and others, and the PR firm warned us that unless we posted he would go to the press and accuse us of censoring him. We again declined and this time I wrote him and tried gently to explain in detail why I thought his talk was flawed.
Anderson also explains that he's posted the talk on YouTube (as you see above), but it's not on the TED website. It's a he-said-she-said for right now. Hard to say who is right, but it seems there's some doubt about Anderson's claim that the talk was received as mediocre. "The audience gave the talk a standing ovation; stop bullshitting," says one of the commenters on Anderson's blog. At the end of the video you can see folks stand up... and Hanauer says, "I got a sensational reaction to the talk at the conference itself, including a big standing ovation." Make of it what you will.
3
It is also worth noting that Anderson's claim that the talk was not well-received by the audience is being rebutted by many in attendance that say Hanauer received a standing ovation. Hmmmm ...
6
Thanks for this, I'll watch it later. The text is already up, and unless he does cartwheels it does seem a bit less groundbreaking than the hype might suggest. As for the ovation, remember TED audiences tend to be like Seattle audiences - we'll give a standing O to a ham sandwich, but give us anonymous comment cards too and our claws come right out.
Text: http://roundtable.nationaljournal.com/20…
Text: http://roundtable.nationaljournal.com/20…
8
The truth is conservatives don't care about creating jobs anymore than they care about protecting unborn babies. What they really want to do is to preserve the established social hierarchy. Hence, they favor public policy that gives men power over women, rich people power over not so rich people, and whites power over non-whites.
10
Interesting take on it from Digby:
http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2012/05/a…
You can say it at TED (and it has been said before), but just don't be mean to the poor Job Creators!
http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2012/05/a…
You can say it at TED (and it has been said before), but just don't be mean to the poor Job Creators!
11
Is Anderson claiming that the audience in attendance gave it mediocre reviews? Or some batch of internal people/superusers who were shown the video, but weren't actually in attendance, did that?
12
It looks like part of the audience stood, but closer to 50% from that camera angle. Thought he was a bit inflammatory instead of letting the facts carry his argument. Hard to win over people when your peeing in their face.
14
@12, "letting the facts carry his argument" is one of my favorite things about a good talk, TED or no. It's not that it's a bad talk at all, and it's certainly not that the concepts aren't sound enough, it's that it doesn't hit that factual-discovery sweet spot, at least for me. As others noted, Hanauer does give this talk a lot, published a version of it here some time ago no less, so maybe he'll use this as inspiration to refresh it a bit.
15
I once gave a power point presentation where folks got up afterwards to leave. I'm now going to refer to that as my "standing ovation".
16
Ah the shifting rationale. Always a sign of total honesty. Anderson's currently stated reason for not posting the talk, "it wasn't good enough" sorta flies in the face of his first email assertion that he was eager to put it on the site, then his assertions that he wasn't posting it because it was too political.
Also, most TED talks are self-aggrandizing BS. The only difference with this one is relevance.
Also, most TED talks are self-aggrandizing BS. The only difference with this one is relevance.
17
Is the test of a good TED talk whether it gets a standing ovation or not? If that's the case, anyone could get up there and bitch about telemarketers or airport security lines and get a standing O. There is probably some other criteria that is more intellectually rigorous. At least one would hope.
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@14 Agreed. Would have been that much harder for them not to post, instead of giving them half a reason not to.
@15 Applause when they are happy to see most power point presentations end, count as well.
@15 Applause when they are happy to see most power point presentations end, count as well.
19
Republicans are just crybabies and throw a hissy fit when someone points out that they aren't sharing, or playing nice, making sense, etc.
Sometimes they'll pick up a gun and go on a killing spree...
His logic is undoubtedly axiomatic and I haven't once heard ONE rebuttal. All I hear is "OMG, HE TOTALLY JUST SAID THAT TO OUR FACES, NO SUGAR"
People aren't used to facts, in fact, they are averse to them, usually. Lest they become knowledgeable and thus skeptics of nonsense.
Sometimes they'll pick up a gun and go on a killing spree...
His logic is undoubtedly axiomatic and I haven't once heard ONE rebuttal. All I hear is "OMG, HE TOTALLY JUST SAID THAT TO OUR FACES, NO SUGAR"
People aren't used to facts, in fact, they are averse to them, usually. Lest they become knowledgeable and thus skeptics of nonsense.
25
Demand creates jobs. Didn't Keynes come up with that one first? Still, good talk. It's kind of scary that Rush Limbaugh shouting about job creators can drown out the reasoning of the greatest economist of the last century, one whose work is still the basis of every introductory macroeconomics course in the country. Maybe Hanauer can get us steered back in the right direction.
Say it again: "demand creates jobs".
Say it again: "demand creates jobs".
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For those that haven't read Robert Reich's book Aftershock, it's this times a hundred and rich on facts. Great topic, but the presentation was a bit weak. That doesn't mean TED isn't screwing him.
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Partisian is what we experience everyday in the main stream media. It is strange that the minute we start looking at things from the view point of "what would be best for everybody" one is accused of being partisian or too political or communist. This is a cultural problem that we need to get over if we are to survivie as a species.
I think it was Noam Chomsky who said that when you bring up ideas that are outside of the standard belief system it requires a lot more proof and justification. I thank Nick for taking a shot at it. May we all continue to do so.
http://igg.me/p/105519?a=496207
I think it was Noam Chomsky who said that when you bring up ideas that are outside of the standard belief system it requires a lot more proof and justification. I thank Nick for taking a shot at it. May we all continue to do so.
http://igg.me/p/105519?a=496207
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@15: I saw people standing and applauding, not standing and leaving.
@18: I heard applause a few times during the talk, not just at the end.
I didn't think this was so "radical"; pretty much common sense.
@18: I heard applause a few times during the talk, not just at the end.
I didn't think this was so "radical"; pretty much common sense.
29
" wasn't interesting" translates to not entertaining. I guess if I were an individual raised in an environment of hyper-entertainment, I might find this simple, yet informative talk "not interesting".
"Interesting" does not address the assertions made, nor the facts. It seems some folks cannot understand basic reality unless it is wrapped in a big, 3D surround-sound holographic, multi-media bow. But then it ain't so real then, is it?
"Interesting" does not address the assertions made, nor the facts. It seems some folks cannot understand basic reality unless it is wrapped in a big, 3D surround-sound holographic, multi-media bow. But then it ain't so real then, is it?
30
What's important is relevance, not novelty. It's boring if you've heard it, but he/we wouldn't have to keep saying it it if weren't so damn true and if we would ACT on it and change things. Instead we putz around looking for novel stuff on TED.
31
We are running a petition calling for TED to post Nick Hanauer's speech on their website. If we get enough signatures TED will have a really difficult time to ignore the will of the web communities call for publishing.
You can contribute via:
http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/post….
Lets get TED to post the talk, it has a right to be officially recognised!
You can contribute via:
http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/post….
Lets get TED to post the talk, it has a right to be officially recognised!
32
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