Ask a Journalist, Vol. 1

TOPICS: Twitter and online douchebags and how to pack a suitcase and juiceboxes

Welcome to the first edition of Ask A Journalist, a newsletter I’ve been putting together for weeks but have delayed finishing because of 1) a nasty cold 2) stomach flu 3) campaign trips to South Carolina 4) another cold/flu bug.

No, that was not multiple choice — all four happened. In rapid succession. Sometimes multiple at once, as evidenced by this joyful tweet I sent from DCA on the way to South Carolina:

Anyway. I’m here! With knowledge! On to your QUESTIONS!

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How do you move past the personal nature of so many of the comments you get (via Twitter/X, email, or other methods)? It seems like it'd be difficult not to let it get to you at times, but so many journalists, including yourself (at least to an outsider who really knows nothing about you), seem to be able to set that stuff aside when writing a new piece.

So you just chalk it up to "well I know what some folks are gonna say about this already?" and try to ignore that population? Do you feel any motivation to try and get through to those kinds of people despite their bad faith communications? – Nate B., via Substack

A couple of points here. One is that the firehose of internet feedback takes some getting used to. The insults/criticism used to be a big problem for me – in particular, when I went from my first full-time journalism job, at U.S. News and World Report, to Vox in 2014.

Vox was just launching at the time, and it was one of a few flashy new sites marketed to people who consider themselves smartypantses (FiveThirtyEight and the New York Times’ Upshot section were others). And because Vox was founded by some big names (Ezra Klein, Matt Yglesias) who were often attacked for being too liberal…there was a lot of scrutiny.