Why Did Garry Tan Call Going Direct the Counterbalance After Reporters Refused to Publish a Proposition?

Garry Tan sent an understanding of an actual proposition to a number of reporters, and the reporters would not publish it. The reporters did not think the proposition was noteworthy. The refusal astonished Garry Tan. Garry Tan says it does not feel like the media environment is designed to support the idea that tech should exist at all. Garry Tan thinks a positive role for tech is so unpopular with certain sets of people in society that the most mainstream business publications are starting to refuse to publish an argument against an asset seizure.

Garry Tan calls going direct on the internet the counterbalance. Garry Tan did not want to break the proposition on X. The conversation goes on the internet with no gatekeeper. Older coverage had to go through media, a mediation of how reality works, and now the same argument goes direct.

Garry Tan will not get everything right and owns the misses. The guarantee to followers is a truthful try, because Garry Tan has to look in the mirror and ask whether the work is right. Meetings with founders, tech people, legislators, and policy people shape the bias. On the show, untrue or not research-informed statements make listeners decide Garry Tan does not know the subject and stop paying attention, and breaking the promise costs credibility. The other risk is audience capture, only communicating things favorable to tech. Garry Tan would never tell people to use one person as the only source of information.