"In certain wealthy tech circles it is known as 'The Lifestyle'"

[EastInWest 1,508]

https://www.wsj.com/articles/bob-lee-stabbing-sex-drugs-lifestyle-san-francisco-5a7da970

 

Sort of baffled by this WSJ article about the murder of executive Bob Lee, which conflates drug-fueled raves, swinging, and completely ordinary and mundane casual relationships, breathlessly describing the existence of an underground drug-fueled party scene which contains a lot of "swingers, cheaters, and liars", but acknowledges that there is "an understanding of consent and boundaries” and that "if someone gets drunk and handsy, 'they get excommunicated very quickly.'"

 

While I can see a journalist encountering specifics around swinging for the first time, they seem, at a basic level, absolutely floored and scandalized by routine vanilla partying like any college kid might get into summering in Barcelona: experimenting with party drugs, dancing all night, screwing people they don't know very well. Not sure the reporters get out very much.

Edited May 16, 2023 by EastInWest

[Fundamental Law 2,817]

Stories like this give the LS an undeserved bad name. It's especially important when reporting crime and punishment to stick to facts and, if background is necessary to explain/illuminate/justify, to do so carefully. The lede here, "In certain wealthy tech circles..." might have come from the rewrite desk in an attempt to attract readers, choosing prurience over gore. (One can imagine alternative ledes, such as "Bob Lee crumpled onto the streets of San Francisco, the last spendings of his dying heart bathing the concrete in his blood." or some equally lurid sentence.) 

 

These ledes are not pure journalism, but rather a blend of journalism and marketing. 

 

"It was a dark and stormy night..."  See also https://www.bulwer-lytton.com/

 

 

[EastInWest 1,508]

40 minutes ago, Fundamental Law said:

These ledes are not pure journalism, but rather a blend of journalism and marketing. 

Absolutely, and the article is quite weird about it. They acknowledge the "narrowly focused" meaning of "the lifestyle" used by "some" in vague terms ("people who might engage in various sexual activities with different partners"), and even quote one interviewee in Lee's love life who denies having ever heard of the term, but hurtle on anyway.

 

What slays me is that the article reads lke a weeknight after a concrete manufacturing trade show in Vegas, but reports on it as a glimpse into a dark and secretive world. A cynic might conclude the reporters don't have much of a social life if this is all new to them.

 

It's only at the end of the article that it spells out that the murder appears to be as simple as Momeni being a social misfit with violent emotional problems who had a grudge against Lee for dating his ex, then his married sister, reportedy estranged from her husband. Everything else is fluff.

Edited May 16, 2023 by EastInWest

[let's do it again 380]

I didn't see the WSJ article but did see the story on one of the nightly news. The murder was blamed on them as being in the "lifestyle " and even used the sex party scene in the movie Eyes Wide Shut. How this story has evolved amazes me as it started as a homeless man killing Lee and how San Francisco has had such a major crime problem. Anymore I  take the news with a grain of salt.

[EastInWest 1,508]

31 minutes ago, let's do it again said:

I didn't see the WSJ article but did see the story on one of the nightly news. The murder was blamed on them as being in the "lifestyle " and even used the sex party scene in the movie Eyes Wide Shut. How this story has evolved amazes me as it started as a homeless man killing Lee and how San Francisco has had such a major crime problem. Anymore I  take the news with a grain of salt.

Yep. The factual allegations are described in explicitly vanilla terms. Breakups, rocky marriages, love triangles, controlling behavior. The implication appears to be that Momeni may have murdered him for involving his married sister in something he considered disgraceful, yet it is also claimed that Momeni himself was involved in whatever they believe "the lifestyle" to be, and that he frequently attended parties with his sister and was jealous of her social acceptance. 

 

All very strange. Unless the implication is that he was directly participating in his sister's sex life, it seems pretty clear they're just hyping upscale vanilla social circles as something else and his sister brought her awkward weirdo brother along because she felt bad for him.

Edited May 16, 2023 by EastInWest

[bbarnsworth 2,536]

You have to talk all news with a grain of salt these days, even from a source as esteemed as the Wall Street Journal. AI is quite capable of writing full blown articles now. To any but the most scrutinous, it will appear like a legitimate journalist. That, and as FL said...marketing. Of course, the marketing slant has been there for a long time. An old girlfriend who was a journalist and copy editor denied it, but after a logical progression discussion she admitted that the front page of newspapers is especially ridden with marketing to get you to buy the paper. Of course, now nobody buys a paper. But, the principle still applies to Internet forms.

 

And no, this post wasn't written by an AI

[let's do it again 380]

Yes the news has gone way of the almighty dollar. This story will be spiced up to keep in the news and keep the viewers interested. If Lee was just a common man and the sister was just average looking this wouldn't even be a story.