Note to Readers

A quick update from your vacationing writer

To my Substack subscribers,

Just wanted to write a note of apology. I am technically on vacation, having left home this week for the first time since the outset of the pandemic to visit relatives in my hometown in southern Massachusetts. I worked on something today — those who follow me on Twitter might have heard echoes of this in some outraged comments from people I was contacting for a story — but ultimately have been forced to shelve the piece for the time being, because of new developments, and also because I want to be sensitive to the evolving Jacob Blake situation.

The story was narrowly about one free speech incident, similar to the tale of David Shor, a data analyst kicked off a listserv (also fired from his job) for retweeting a piece of peer-reviewed research. A lot has happened in the last 24 hours, however, suggesting a broader look beyond this one story might be advisable. I will have that up soon, but I may not be able to complete it until after I return home this weeken…