Bias and bull in publishing is real, even on Medium.

The top stories -- that weren't.

Happy Friday,

Yesterday Medium published a list of the “Top 13 stories from 2021.”

“Stories you applauded, highlighted and shared most”

That’s what they said.

I was so excited. Sounds stupid, I know. But I love to know what’s floating to the top. Love to know what captivated the attention of the mass majority, if that makes sense. It’s like being able to peek into the collective conscious.

I should have know better.

Sigh.

First of all, 8 of the “top” stories were written by men. No surprise. I’ve written about that before. 85% of the “top” writers on Medium are men. I’m not blaming Medium for that. It’s all on the collective “us” — Medium just holds up a mirror to us.

Bias in publishing is real.

It looks pretty much like the rest of the world. White men at the top, followed by white women, then POC and LGBTQ at the bottom of the heap.

My apologies if I left anyone off that very short list.

Point is — I believed them.

Because, really, how do you screw with “most applauded?” Seems pretty straight forward to me. 50K claps is more than 1K claps. I mean, we all learned basic math, right? So I expected the stories to be what they said. The most applauded.

Hahahah. No.

There were stories with 1K claps on the list. Published last March and managed to get a whole 1K claps in 9 months. Wtf?

Most of their “most applauded” stories had under 5K claps.

Hell, *I* have stories that did better than that.

My top stories of the year got 9.3K claps, 8K and 7.9K. And I’m not even a big name there. Where’s Jessica or Shannon on the list? Where’s Tim or Umair? Any of them on the list? Nope. I’m sure I could think of more, but you get my point.

Which means it’s not actually the “most applauded” stories.
Not even close.

I know. I know... it’s their site. They can do what they want.

I’m usually the first one to say that.

There’s truth to that. It *is* their site and they *can* do whatever they want.

Damn shame honesty isn’t what they want.

I wish they would have just called the list something based in truth. Like — here’s the stories “we” liked best this year. Not “here’s the stories you applauded most.”

Because they aren’t. Not even close.

And I’m not mad that they featured whoever the hell they wanted to. They get to do that. I’m mad that they can’t even be honest about who they feature and why.

Don’t lie to us. We’re not stupid.

And no, I’m not leaving

That’s a thing people love to say. If you don’t like it, leave. I’ve written about that, too. It’s the fastest way to shut down conversation about legitimate issues.

You don’t like the pay, go work somewhere else.
You don’t like the practices, shop somewhere else.

Nope. Sorry. Some conversations need to be had.
Change starts with conversation.

There’s enough bias and bull crap in publishing already. We don’t need more.

What do you think?

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More reading… (friend links so you can read free)

• They Both Die At The End (No two people read the same book)

• “It Wasn’t A Boy Or Girl,” He Said. “And I Think I Made A Mistake”

• What American Mafia Mobsters Looked Like In Real Life

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Thanks for reading.

xo,
Linda