20yearsofinternet

Thanks! Though, your response seems kind of like a corporate policy statement rather than a personal opinion, which was more along the lines of what I was interested in. :)

I always wonder, when journalists do a great job at covering something like this fairly and objectively: How do you feel knowing that your excellent work is going to be distilled into soundbites to fuel hatred, racism, and disdain for the needy? I mean, it's perfectly clear that the reader of your series should be walking away wondering if the extremely ballooned cost of this initiative is still worth it, given the warming of relations between Cuba and the US, as well as the fact that generally, (in my personal opinion) the longer a government program exists without much oversight, the more rife with fraud it becomes, as the methods for fraud are perfected. And of course, when something is ensconced politically, it can be like moving mountains to get rid of it or scale it back, no matter how completely obvious the problem is.

At least, that's what I got out of the series.

But then, you look at the comments on, for example, the third article in the series, and it's just a bunch of idiotic ranting about immigrants and poor people being a terrible blight on society. And how all of this is apparently Obama's fault.

Just to re-iterate my question: Before publishing something like this, did knowing that this article would make the rounds as "evidence" for people to justify their bigotry weigh on your conscience at all? I'm wondering what your thoughts are on putting a lot of work into something honest and objective, knowing that it will be misinterpreted (and outright misconstrued on purpose) to further vilify people.