quote:

When news organizations think about competition from tech companies, it’s usually in terms of the audience’s attention and advertisers’ dollars. But if Amazon has its way, a new sort of competition may be coming from a mixture of surveillance, fear, and doorbells.

Amazon is currently looking to hire someone with the title “Managing Editor, News.” But it’s not for the entire Amazon empire — it’s for the small slice of it that makes security-focused doorbells, Ring. (Amazon bought Ring last year for more than $1 billion.)

Here’s the job description, emphases mine:

The Managing Editor, News will work on an exciting new opportunity within Ring to manage a team of news editors who deliver breaking crime news alerts to our neighbors. This position is best suited for a candidate with experience and passion for journalism, crime reporting, and people management. Having a knack for engaging storytelling that packs a punch and a strong nose for useful content are core skills that are essential to the success of this role. The candidate should be eager to join a dynamic, new media news team that is rapidly evolving and growing week by week.

The job requires at least five years’ experience “in breaking news, crime reporting, and/or editorial operations” and three years in management. Preferred traits include “deep and nuanced knowledge of American crime trends,” “strong news judgment that allows for quick decisions in a breaking news environment,” and experience using “social media channels to gather breaking news.”

That’s right: A doorbell company wants to report crime news.

I hope a really thoughtful person gets that job, but I’m going to go out on a limb and say that this is a really bad idea.
Americans think there’s way more crime than there really is.

Here’s a chart, via Visual Capitalist, of how crime has declined enormously over the past 25 years — compared to public perceptions of crime, in the bottom-right corner. Crime goes down and down and down; people’s perception of how much crime there is doesn’t.

A majority of Americans have said crime is increasing in each of the past 16 years — despite crime in each major category being significantly lower today than it used to be.