Top all-time · #1440
David Simon
Personal blog · davidsimon.comculturepolitics
David Simon writes The Audacity of Despair, a personal blog at davidsimon.com about culture and politics. Since 2012, 49 different Hacker News readers have linked it 66 times, most often “The Wire in HD (2015)”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-07-07, and you can follow it by feed.
Too few sampled comments (28) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
HN readers link David Simon's blog (creator of The Wire and Treme) for his posts on the HD remaster of The Wire, NSA surveillance, and Hollywood agents, often as expert commentary on those topics.
- Recommended for · 10 comments
- Called 'really interesting', 'a joy to read' and 'well worth a read' for an 'extremely well argued' opinion; one commenter said 'he makes some good points'.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 28 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Collected prose, links and occasional venting from David Simon
Most-linked posts?
- The Wire in HD (2015)8 people · 9 mentions · first linked 2019-03-21
- But I'm Not a Lawyer, I'm an Agent6 people · 7 mentions · first linked 2019-03-18
- Relevant to Aaron Swartz: the "Head Shot" federal charge5 people · 5 mentions · first linked 2013-01-31
- The Wire in HD4 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2014-12-27
- David Simon (Creator of The Wire) - Stray Penises and Politicos3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2012-11-15
- We are shocked, shocked...3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2013-06-07
- The Wire's Final Season and the Story Everyone Missed (2008)3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2017-05-20
- David Simon's Thoughts on the NSA Data Mining2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2013-06-10
- The nigger wake-up-call2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2013-06-19
What Hacker News says?
So, David Simon (of The Wire/Treme fame) wrote this up: http://davidsimon.com/we-are-shocked-shocked/ I think he makes some good points.
Comment linking /we-are-shocked-shocked/
on “Edward Snowden: the whistleblower behind revelations of NSA surveillance”Submitted But I'm Not a Lawyer, I'm an Agent as a story · 346 points
HN discussionDavid Simon talked about this for the HD release of The Wire: https://davidsimon.com/the-wire-hd-with-videos/ It seems like the video examples are unfortunately now unavailable, but the discussion is still interesting and it's neat to see the creative trade-offs and constraints in the process. I think those nuances help evoke generosity in how one approaches re-releases or other versions or cuts of a piece of media.
Comment linking /the-wire-hd-with-videos/
on “The 'Toy Story' You Remember”Submitted The Wire in HD as a story · 292 points
HN discussionI don't know if David Simon's (creator of "The Wire" and "Treme") defense of the Verizon phone records request ever made it onto HN's page: Here it is, if you hadn't seen it: http://davidsimon.com/we-are-shocked-shocked/ Apparently it was so controversial that his site crashed from the traffic, and he had to tell everyone to chill out: http://davidsimon.com/nsa-and-fisa-commentary-calling-it/ Anyway, why I thought o…
Comment linking /in-baltimore-no-one-left-to-press-the-police/
on “Using Metadata to Find Paul Revere”Submitted The Wire in HD (2014) as a story · 138 points
HN discussionSee https://davidsimon.com/the-wire-hd-with-videos/
Comment linking /the-wire-hd-with-videos/
on “The "Mad Men" in 4K on HBO Max Debacle”Submitted Real profanity and disease on the internet is untouched while you police decorum as a story · 49 points
HN discussionAgreed. Of course, there have been more than a few remasters that didn't bother to concern themselves with such trivialities. The Buffy the Vampire Slayer remaster is an example of how you can thoroughly botch framing[0] when converting between aspect ratios. At that point, you might as well see what else you can screw up as well. At the opposite end of the spectrum, David Simon wrote a really interesting--and even-…
Comment linking /the-wire-hd-with-videos/
on “Remastering Star Trek: Deep Space Nine with Machine Learning”Submitted We are shocked, shocked... as a story · 46 points
HN discussionI wonder if it would be worth it for long tail revenues from streaming? I can’t imagine the HD widescreen remaster of The Wire selling lots of new DVDs (it was completed in late 2014 [0]), but it made the show a lot more appealing for continued rewatching over the years. 0: https://davidsimon.com/the-wire-hd-with-videos/
Comment linking /the-wire-hd-with-videos/
on “Remastering Star Trek: Deep Space Nine with Machine Learning”Submitted The Wire in HD (2015) as a story · 21 points
HN discussionI don't believe that's correct? https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/1006 I believe this may be the same law referred to as "the headshot" in HBO's The Wire? The creator of the show discusses it further online: https://davidsimon.com/kwame-brown-another-federal-case-anot...
Comment linking /kwame-brown-another-federal-case-another-head-shot/
on “Former University of Iowa hospital employee used fake identity for 35 years”Submitted Sean Suiter as a story · 21 points
HN discussionIt's worth noting that this article by David Simon was written on June 7th, purely in reaction to the leaked information about Verizon metadata being collected. As more information about PRISM became available, Simon acknowledge that the leaks did point to something more serious than he had acknowledged in his original post [1]. With that context in mind, I still think it's worth reading Simon's original post that y…
Comment linking /nsa-and-fisa-commentary-calling-it/
on “In Secret, Court Vastly Broadens Powers of N.S.A.”Submitted Tony as a story · 8 points
HN discussionDavid Simon, creator of The Wire, has written extensively about this starting with this post: http://davidsimon.com/we-are-shocked-shocked/ It is well worth a read for an extremely well argued, and informed, opinion from the other side.
Comment linking /we-are-shocked-shocked/
on “In Secret, Court Vastly Broadens Powers of N.S.A.”Submitted David Simon on the HD Remastering of the Wire as a story · 6 points
HN discussionThe right way to do it is how The Wire has done it: https://davidsimon.com/the-wire-hd-with-videos/
Comment linking /the-wire-hd-with-videos/
on “They want you to forget what a film looks like”Submitted A fuckbonnet for our time as a story · 5 points
HN discussionThe headshot is my favorite: http://davidsimon.com/kwame-brown-another-federal-case-anoth... TL;DR they can get you good for taking money from your parents to buy your first house, which most people in the US do.
Comment linking /kwame-brown-another-federal-case-another-head-shot/
on “The Swiss leaks and Panama papers open a window on the tax-dodger’s world”Submitted Letter from David Simon (creator of The Wire) to Chief of Police of Ferguson as a story · 5 points
HN discussion> "And the examples tend to the arcane, like importing food, not activities most people engage in." Another common one is people borrowing parents from their parents to make a down payment on a house. Lots of people do it, but the sentence for using such a loan and not disclosing it is 30 years. This particular violation is referred to as a "head shot" by investigators looking for something with which to nail a susp…
Comment linking /kwame-brown-another-federal-case-another-head-shot/
on “How to Avoid Going to Jail Under 18 U.S.C. For Lying to Government Agents”Submitted Robin Williams: A brief encounter as a story · 5 points
HN discussionThe Guardian is, by their own admission, a center-left paper. That's in Britain, which means they are somewhere between "radical" and "terrorist mooslim communisocialifascist" here in the US. The person who broke the stuff for them is very strongly political. [2] US corporate media, on the other hand, subscribes to the "view from nowhere" style [3], which they mistake for objectivity. It makes them easily manipulate…
Comment linking /do-you-know-who-i-am/
on “NSA whistleblower Russ Tice goes on record with new revelations”Submitted The nigger wake-up-call as a story · 5 points
HN discussionDavid Simon (of The Wire) wrote a hilarious and edifying piece on the main contention in these negotiations. He explains in it how agents systematically screw over writers: https://davidsimon.com/but-im-not-a-lawyer-im-an-agent/
Comment linking /but-im-not-a-lawyer-im-an-agent/
on “Hollywood Upended as Unions Tell Writers to Fire Agents”Submitted David Simon's Thoughts on the NSA Data Mining as a story · 5 points
HN discussionPolice officers have a vast amount of authority, not just being able to decide when to use lethal force, but in how to or even whether or not to pursue a case. In addition, they are protected by laws and resources that make targeting police for harassment an extremely foolish proposition. Judges and prosecutors don’t have their identities hidden, why would the officer whose testimony is often central and unquestione…
Comment linking /in-baltimore-no-one-left-to-press-the-police/
on “How we built the largest database of police use of force in N.J. history”Submitted But I'm not a lawyer. I'm an agent as a story · 4 points
HN discussion
