I think most of the parts I'd see as "hatchet job" can be explained by sensationalism and are subverted by other parts of the article. Maybe the biggest subversion is that LW gets treated as a group of "others" in only two places, while much of the article is spent on humanizing people, which is unusual during a hatcheting. The impression I got was less "here's this weird group of people, let's apply the absurdity heuristic" and more "here's this group of people who believe something interesting and unusual, and here is everything I could find out about their sex lives." Which can still be bad for the people tabloidized (sorry!), but for LessWrong seems fine.
This was an attempted hatcheting that ended up with the author really sincerely liking the group, but she still had to publish a hatchet piece because that's what her editors were expecting.
Faith, Hope, and Singularity: Entering the Matrix with New York’s Futurist Set
To my knowledge LessWrong hasn't received a great deal of media coverage. So, I was surprised when I came across an article via a Facebook friend which also appeared on the cover of the New York Observer today. However, I was disappointed upon reading it, as I don't think it is an accurate reflection of the community. It certainly doesn't reflect my experience with the LW communities in Toronto and Waterloo.
I thought it would be interesting to see what the broader LessWrong community thought about this article. I think it would make for a good discussion.
Possible conversation topics:
Edit 1: Added some clarification about my view on the article.
Edit 2: Re-added link using “nofollow” attribute.