So I was about to sign into twitter to tweet that my elbow really hurts, when I noticed on the front page a tweet from Tom Scott that he created “Journalism Warning Labels”. It interested me and I had to click to see. Some pictures are below, but go to Tom’s web site to read the rest and download the template!
I am in utter shock that InfoWorld has been caught with their pants down. Apparently Randall Kennedy, a paid writer for InfoWorld, is Craig Barth the CTO of Devil Mountain Software.
Wait… No I am not shocked that this happened. Since the tech media essentially has the story written on Microsoft and just waits for something to fit that mold to publish it. All you have to do is read virtually any story on Microsoft by the tech press to see what I mean; like a story at Computer World today “Google search share slips in China, Bing tiny in 2009”. Really a shock since Bing has only been trying to compete for the last year in China.
One of the questions I am constantly wondering is “why are so many of the technology writers against Microsoft”. Seriously, this is actually one of those things I wonder all the time. They are not supposed to be “Joe Shmoe” that only knows that Microsoft was sued for being a monopoly (10 years ago) or some old perception. They are supposed to be “in the know”, “in the loop”, have a deep knowledge of the industry and let’s not forget journalists. Instead it is non-stop “bash Microsoft”. Sure Microsoft deserves their fair share of criticism. Microsoft has made sub par products or not kept up with the market, but who hasn’t made mistakes? But the technology writers root for Microsoft to fail and it doesn’t take reading between the lines to notice it.
According to TechCrunch a hacker gained access to Twitter’s secret documents. Then the hacker gave the documents to TechCrunch… I am assuming there was a “financial transaction” to break the story and so that TechCrunch could “Lay bare Twitters Strategy to be the pulse of the world”. Which is not exactly ground breaking news and is pretty obvious from how they have positioned themselves through marketing and expansion. I have just a couple issue with this “news story”.
I just think this is another example of the ends justify the means. The information was gained illegally. It wasn’t a plot to kill some one or some illegal scheme, just internal documents from a company that is the “flavor of the day”. I find it sad that TechCrunch decided to publish the information, I find it sad that TechCrunch is enjoying this and I find it sad that they are protecting a criminal who also has this information. That person could have also sold the information with the employees SSN and other personal information to others.
I was just reading on FoxNews that University of Missouri’s journalism school is requiring incoming freshmen to us Apple Macs and iPhone/iPods. I would actually find this important if journalism was a growing business. Since everybody blogs and journalism has turned into nothing but blogging, then who cares….
It’s not like 20% of journalists have disappeared in the last 10 years. Or every major paper in the US has seen its revenue and circulation decline… Oh wait, that is happening…
Which brings to mind, who gets a journalism degree anymore? What career advisor told them that was a good place to go?
