Slashdot Mirror
The Failure of Tech Journalism
Belzebutt writes: "This is a great article that talks about something we already knew, but haven't paid that much attention to: most tech journalists are a bunch of corporate whores. It even mentions Slashdot, although not very favorably." Eh, we'll get over it. It's a good rant, something to consider as news sites fold left and right.
buh.
...because there's no such thing as an impartial investor in a news sight. This isn't an issue merely related to tech journalism.
You put money in hoping to get something back, right? Journalism has been used as a tool for those with ulterior motives for the longest time -- even back in the early days of the printing press and North American democracy, being a newspaper baron was often a prerequisite to becoming a politician. These days, though, the power resides with corporations, not the politicians, so you're going to find news sights that have content which mirrors the corporate interests of those who invest in them. And I'm not just talking about advertising or sponsorship -- I'm talking about things like Burston Marsteller doing PR for a newspaper and suppressing environmental news stories in that newspaper because it doesn't jive with a logging company, which also happens to be another PR client of theirs.
The best you can hope for is that enough warring corporations use the newspapers against each other, so that at least you'll have dissenting viewpoints on major issues. This is why it is important in principle to have dissent in public debate, regardless of what the dissenting opinion happens to be.
When there starts to be collusion between newspapers on opposing sides of an issue, THEN you really have to worry. Until then, we've got situations like Slashdot being a counter MSNBC. Neither is perfect, but the existence of both is a pretty good alternative.
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Bleah! Heh heh heh... BLEAH BLEAH!!! Ha ha ha ha...
I have, however, MetaModerated, and right now I even have 4 golden mod points myself.
I am a slashdot user. Ya' know what? During the day I use Windows2000... and I've plenty of things to love and hate about it. There's some damn weird things about it, but for the most part, it gets things done... I fit in with my peers and everything...
I'm still against MS, in MANY ways. For example, we are in the process of deploying 900 hundred palms to first time freshmen. I work at USD and one of the software packages we are installing by default is "documents to go"... Word, Excel, and PowerPoint on a Palm!!! The insanity!!! I argued against this, but it made no difference.
People here post info on the web in .doc format... I've personally tracked these people down and told them that they are WRONG!!! PDF, at the least, and please, and HTML, RTF, and .TXT version is in order, also.
And... I'm in the process of converting my departments DB apps into all online apps. Based on CF and Oracle, and I had to fight touth and nail to not have Microsoft in this loop.
While I use and support users on MS products on a daily basis, I WILL find alternatives where possible. I'm happy as hell to be creating something that people here will use for years, that is not based on a microsoft product.
Which brings me to something ON TOPIC. I feel, from my readings, that I am a fairly average /. user. Most people here use MS products in one form or another (and Karma to those who DON'T have to).
My point being, I am happy to have slashdot... it gives me perspective and views I GET NO WHERE ELSE. I keeps my perspective of MS and other cooperate new releases in check... I use MS products, but out of necessity. I want to hear from those who don't.
Slashdot is raw, rouge, and it isn't necessarily resposible journalism, but I won't come here if it was. I don't want canned AP wired shit, I want /.
This place is like IndyMedia or CommonDreams. It's not about balance, it's about desire, love, insatiy, bias, and late night drug induced programming sessions. It's something that IS different, from the style of moderation to the type of stories posted.
That is