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Chasing Federal Government IT Stories the Old-Fashioned Way (Video)

Posted by Roblimo on from the hard-work-and-shoe-leather-get-the-story dept.

Wayne Rash is a crusty old IT reporter who lives near Washington D.C. and covers a lot of Federal Government actions, especially those that have to do with technology, for several well-known publications. He did a lot of the original coverage of both the LightSquared debacle and AT&T's attempt to buy T-Mobile. Note the word "original" in there. An awful lot of today's online "news" stories quote other stories. Wayne is totally not a fan of that kind of "reporting," as you'll learn toward the end of this video. What he *does* respect is the old-fashioned way of gathering information: lots of research and digging.

2 of 17 comments (clear)

  1. That's not reporting by crazyjj · · Score: 3, Funny

    *Real* technology reporting involves aggregating a story that's based on another story that's based on a blog-post that's based on a press release from a company or interest group.

    --
    What political party do you join when you don't like Bible-thumpers *or* hippies?
  2. A real journalist supporting journal by mwfischer · · Score: 2

    It's a shame what happened to this once fine profession.

    Now it's a bunch of window lickers who learn to shoot from the hip for the quickest public (exclusives sell), not check facts and rely on rumors, and mutiliate the English language. I call this twitch journalism.

    Unfortunately the blogosphere took over (quick instant information anyone can publish) and I get to see which drug Lindsay Lohan overdosed on today and which brand of shoes are hot fashion. While the increased speed of information propagation is inevitable because of communication technology mixing the two generations together has lead to unfortunate results. Here we are now with old media attempting to take concepts from a radically different form of communication and incorporate it in their dying business model. It's not working too good.

    Bonus - I didn't proofread any of this so this wouldn't get buried in the seemingly endless amount comments this link going to attract so I can get read. I hate this planet.