Whenever I read articles like this, I can't help but see that there is a fundamental problem with modern journalism. Modern journalism covers one thing reasonably well and that is politics: once you get outside of this realm, journalism is by and large atrocious.
Why is this? Almost every reporter worth his salt is much more interested in pretending to be Bob Woodward or Carl Bernstein rather than writing about the latest bugfixes from Microsoft. Political coverage is glamorous in the world of journalism: it provides access to power and it can make you a legend like Woodward and Bernstein, whereas other areas aren't as accessible and won't let you make a name for yourself.
Thus the middling and poor quality reporters are shuffled off to areas like tech reporting. These reporters are poor enough that they don't see their biases or simply don't care and they don't bother to research things, either.
The technology pages in major newspapers should be headed up by someone with a passion for technology, the type of person who reads Slashdot and Boing Boing simply because they love the technology. Someone with great passion for technology will be able to report effectively on any new technology, whether it comes from Apple or Microsoft or any hardware manufacturer or the open source community. It doesn't matter who makes it, what matters is the ability to change people's lives. Coupled with the ability to write well, this is the recipe for a good newspaper technology page, not making it the bastion of reporters who couldn't cut it on the political or society pages.
I'm not saying every tech reporter is bad, I'm simply saying that the proportion of bad reporters covering tech and science stories is rather high compared to political news.
Slashdot Mirror
Whenever I read articles like this, I can't help but see that there is a fundamental problem with modern journalism. Modern journalism covers one thing reasonably well and that is politics: once you get outside of this realm, journalism is by and large atrocious.
Why is this? Almost every reporter worth his salt is much more interested in pretending to be Bob Woodward or Carl Bernstein rather than writing about the latest bugfixes from Microsoft. Political coverage is glamorous in the world of journalism: it provides access to power and it can make you a legend like Woodward and Bernstein, whereas other areas aren't as accessible and won't let you make a name for yourself.
Thus the middling and poor quality reporters are shuffled off to areas like tech reporting. These reporters are poor enough that they don't see their biases or simply don't care and they don't bother to research things, either.
The technology pages in major newspapers should be headed up by someone with a passion for technology, the type of person who reads Slashdot and Boing Boing simply because they love the technology. Someone with great passion for technology will be able to report effectively on any new technology, whether it comes from Apple or Microsoft or any hardware manufacturer or the open source community. It doesn't matter who makes it, what matters is the ability to change people's lives. Coupled with the ability to write well, this is the recipe for a good newspaper technology page, not making it the bastion of reporters who couldn't cut it on the political or society pages.
I'm not saying every tech reporter is bad, I'm simply saying that the proportion of bad reporters covering tech and science stories is rather high compared to political news.