Snappy the Clam: Tech "press."

Your Winnings, Sir

I've been using (and enjoying) Newsgator, an Outlook plug in. It's a great match with the H-P Tablet I'm testing, particularly in slate mode propped up on my knees in bed. Its persistent store of items is the main reason I've shifted away from NetNewsWire while I await its next release, which promises to add that as well as the embedded browsing capability I'm already testing in alpha form.

This paragraph bothers me. Why is a tech-beat journalist also an alpha tester? How the hell can I have any faith in the tech press if they are so deeply in bed with the makers of the products they cover like this? This H-P tablet he's testing in bed, is this for a review? Is this just a little freebie to get some juice from Steve?

Why should I care whether Steve Gillmore's an alpha tester for NNW? Isn't this just more of that bitter envy you Z-listers are famous for? Well, no, I care because now I have reason to doubt Steve Gillmor's motives when covering Microsoft's internal adoption of RSS: Hey, he's an internal alpha tester for NNW - maybe he's just trying to get Microsoft to give him the same. Isn't his opinion wrt NNW necessarily colored by this?

It kills me when I see certain regions of the A-list complain about the objectivity of the tech press. You think they're hard on you? Please. They're so bought off by free schwag and years of schmoozing with the people they're ostensibly "covering" that you've come to think objectivity == publishing your press releases. You guys don't even bother to mention your friendships and connections, and that is a big disservice to the reader.

Snappy the Clam

Chowder is evil.

Tech "press."

Comments