Nahhhh, couldn't be.
The reliably beige Kottke issues forth w/yet another Gladwellesque tidbit on the Matthew effect
I'd never heard of the Matthew effect before, so I looked it up in Wikipedia:
In sociology, Matthew effect was a term coined by Robert K. Merton to describe how, among other things, eminent scientists will often get more credit than a comparatively unknown researcher even if their work is similar; it also means that credit will usually be given to researchers that are already famous...
Hmmm. What non-existent group can you think of that benefits from the Matthew effect?