Prompted in part by the back-and-forth that started with the “Hit men” article on this blog last week, Michael Hiltzik of the LA Times asks, “Are Silicon Valley tech bloggers truly objective?” You can maybe guess the answer but I don’t want to spoil it for you. Hiltzik talked to Michael Arrington and Sarah Lacy and got their perspective, which is that this is the new normal, at least in Silicon Valley.
Hiltzik’s money quote comes in the last paragraph:
It would be unfair to suggest that tech bloggers aren’t earnest about trying to produce good reporting on Silicon Valley. They haven’t exactly sold their souls by taking money from the people they cover. But what they have sold was worth a lot more than the money they got for it.
It’s a great article but it makes one mistake, which is to think that these guys are journalists, and that they care about things that journalists care about. They’re not, and they don’t.
Hasn’t Sarah Lacey snared some naive overrich Silicon Valley tech founder in her clutches yet … she’s going to be forty before you know it … unmarried and still grasping for tens and twenties when she should be lounging on gold and platinum bars, tsk tsk
“It’s a great article but it makes one mistake, which is to think that these guys are journalists, and that they care about things that journalists care about. They’re not, and they don’t.”
That is an understatement.
“Journalism isn’t a profession, it’s a religion.” – Chris Tolles
“They haven’t exactly sold their souls by taking money from the people they cover.”
Yes they have.