Most IT “news” is not really news at all; When trade journalists are not cut’n'pasting press-releases they are writing ‘exclusives’ about products that will never exist, or will be rubbish despite the hype; At best they engage in groundless and ill-informed speculation. The IT news is filled with uncritical enthusiasm for whizzy useless products; non-stop advertorial from cover to cover.
The tech press occasionally descends into a grubby soap-opera where debate no longer focuses on the technical or business issues, but on the personalities who report on them, an opportunity that the companies on the loosing side of the SCO vs IBM debate have taken great advantage. This has been SCO Group’s luckiest break since their train-wreck of a lawsuit began.
I don’t mean to tar an entire profession with the same over-broad, sloppy and over-saturated brush; I know there are diligent journalists out there; because a few of them felt compelled to resign when Sys-Con’s Fuat Kircaali offered a very explicit defense of his publishing Maureen O’Gara’s stalking story.
Picture yourself at the helm of fading company; deeply mired in series of court-cases, each doomed to fail spectacularly. Your mission is to draw out the legal proceedings for long enough for your investors to flee the sinking-ship, and prevent yourself from getting dragged into court as the whole thing collapses. You’ve got a perfect plan, apart from one thing – an annoying blogger picking apart every little detail of your scheme
The last thing you want is a rabble of zealots, acquiring detailed knowledge of your business plans, studying your finances and cros-referencing every one of your public statements: You need to silence your opponent by whatever means. If you cannot destroy her arguments you can try intimidation. If she refuses to be intimidated your only (legal) choice is to try to destroy her reputation. Fortunately, this is something that the IT press are eager to help with.
Oddly enough, the interests of SCO group are mirrored by those of the professional tech journalist; These people have as much reason as corrupt businessmen to fear the rise of the “celebrity blogger”. If the public start turning to informed campaigning activists for their news, who will be left to read the 2nd hand punditry? Who will click on their flash animated advertisers? Who will be left to believe their bogus reports that prove beyond all doubt that Linux is more expensive than Windows?
The sad thing is, that this little distraction has worked; The whole world of IT punditry has become focused on a side show: an insignificant clash of personalities; Meanwhile on the main-stage the SCO vs IBM tragedy continues to unfold with less of the withering attention that so irks the SCO Group.
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