Maybe this is offtopic, but Backchannel seems to have a lot of these glowing, puffy profiles of tech companies looking for exposure for their new products. I me

Maybe this is offtopic, but Backchannel seems to have a lot of these glowing, puffy profiles of tech companies looking for exposure for their new products. I mean, parts of this piece read as marketing copy. "It all starts with that tiny speaker. The Alexa-enabled Echo is a true unicorn, one of those rare products that arrives every few years and fundamentally changes the way we live. In 2017, we will start to see that change." They had a few other similarly uncritical, almost breathless pieces on Okta [1] and Vote.org [2] earlier this year. Am I paranoid/overly cynical, or is Backchannel becoming the outlet PR departments grant access to in return for coverage they know will flatter them? Being hosted on Medium, they don't serve ads (AFAIK)... so this may even be a part of their funding model. [1]: "A Comany You've Never Heard Of May Have Solved The Password Mess" https://backchannel.com/a-company-youve-never-heard-of-may-have-solved-the-password-mess-cd5d1725209b#.ath9qe4c3 https://backchannel.com/a-company-youve-never-heard-of-may-h... [2]: "This Y Combinator-Backed Company Has a Secret Weapon to Sway the Election": https://backchannel.com/the-simple-secret-weapon-that-could-change-elections-9e51f95038df#.uoth1gr17 https://backchannel.com/the-simple-secret-weapon-that-could-...