5 ms·

The nasty battle between Silicon Valley and the reporters who write about it

18 points by tareqak 5y ago

redis_mlc 5y ago
I skimmed through the article - it's nonsensical (and verbose), so skip it to save time. After looking at some other articles on that site, just more of the same.
suyash 5y ago
the most recent one was the Oracle story where the journalist wrote a complete non sense article and faced rebuke.
tareqak 5y ago
It’s a long read, but I enjoyed it. For anyone whose willing to give this article a chance but don’t have too much time, I encourage you to start from the the paragraph that starts with “Let’s walk for a moment in another man’s Allbirds.”. This paragraph isn’t a strict summary, but it definitely summarizes the theme of everything that comes before. The middle of the next paragraph starts to explore the mindset of the ordinary people in technology and journalism. From that point, I found both lot more nuanced views and conciliatory quotes that build consensus: > “I hear from the folks who get angry when something is covered and is not technically accurate,” one Valley beat reporter notes. “I sympathize with that. Just like good and bad technologists, there are good and bad journalists.” > In some ways, the whole fight is performative. “This is all great content marketing on all sides,” Garrett says. “This is a spectacle.” > “It’s kind of an influencer culture where these people are picking fights with each other and making themselves more important,” says Stamos. “The construction of these social networks gives you a lot of value by having an enemy.” > It may also be a way to head off a broader critique of the digital economy. Platformer’s Casey Newton has argued, persuasively, that all of this is really just an objection by tech’s management class to the newly empowered workers to whom media give voice. > On the other hand, we’re long past the point of disintermediation. “I follow these guys probably more than I follow journalists,” says an entrepreneur who made his name in the New York media world of the tweeting tech elite. “They’re more interesting. If you want an early warning about the pandemic, it’s going to come from these guys. Whatever role the media plays, these guys are better sources on the pandemic. They’re better sources on the consumer internet in China. I’m on the Andreessen Horowitz website all the time. They are becoming the media. Which begs the question: How can they be so bitter when they’ve won? How can they be such bitter winners? I suppose the victims never recognize when they’ve become the oppressors.” I apologize for not making this comment earlier since I foresaw the length and narrative style of the article be off putting to many here. I did however glean one important overarching that I never really put together: the celebrities/talking heads in both journalism and tech have more in common with each other than they do with others in their own groups than I first realized. It is one set of elites feuding with another set of elites but then using their status within their spheres of influence to recruit from the groups in which they hold sway (the part I quoted above containing “Platformer’s Casey Newton”).
randompwd 5y ago
> They routinely fantasize journalistic motivations that are either outdated (“clickbait”) Wow, truly great journalism. /s A one sided blatant attack piece that has reporters being the saviours we desperately need. alt: https://archive.is/IdWv7 https://archive.is/IdWv7 edit: also, > many of the most prominent media haters were also targets of Valleywag, its tech-focused spinoff blog. Strange they dont refer to Valleywag as a gossip rag which is a term journalists are familiar with and which more suitably sums up Valleywag .

18 points by tareqak 5y ago

I skimmed through the article - it's nonsensical (and verbose), so skip it to save time. After looking at some other articles on that site, just more of the same.

suyash 5y ago

the most recent one was the Oracle story where the journalist wrote a complete non sense article and faced rebuke.

tareqak 5y ago

It’s a long read, but I enjoyed it. For anyone whose willing to give this article a chance but don’t have too much time, I encourage you to start from the the paragraph that starts with “Let’s walk for a moment in another man’s Allbirds.”. This paragraph isn’t a strict summary, but it definitely summarizes the theme of everything that comes before. The middle of the next paragraph starts to explore the mindset of the ordinary people in technology and journalism. From that point, I found both lot more nuanced views and conciliatory quotes that build consensus: > “I hear from the folks who get angry when something is covered and is not technically accurate,” one Valley beat reporter notes. “I sympathize with that. Just like good and bad technologists, there are good and bad journalists.” > In some ways, the whole fight is performative. “This is all great content marketing on all sides,” Garrett says. “This is a spectacle.” > “It’s kind of an influencer culture where these people are picking fights with each other and making themselves more important,” says Stamos. “The construction of these social networks gives you a lot of value by having an enemy.” > It may also be a way to head off a broader critique of the digital economy. Platformer’s Casey Newton has argued, persuasively, that all of this is really just an objection by tech’s management class to the newly empowered workers to whom media give voice. > On the other hand, we’re long past the point of disintermediation. “I follow these guys probably more than I follow journalists,” says an entrepreneur who made his name in the New York media world of the tweeting tech elite. “They’re more interesting. If you want an early warning about the pandemic, it’s going to come from these guys. Whatever role the media plays, these guys are better sources on the pandemic. They’re better sources on the consumer internet in China. I’m on the Andreessen Horowitz website all the time. They are becoming the media. Which begs the question: How can they be so bitter when they’ve won? How can they be such bitter winners? I suppose the victims never recognize when they’ve become the oppressors.” I apologize for not making this comment earlier since I foresaw the length and narrative style of the article be off putting to many here. I did however glean one important overarching that I never really put together: the celebrities/talking heads in both journalism and tech have more in common with each other than they do with others in their own groups than I first realized. It is one set of elites feuding with another set of elites but then using their status within their spheres of influence to recruit from the groups in which they hold sway (the part I quoted above containing “Platformer’s Casey Newton”).

randompwd 5y ago

> They routinely fantasize journalistic motivations that are either outdated (“clickbait”) Wow, truly great journalism. /s A one sided blatant attack piece that has reporters being the saviours we desperately need. alt: https://archive.is/IdWv7 https://archive.is/IdWv7 edit: also, > many of the most prominent media haters were also targets of Valleywag, its tech-focused spinoff blog. Strange they dont refer to Valleywag as a gossip rag which is a term journalists are familiar with and which more suitably sums up Valleywag .