Joe Wilcox laughs at me

by on March 27, 2006

I'm glad I gave Joe some enjoyment this weekend.

But, I'm left wondering. Does Joe care about accuracy in reporting or not? His post here seemed to defend journalists, even those who just do shoddy reporting, while making ye olde attack on bloggers.

He also pulled out an old post of mine where I said getting it first is more important than getting it right.

I was wrong in that belief. Let me repeat that so it's very clear. I WAS WRONG. Getting it right is more important than getting it first. That's why I wasn't the first (or even the second, third, fourth, or 20th) person to comment on the Vista slip last week. I waited until I had some real information and watched the blogs to listen and see if the reporting was accurate.

One difference between bloggers and those who run their work under a brand, like Joe's Jupiter Media. News that's published under a brand spreads MUCH faster. Why? Because we tend to believe journalists who work for a living under a company structure more than we tend to believe individual people.

Joe doesn't seem to see the difference, or the difference in standards that the two should be held to. When you come here you're getting +my+ opinions. When you go to Microsoft Monitor you're getting Jupiter Media's opinions. There is a difference. Just ask the guy who's paying Joe's paycheck. When I post over on Channel 9 my work is held to a higher standard of accuracy than over here too. Why? Because that's a Microsoft-owned Web site. Here this is NOT owned by Microsoft.

By the way, Channel 9 wasn't designed to get around the press. I often post things there FOR the press so that they can get our point of view.

Updated: Joe Wilcox responded to my response. 

  • While morally and ethically it is always better to get things right, I think that applies doubly so to journalists. A blogger is a person and everybody knows that people are wrong all the time. A journalist may be a person physically, but on the job, they are an extension of the journalistic outlet. When a journalist messes up, the entire organization suffers and in some cases, the organization can't fully recover.

    A blogger who gets things wrong is quickly forgiven and the mistake forgotten to probably never resurface. The only "problem" is that bloggers, especially when grouped together all saying the same thing, have tremendous influence. The problem becomes even worse when all these bloggers got their information from a professional journalist in the first place! That makes it difficult to pin blame on individual bloggers.
  • EdOz
    Here we go with the same blame the media crap again. As I said in my own post in response this little tiff -- bloggers want full immunity to do what they want but are the first in line to want to be treated like press at conventions, press briefings, etc.

    As a whole, increasingly the blogosphere is the one suffering a massive crediblity problem rather than the MSM. As I said in my post: "Bloggers often whine about corporate control of the media, when increasingly the blogosphere is just becoming another outlet for corporate-sponsored propaganda, fueled by bloggers who feel no need for any kind of journalistic integrity at all."

    http://spaces.msn.com/dailyed/blog/cns!FC5C6AC6...
  • Christopher Coulter
    Wow, and now even tagging Microsoft-apologist Wilcox. With Paul on a 'kiss of death' mode. You better take your vacation, you are morphing into a Dave Winer. You should know better than to tangle with the Press, just be above the fray, state your piece, and move on.
  • P T Barnum would have loved the Web.
  • Ryan
    You should probably update the original "get it first, then get it right" posting. It would be good to have an addendum right on that page stating that, based on your experiences since writing that post, you now believe the contrary is best.
  • Here here!

    More and more people are getting their news from aggregators like Google News, and many of them don't understand that just because an article is linked to, it doesn't have a company like Google standing behind it. With the recent press release issues (a high school student was able to get a fake press release announcing his fictional employment at Google picked up) and then this 60% Vista code rewrite debacle, it's become apparent that news aggregators must begin to vet or filter their sources.

    It is for this reason that I think everyone should try to hold bloggers who report on the news to the same standards that "real" journalists are - and stop linking to stories or sites that aren't credible. All the linking ends up doing is increasing their PageRank.

    Certainly, it is the responsibility of readers to figure out for themselves how reliable the site they're reading is, but in an age where any website can be made to look legit, this has become more and more difficult.
  • Frankly, does anyone really care Vista will ship late? It's not as if it is some critical piece of software without which our computing lives will suck and civilisations will fall. It's just another iteration of MS OS. One of the many OSes out there. So the release schedule slipped. So it might or might not be tied to the internal MS shuffle.

    I mean, is anyone really surprised and/or affected?
    I'd wager no.
  • Mike
    Scob said "Here this is NOT owned by Microsoft."

    You are self-censoring yourself and you obey MS blogging policy, so that's not entirely true.

    Something you didn't say about "bloggers versus journalism" is that journalism is not about posting opinions or judgements. Bloggers is all about filling this gap.
  • Mike: MS's blogging policy is to "be smart." Yes, I try to comply with that policy. Sometimes I fall short, like posts over the past few days, though.

    Self-censoring myself? Well, you didn't tell me your sexual behaviors that you've practiced in the past few days. Aren't you self-censoring yourself?
  • Mike
    Scob said "Self-censoring myself? Well, you didn’t tell me your sexual behaviors that you’ve practiced in the past few days."

    You have the right to ventilate, it's good for your karma. ;-)
  • John
    I wonder if Microsoft believes in karma yet? "As you sow, so shall you reap." Spreading FUD is almost always Microsoft's first strategy, and now it is coming home to roost. I can now just hear Bill Gates squealing, "Why doesn't anyone believe us?"
  • John: one thing I've learned in this industry is that karma comes back to haunt those who use it against other people.
  • John
    > John: one thing I’ve learned in this industry is that karma comes back to haunt those who use it against other people.

    Robert, I completely agree with you; I just enjoy seeing people get their comeuppance. BTW, I'm not talking about you; I like you and your blog; I just wish you didn't use your talents to defend Microsoft, an orgnization I believe to be evil, due to the example being set at the top.
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