How not to appear as an unbiased journalist
I see all types of journalism in the tech field, some I agree with and some I don’t. We always say that personal tech is just that, personal, and that what works for some will not work for others. I saw something today reported in such a way that blows me away in how biased the statements are that leaves me with a very bad taste in my mouth.
The piece of journalism is from Paul Thurrott of the Supersite for Windows. The article under discussion is his review of Safari 4 released yesterday. It is impossible to treat this review as objective when you run into a statement like this:
Apple fanatics–you know, those idiots who would buy anything with an Apple logo on it–will get all giddy and clap like little girls at a Hannah Montana concert when they see Top Sites, the new default Safari 4 home page. But these people are missing the point (what else is new?)
No matter what you think about the program in question, this is not the way to get anyone to take you seriously. It really looks bad for Thurrott any way you slice it.
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The irony is that Thurrott is really talking about himself. Has there been a single Microsoft product release (apart perhaps from Vista) where he hasn’t been wildly enthusiastic? I realize he has to keep being positive in order to keep getting visits to the Microsoft campus and exclusive tips, but he looks more and more like a shill.
Paul Thurrott is hardly a shill. Apart from the fact that he uses and reviews Apple products, he is generally even handed and happy to point out flaws with Microsoft’s products. For instance, he was very critical about aspects of Aero Glass in Vista and recently criticised the new taskbar in Windows 7.
You’re wrong about Vista too because he was generally positive about and recognised the fact that it is a great OS with room for improvements.
Having said all that, I’d question whether Paul is acting as a journalist on the site James linked to. I consider WinSupersite to be a blog and as such I don’t see the point of criticising a lack of objectivity – as long as he doesn’t overdo it. Remember blogging != journalism.
The funny thing is though, it is hard to be impartial and unbias when it comes to technology, just like anything else. We all have our favorites. We all have what we hate. The issue is whether we keep those biases to ourselves. Journalist try to remain unbias, but even when they do, you can always read between the lines. In Thurrott’s case, it looks like he just decided to say “screw it, I am going to say this.” Besides, with him writing that statement, he just got a LOAD of free PR and multiple hits to his website. No PR is bad PR anymore.
It’s his opinion. I read his site just like i do this site for opinions. lighten up. Everyone that post something on a computer these days think that they are Walter Cronkite. Does anyone really believe that when you read a review of anything that opinion is not a significant portion of the results? Please, spare me the “non-biased” stuff. Just keep blogging about what you think in regards to tech and mobility and we can figure out the rest.
Are you all journalists now? Don’t you have to go to journalist college or something first instead of blog college?
Haha! I agree and think that JK shouldn’t throw with stones while sitting in a glass house himself. PT is one of the most unbiased JOURNALISTS on the web.
I also agree with one of the other posters that the quality of some of the posts on JKon… have gotten worse and worse. I too have thought about not coming back.
Lastly, I find it fascinating that on blogs it apparently is the pinnacle of journalism if you post a link to another website/blog (which has the real story) and you don’t do anything but write your opinion about the real story. Great job, JK!
My point is not the message, nor fanboyism or anything like that. You shouldn’t be calling folks rude names in editorials, and that’s what his “review” is. Whether or not he likes a program or not is valuable information. Calling people who disagree with him “idiots” is short-sighted IMHO.
I am using Safari 4.x on Windows XP to post this reply and FYI, the box for my name is not placed correctly on the screen.
More to the point, though..bloggers aren’t the only ones with obvious opinions and sometimes hidden agendas. When I first installed Safari 4.x, the opening preview/cover flow screen (which has several ‘favorite’ webpages) prominently featured in the top middle the CNET review of the Blackberry Storm — a review that was less than favorable. I see this as Apple’s not too subtle way to promote the iPhone.
Looks to me that all the sites that bother to post about Paul Thurrott and his stupid posts have taken the “bait” — LINK bait that is. Look I just helped!
Anyone willing to read one article and pass judgment may in fact label Paul as biased towards windows. But anyone with the commonsense to give a second look will find out he is one of the most unbiased windows journalists out there.
Can the average web audience member distinguish bloggers from journalists, news from opinion or editiorial?
What bugs me is the amount of opinion or point of view that is interpreted as fact. Sometimes this is the author’s fault for not being clearer and other times it is the audience’s fault for just not taking it for what it is.
Paul is a Windows homer, what do you expect. I have listened to some of his Windows Weekly podcasts with Leo Laporte and he will occasionally trash Microsoft products, especially its Windows Mobile offering. I read that article and he spends most of time trashing Safari 4′s Tab implementation and its fancy GUIs (Cover Flow and Top Site) while implying that IE7 is superior. I seem to remember that IE7 was the LAST browser to natively support tabbed-browsing and they still have a crappy interface and don’t fully support web standards IMO. In his defense, his name-calling was a little out of character from what I have seen in the past, maybe he was having a really bad day or something.
Hmmm. I listen to the TWIT podcast ‘Windows Weekly’ and find him a decent listen, critical of Microsoft when needed. He’s been very critical of IE8. I think here he is referring to a specific type of person that we come across in all corners of the net.
His review is pretty good, based of course on the experience of Safari on Windows, which is not as good as Safari on the Mac (I actually tried both last night, using bootcamp on my Macbook Pro).
Bottom line, he could have done without that comment, although I did like ‘clap like little girls at a Hannah Montannah concert’. :-)