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Sometimes I wish I had an editor, perhaps Jason could do with one too:
“After all, Matt Drudge is teasing the story with an invented quote: “STRAIN OF SUPERBUG ‘MAY BE NEW HIV’…” But that language doesn’t actually appear anywhere, much less in the Reuters summary to which he links..”
Says Kottke who prefaces the exposé on Drudge’s take on the Reuters story (queue editor) with the headline “The Mania Over Gay Flesh-Eating Super-Staph” — which doesn’t appear in his own commentary either.
Indeed the original source article does suggest possible bias and the need for further study and investigation as part of it’s preface.
No offence Jason, or more correctly, Choire — if you’re going to call-to-task inflammatory headlining and inventive story-telling, using such a title yourself calls into question your supposed indignation of the same.
Mr Drudge may well be inventing quotes, but I call pot-kettle-black on your headline in return — it’s no less “sensationalised”.
Update: .. and I’ll call mea-culpa on this — thanks brett — apologies to Jason Kottke, this was a piece written by Choire Sicha. The comment still stands, but I didn’t notice it was a guest writer opinion piece.
It would appear record companies aren’t the only corporates’ immune to missing the entire point of an actual, genuine online journal and presence:
The organization’s announcement is essentially a press release dumped into a blog entry, the byline of which merely says “Blog Council.”
A spiffy logo and canned announcement full of pointless drivel and corporate kiss-butt self-idolizing hippy crap does not a blogging community constitute. Mr Storey nails it best — “After six years big business still has no idea what to do with this blog thing.”
Paul Thurrott, popular Windows pundit, is overzealously promoting an article he hasn’t written yet, calling Leopard “nothing to switch about.” A little preemptive to sum-up an article that’s not written yet. What if he actually likes Leopard?
It is highly reminiscent of the ubiquitous “spoilt child”, who at the worst possible moment screams “do not want!” in the middle of shopping mall during the busiest hour, of the busiest day. We’ve all seen that kind of attention seeking behaviour before. And we all know that, often, it succeeds in gaining the attention of all.
Positive or negative is irrelevant; any response is better than none. And I am sure that Thurrott’s sensationalised headline will attract the usual gamut of responses. Like this one. At least I have some comfort in the knowledge that I’m aware I’m being feed spin.
Mr Hunt also questions the point:
Also, I’m confused why a Windows “SuperSite” is reviewing Leopard.
And that is exactly the point to a summation of something yet to be written. It’s designed to trigger a reaction. Thurrott is no fool, at least not when it comes to spin2. He is a well read, respected and well informed commentator with years of experience.
And he’s keenly aware of what that kind of comment will do. Drive traffic.
The timing is hardly surprising. How much interest would it have attracted two weeks ago? Or a month? Leopard hasn’t exactly been sprung upon the world.
There is a very simple cure to link baiting. Ignore it.
You’ll note I have accidentally forgotten to link to Thurrott. His comment is, well, nothing to link about. I’m quite unlikely to read the upcoming exposé primarily because the bias is clear right from the outset.
Thurrott’s growing track record on such reviews, tends to support that kind of view.
It’s like someone telling you the final3 score just before the game starts. Given we now know where Thurrott stands, right or wrong, we can move on and read reviews and material from others.
".. after 400 cycles, the battery should hold about 80 percent of its original capacity. But Sullivan reports that it’ll be completely dead after ‘300-400 recharges’." — the truth is somewhere in the middle, approximately 500 or so charges is a typical failure point.
