

Tim O'Reilly accuses New York Times of "flamebait reporting" - j_baker
http://www.google.com/buzz/timoreilly/j61qZ42h6rB/Frustrated-by-flamebait-NY-reporting-in-Microsoft

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petercooper
Usually when people complain about misquoting, the misquoted facts aren't true
or they make the quotee sound crazy/evil. In this case, though, it's the exact
opposite:

 _“Microsoft is totally off the radar of the cool, hip, cutting-edge software
developers.”_

 _"These [partner] software developers and technicians have bet their careers
on Microsoft and largely benefited from that choice. In addition, they have
helped keep Microsoft relevant during the various ups and downs in the
technology market."_

 _"And so the technology-minded people coming out of college have started
learning their craft on free software and betting their careers on non-
Microsoft wares."_

True, true, and true. It seems odd they'd put O'Reilly's name against them if
he didn't say that, though, because almost any decent software developer
nowadays would readily trumpet the above facts. I'm guessing the reporter made
a serious error in their notes and that the quotes have only been accidentally
tied to O'Reilly.

~~~
wildtreat

         cool, hip, 

I agree but cutting-edge software developers? Please they work for Microsoft
and Google. People on this forum have a way of deluding themselves. 37signals
et. al. aren't the Cutting edge software developer, people who create Flume-
Java are.

This forum consists mostly of latte sipping, hip crowd, without any CS degrees
and lack of knowledge of Maths.

Microsoft employs as well as attracts some of the best software devs to its
platform. Also it makes stuff easy for them unlike Objective C.

~~~
pohl
While my degree was a dual major in mathematics and computer science, I'll
give you that I do know how to pull my own shots of espresso.

Still, for the purposes of the article, I would think that Microsoft's
employees would be the wrong place to look if one were trying to gauge how
well they're resonating with up-and-coming developers, developers, developers,
developers.

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jdub
Look at the byline: Ashlee Vance. It should matter that the masthead is NYT,
but the byline matters much more. Ashlee has a rep for this kind of stuff,
across numerous mastheads.

(Sorry to "play the person, not the ball", but it's the writer's behaviour
that is the crux of Tim's complaint, and knowing the byline is an important
part of how we comprehend acts of journalism.)

~~~
drats
They hired him from The Register, home of shock and troll journalism, so I
don't know what they were expecting.

~~~
thefrostytruth
I don't find these comments entirely fair. Sure, the Register brings a tabloid
voice to tech journalism. So do lots of media outlets and blogs.

Can you guys point to past journalistic errors or malfeasance on Vance's part
(misquoting or otherwise)? Genuinely curious: Does he actually have a history?

I seem to recall I've read articles by him in the Economist that were
insightful in the past year or two, presumably written to (or edited to) the
voice of the paper. That said, I don't closely follow Vance's work.

------
zmmz
I agree with Tim, I've noticed the NYT has switched to a more and more
sensationalist approach for their headlines. The NYT especially has been
influenced by the blog-culture.

I suggest that Tim submits his Buzz as a Letter to the Editor:
[http://www.nytimes.com/ref/membercenter/help/lettertoeditor....](http://www.nytimes.com/ref/membercenter/help/lettertoeditor.html)

~~~
EdsonGould
Yes, I also notice this lately.

Do you think it is trying to be like drudgereport.com?

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mkramlich
It was interesting to note that Mr. O'Reilly was careful to not say that he
necessarily disagreed with most of the quotes, just that he didn't say them
literally. That makes sense. Because on one hand I think the man is smart
enough to see the state of play in the industry (where I think most would
agree that Linux/Apple/Google/Amazon ecosystem software are more popular with
startups than Microsoft), while at the same time smart enough to realize he's
the head of arguably the biggest and most influential computer book publisher,
and a big slice of the tech actually used in businesses is in the Microsoft
camp -- so it's in his best interest to stay in their good graces as a
publisher.

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stretchwithme
I really respect Tim and assume that if he took the time to point out the
problems, the statements have veracity.

