quoted in the register

Ian Landsman • January 18, 2005

Some of you may remember Madgegate (it was only last week after all). I won't retell the story here but Andrew Orlowski of The Register (a London paper) has written up a story on it. He basically bashes Winer and Curry. At the recent Internet and Society conference at Harvard, which I attended, I witnessed somewhat of a fight between Winer and Orlowski. It was evident that they knew each other and didn't get along. More insights into that relationship are availabe via a search of Dave's site.

I've never really had the experience of knowing the relationship between two people before seeing one of them write an article for a paper. I have to say that knowing that info really puts Orlowski's piece in a new light. Actually it goes back to what Dave talks about alot. That "professional" reporters have significant biases and rarely if ever notify their readers.

In this case, with the background knowledge about the two individuals involved it is plain to see the slant of the article, however the reader is given no notice that they even know each other much less that their relationship is stormy. While I actually agree with most of what he wrote I think it's unfair that he portrays it as a piece of news rather than the opinion piece that it is. Actually I think the editors of The Register shouldn't allow a reporter to write an article on someone they have an obvious bias towards though I suppose this would be harder to enforce than it is to write.

on a side note my quote appears near the bottom. It's definitely a sound bite, with only the juicy line taken. He doesn't provide any links which would let the reader see the full text and context of my post.

For those interested, my full quote is in the original comment on the trade secrets site (no way to link right to it, but it's the 7th one down).

(link to the article via: The occasional scrivener)