That many technology journalists (and practitioners) are staunchly pro-business is a truism; a cursory tour through their writings and musings tells the story loudly. While interesting and perhaps predictably true, it’s also incredibly unfortunate given that journalists’ life-blood should be skepticism- a quantity that does not arise from fealty to the concept of big-business.
In fact, there is a recent tendency to imagine that business has been somehow ablated during re-entry into the populist atmosphere of democracy after being dragged down from its rightful cosmic heights. Case in point is an article written by Rob Preston of Information Week (available here: http://www.informationweek.com/news/global-cio/interviews/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=224701865) in which starting with a defense of Apple Corporation’s predatory behavior, concludes that there is a “disturbing, anti-business trend in this country.” Along the way, he trots about tired shibboleths about the power of capitalism and then indulges in (bad) lay economics when he correlates employment with “growth.” Neatly wrapping up his screed, Preston discusses “the innovation mandate” which somehow he finds consistent with big business being big business.
Preston is not alone nor does he deserve special targeting. He is but one of many, an example of a cadre that might question certain of its paymasters’ attributes, but not their essences. Where journalists like Preston excel is in initiating and participating in debates on “downstream” topics like the value of a particular technology versus another or of one operating system versus a competitor. They are also good at locating intelligent uses of technology. Where they fail as journalists, however, is in their lack of desire to question the very substance of the system they prop up, to interrogate the “axioms” they inherit as received wisdom from the pundits of business who reward them with paychecks far larger and lifestyles far more lavish than those of their brethren in most other “lines” of journalism.
Where is the Fourth Estate? Has it been annexed by the Prime Estate (Business?) Technology journalism needs an A.J. Liebling or an Ida Tarbell. Where are they?
About Romi Mahajan
