Forbes is just clueless

Posted Jun 18, 2003 21:16 UTC (Wed) by jmorris42 (guest, #2203)
Parent article: What SCO Wants, SCO Gets (Forbes)

Forbes didn't get things so wrong because of any sort of 'vast right wing conspiracy'. It got it wrong because of pooor journalism, which is rampant in the mainstream press these days. The need to appear to provide indepth coverage on a wide front with fewer actual reporters has brought all of the press down to historic low levels of quality. Most publications these days cannot even proofread their copy. Painfully obvious typographical errors now appear on a routine basis in publications from the New York Times, to CNN.com that in a previous age would never have been permitted. If they can't proofread what makes anyone believe they are still fact checking and doing real research?

What happens when publications such as Forbes attempt coverage of complex issues outside their core compentency is something wretched like the piece linked above. But to 90% of their readers the factual errors will not be obvious and the flawed conclusions will appear reasonable, if for no other reason than their appearance in a publication they trust.

Keep that in mind when you read the mainstream press on subjects YOU aren't already knowledgeable about. Unless you are a doctor or researcher can you really know when a mainstream press report on a medical issue has not went just as horribly wrong as this one? You can't. And that is why fewer and fewer people trust the press, they are doing a terrible job and the audience is figuring that out.

Specialized sources, like this site or God help us all - Slashdot, provide much better coverage in a very narrow field. Other sites cover other fields equally better vs the mainstream media. Even though sites such as this often link to the mainstream press, it is the editorial selection and meta commentary, putting the artical into perspective, fact checking, etc which is malfunctioning in the mainstream press, that provides the value.

Welcome to the future.