The Haus

Saturday, October 28, 2000

Irresponsible Journalism 101 -- 8:02 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

If you want to find out the way NOT to be a journalist, head over to Salon and read the utterly irresponsible article posted there called Who cracked Microsoft? (note: improper capitalization of the headline). The author comes thisclose to accusing open source advocates (especially followers of Eric Raymond) as the ones responsible for the cracking and theft. It is nothing but pure sensationalism and conjecture without one speck of fact behind it. I guess I shouldn't be too surprised, but if you are going to accuse someone of theft, you'd better have some serious evidence to back you up. Thanks sCary, I think.

J.t.? I'd be interested to hear your thoughts on this one.

J.t.Qbe comments: I have to admit, I was surprised when I saw the author's name: Andrew Leonard had written some really good stuff. I find it hard to believe that he wrote and published this. Maybe Salon's been cracked?

I sent him this email:
Shame on you, Andrew. You've done so much good and responsible journalism covering the open source movement, so where did this come from? Yes, there are some wacko zealots out there--on both sides of the fence--but how can you reasonably, without a shred of evidence, paint them as the possible culprits? You know full well that speculation does not equal fact.

Sure, this bit of fluff will get you some exposure and web site hits, but will it really be worth the ire of the open source community? Will it really be worth the possibility that the speculation will be repeated and will make the open source movement a villain among those who don't know any better?

You've published a lot of good stuff, articles I've really enjoyed reading. Please be more careful and more responsible next time.
It isn't surprising, when the real crackers are unknown, to wonder about some of Microsoft's known enemies. However, publishing this piece of speculation is completely unjustifiable. Shame on you too, Salon.

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