David Pogue ruins it for tech writers
David Pogue, the friendly Bob Saget of tech journalism, got flak for last week's New York Times column, in which he explained why Macs will never dominate the business scene. One of his reasons was that IT pros would put themselves out of business by filling their companies with Macs. He got plenty of shit for that one. And under the pressure, he's cracked:
Now, the truth is, I've never worked in a corporation a day in my life. I've never called an I.T. (information tech) person for help, don't know any such people well, and basically have no clue about what their jobs really entail.
David! No! The first rule of tech journalism is, you do not talk about how unqualified you are. Think of the fallout. Cranky pundit John C. Dvorak would finally get called out for lines like "I see that the System Idle Process is hogging all the resources." The Wall Street Journal's Walt Mossberg would have to admit that his degree is in journalism, not computer science. How will you save yourself, David?
But I didn't invent this idea of I.T. people favoring Windows to ensure their own job stability; I've heard it cited for years.
Aha! David heard it from other people. You know, word on the street. Good job! That is why the Times pays you the big bucks! You hear things! David Pogue, the Andrew Jackson of tech journalism: He showed the world that anyone can become an expert.
