Now what’s on my mind?
I rail against the tech press on my podcast (Thank You For Your Servers) because I see an insidious “Left” worldview taking hold like the pathological zeitgeist it is. I remember when Venture Capitalist and the swashbuckling entrepreneur they funded were lionized. Was this healthy? Not entirely, but at least they were honest in that bias and awe. Now the pendulum has swung leftward ideologically and it’s just gotten embarrassing transparent. Bulwarks against this trend of “gotcha” tech Journalism (really activism) are Balaji S. Srinivasan and Jason Calacanis. Both are men I respect for their respective business acumen and insights. Both these men have called out the current crop of the tech press for their questionable ethics (or lack thereof here and here). Details and links to the latest dust up between the Tech VC class and the tech press were chronicled on Axios.
Because of episodes like this, the detente between the tech press and the Venture capitalists class has broken down. Exacerbated by the fact that the tech industry has begun to eat the traditional press and medias life blood (audiences and the advertising revenue they bring). Going so far as to blame the Tech Industries as a whole, who have historically been free Market leaning, activities as the chief culprit for all of society’s ills and threatening Democratic institutions. Something for which the Press seems to think they have had no culpability in themselves.
I, for one, am glad that the mask is coming off. But at the same time it saddens me that the industry I love has been infiltrated by generation of “Journalist” who seemingly have no technical knowledge about what it takes to build the companies they write about and aren’t at all enthusiast. They don’t believe in the markets that create these companies nor the industries these companies enable. They focus too much on the human interest stories of suffering and not on the human empowering stories of technology. No industry is the last 25 years has been more of a force for good. We should no doubt chronicle the displacement and disruption but let us have a story or two that puts some of this angst in perspective.
