Why is it that so many TV and print reporters are such technology dufi (plural of dufus)? Or more to the point, why do they let their techno-illiteracy show so openly?
I don't expect every reporter to be an aspiring rocket scientist or brain surgeon. But when reporters write or talk about technological issues, why must they scramble the facts so often—and so badly?
For example, there's the Orlando TV news anchor who talked about how space-shuttle astronauts were viewing the Earth "from millions of miles in space." Fortunately, someone in the studio pointed out to her that the shuttle orbits at an altitude of about
200 miles.
I once worked with the
editor-in-chief of a vertical-market technology magazine (let's call it, say, "Banking Technology") who did not know how a PC works. I was handling public relations for a banking software company, and I had to give this
clueless editor a two-hour tutorial in how a PC works before she could understand what our software did.
Several years ago I was interviewed by a Wall Street Journal reporter about my love for the Apple Macintosh. A few days later, I got another call from a WSJ fact-checker. He was calling to verify the details of what I had said to ensure that my story was told accurately. Why can't more publications go that extra mile? After all, all they have to offer their audiences is information. Why can't they do everything possible to ensure that what they publish is
accurate information?
Let's face it: From iPhones to computerized sewing machines, the modern world is driven and supported by technology. It's a sad state of affairs when people whose job is communicating technical information have no knowledge of technology, and/or are unwilling to collaborate with technology experts to ensure what they report is accurate.
What about you? What technical blunders have you heard or seen from the media technodufi?