The blog post titled “When a Crane Flies, Duck” by Joe Wilcox under Microsoft Watch not only flies in the face of good taste, the pun is also lame, to say the least. This creeping tabloidization, where heretofore respectable news organisations are succumbing to the subjects and techniques of tabloid journalism, exploits visceral emotions aimed at “shock and awe”, to borrow the phrase from Ullman and Wade.
It’s a crying shame that people like Wilcox have to resort to gross misrepresentation of the facts, deliberate invention of tales calculated to excite the public, and wanton recklessness in the construction of headlines which even outdid these inventions, to attract readers. If my memory serves me well, things weren’t so bad when I was still writing for eWEEK Asia.
Now, it seems that no one worried about what was real or false. What they didn’t know, they made up, fusing together topical facts, innuendos, rumours and gossips into vivid descriptions that captivated their audiences.
Seems like Joe just changed the headlines to appease the anger of the people who posted the comments…
unfortunately, google cached the page (which is how i got hold of the screenshot). perhaps i should give eric schmidt the benefit of doubt after all.