Comment by wikiburner | Hacker News Reader

Comment by wikiburner | Hacker News Reader

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I understand what you're saying, but I respectfully disagree. I can't really speak to PandoDaily's ethics specifically, but between the dozens of media outlets who cover the sector who are brutally duking it out for pageviews, the idea that they are all pulling punches that would earn them hundreds of thousands of readers smacks of a conspiracy theory.

The "Truth to Power" argument I'm sure they would make really looks like the refuge of a scoundrel when you look at the majority of their output - it's selling sex, sleaze, snark, and cynicism. All of these are just from the last week or so, and I think it would be tough to defend most of them:

http://valleywag.gawker.com/google-boss-enjoys-15-mil-manhat...

http://valleywag.gawker.com/sean-parkers-wedding-tackier-tha...

http://valleywag.gawker.com/silicon-valley-gets-4th-on-deman...

http://valleywag.gawker.com/the-startup-crowd-is-becoming-an...

http://valleywag.gawker.com/path-app-creator-calls-spanish-t...

http://valleywag.gawker.com/you-can-still-view-eric-schmdits...

http://valleywag.gawker.com/the-many-women-of-eric-schmidts-...

I wasn't disagreeing with you, they do try to sell sex and publish silly articles often, but I do think some of those are interesting and telling of an industry that no one else really hits on.

The article about Prim for example I think makes a good point. Also note that TechCrunch gave them a 1000 word review -- that's quite telling to me as it sounds as though YC might have an arrangement with TechCrunch.

The personal profiles, while tacky as hell, do also show you that folks who are all for disruption and who some look up to, are also just regular people. I also noticed this on the Path article -- http://bioischanged.com/user/davemorin which is actually quite interesting to me.

Again, I totally get the ban, and I agree they publish filth, but I have to say, they do cut through a lot of other valley red tape that others don't.

I see your point, and I don't mean to beat you up about it. I guess my only other question is how can you trust a word they print? With the legal standard of libel so high for public figures, and their tendency (in my opinion) to willfully misrepresent, it just seems like a waste of time - like reading the National Enquirer at the checkout line for updates on the whereabouts of Bigfoot. I'd rather read a novel or catch up on Breaking Bad.

I also don't think Valleywag has a monopoly on looking critically at Silicon Valley and startups like Prim. I've seen plenty of critical items on startups of that nature in both blogs and mainstream tech reporting, many of them featured prominently here on Hacker News.

The reason Valleywag has this rep as a critical eye on S.V. is because it is uniformly, hyperbolically negative. Check out some of their now embarrassing past coverage on SpaceX and Tesla. I'm guessing they don't cover them much anymore.

Valleywag is the web-embodiment of a bitter, know-it-all drunk heckling CNN at the bar all day.

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