Preamble

I have been: a journalist for the best part of 20 years, can recite the journalist code of ethics backwards; a Fellow of the Public Relations Institute of Australia and live by that code of ethics too; ran for 10 years an hour long weekly consumer IT show on ABC radio (where I learned about fairness and accountability) and published a weekly IT newsletter to 50,000 subscribers during that time; am called on for expert legal witness and opinions; and written about more IT matters than most readers have had hot dinners. And my wife would kill me if I told a porkie…

iTWire is also a venerable institution with over 1/3^rd of a million web site visitors a month, 20,000+ daily newsletter subscribers and an award winning team comprising some very senior journalists and experienced analysts. It is cited as Australia’s leading independent (read not owned by media groups) IT&T news and information source.

We all take enormous pride in bringing hopefully well researched news and views to our readers.

Why do I need to state this?

Because I am getting a little vexed at the overt sadism of some readers who seem to delight in making bland, unsubstantiated, overtly biased comments not only on our site but coincidentally exactly the same comments on a great many of the world’s IT news sites. Or are such readers being paid to rubbish one brand over another.

You see in order to do my job well I read dozens of news sources daily to corroborate my research and draw conclusions. Hopefully these are consistent with other respected journalists and if I am too much at odds I need to find out why.

If I write something about Apple, Samsung, LG, Dell, Google (and Android), Microsoft, Linux, Lenovo and lets call them tall poppies (to name a few) I can be guaranteed a ‘flame or three’ and the rumour mill kicks into high gear.

I recently wrote about LG and please let me say that I am not singling it out – just using this as an opening example.

I stated that it was evolving from a low cost manufacturer to a designer of premium IT products and was doing this extremely well, similar to Hyundai and Kia’s relatively short transition from somewhat cheap and nasty, never buy Korean cars to aspirational and award winning ones.

For the record I think its Optimus G is one of the best quality smartphones I have seen. I think its new slider 11.6” Tab-Book in particular and the 13.3” Ultrabook in general are very well designed and made to last the distance. The quality and performance of its 100” laser projector TV is superb and it changed my mind on home theatre. I would buy these products.

I have also met some of its executives and you could not want for a more willing, friendly and driven bunch of people wanting to do the right thing.

Yet we get readers saying that LG is terrible and they would never buy LG anything. OK if a reader has had a bad experience with LG (and it was most likely with an older product) please don’t simply assume that LG will always be bad because of that. LG are just as aware of the need to keep the customer and the ACCC happy and to provide good warranty and service.

Dell has also been the target of entire web sites devoted to ‘Dell Hell’. These are by and large the result of readers seeking revenge for perceived injustices. I am the first to admit that going back even as little as five years Dell service often sucked and its consumer IT products (not its excellent commercial three year warranty ones) were on occasion not very good. But today I see Dell as an entirely different company, one of the best in its field servicing enterprise and the more fickle consumer markets with aplomb. The innovation I see in its BYOD management, thin clients, servers, storage and networking it really good.

Bill Gates, Microsoft was seen as the devil incarnate (a spot now reserved for Mr Kogan) and he and his cohorts built the world’s largest computing platform which took considerable passion, guts, risk and drive. It nice to see the new fawning adulation of Mr Gates and by inference Microsoft after the vitriol he has been subjected to. Today I see Microsoft as more open than Apple and more trustworthy than Google. It should not be a target for unsubstantiated hate that fan boys seem to do so well. Microsoft is the grease that keeps the wheels turning.

Apple is on the nose at present too – shares down, poor Tim Cook not being able to take a trick against Samsung and alleged suicides and labour issues at its manufacturing plants. Apple is the world’s most successful IT company and designs damned good products. Fan Boys need to realise that we need competition and having Windows, OS X/iOS and Android (and BlackBerry) is a good thing. Life would be boring if we all used Apple.

Then there is the venom directed at Facebook for its shares dropping (remember Telstra shares but let’s not go there) and Faceless Google and trust issues and I could go on and on and on.

I am not trite enough to ask you to believe all that iTWire or its journalists write but to be constructive in your comments and open to differing views.

Postscript.

I am starting an anti-tall poppy syndrome movement. Join me and say something nice about something for a change.

But let’s not get too carried away - there are plenty of politicians that we can and should slag in the next few months.