Screw Tech Press
By Techgirl

Even though I have only worked as a Technology journalist for a few years, it did not take me long to realize that the technology media in India is even more compromised than our mainstream national newspapers and TV stations. Most Indian tech media houses have cozy relationships with IT, BPO and Telecom companies.  You scratch my back and I scratch yours.

Arguably, Techcrunch is the most influential technology blog in the world.  Recently, its rival AllThingsD broke the news that the Techcrunch Editor was quietly investing in startups even as his blog was reporting on the industry.  The American media lapped up the story as this was one of the first times that journalists had broken the code of silence that exists in the tech media – we never criticize each other.

The Techcrunch Editor, in an article titled ‘Tech Press: Screw Them All’ has come out fighting and highlighted what he feels are the conflicts of interest of the major tech media attacking him

“
AllThingsD’s Kara Swisher, the chief whiner about our policy, is married to a Google executive. This is disclosed by her, but I certainly don’t see it as any less of a conflict than when I invest in a startup. And yet she whines. One of her writers, Liz Gannes, is married to a Facebook consultant. She covers the company and its competitors regularly. She discloses it as well, but it isn’t clear whether or not her husband has stock in Facebook. That’s something as a reader I’d like to know. And regardless, it’s a huge conflict of interest. I think someone will think twice before slamming a company and then going to sleep next to an employee of that company. Certain adjectives, for example, might be softened in the hopes of marital harmony.

Foremski, the other chief whiner, is a real piece of work. Despite railing against my policy, he has his own direct conflicts of interest. The man who said just a week ago how horrible I am for investing in startups has financial interests in a whole slew of tech companies – “Disclosure: Current and past consulting clients and sponsors of Silicon Valley Watcher: Pearltrees, Intel, Tibco Software, Edelman, Infineon Technologies, SAP.”

And he isn’t so good about disclosing these interests. If one of our writers pulled this stunt they’d be fired in a second.

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How long before someone does the same for Indian tech media?  Our conflicts of interests are as bad. 

One good thing about this coming out in the open is that the public has more information to make up its own mind.

Techgoss note:  Techgirl is a senior Tech journalist who reports on the IT, KPO and KPO Sectors for a leading media house.  In her spare time, she dabbles in satire in her blog techgirltalk.blogspot.com.  Techgirl has been ejected from Twitter for satirizing an Indian Minister.  Her satire blog has links to her Times of India interview detailing her being kicked out of Twitter, and then being invited back.