Anyone who works in IT in this country, and probably most of those who work in development, will know The Register even if they aren’t regular readers. It’s the premier UK-based tech news site, and it covers everything from new bleeding edge hardware to trends on the web, to whether Bill Gates or Steve Jobs have had a crap that day. It’s a well respected, often well written site, and I myself often post links to the Register when trying to prove or back up a point about some tech-related discussion.
But.
I absolutely fucking detest its tone of voice sometimes. Just as I can’t stand the idea in some agencies that the techies and the designers don’t mix, or that Mac users and PC users should stay out of each other’s way, or any of the other ridiculous stereotypical nonsense that can easily spring up in technical communities, I hate the sneering way that The Register looks down on certain things with a kind of knowing, pally ridicule which implies that everyone reading agrees with them.
Examples? It’s in the lexicon. Twitter is referred to as a “Web2.0rhea outfit“. Second Life is referred to as “Sadville“. The iPhone is the “Jesus Phone“. There are others. In one article the site TechCrunch was referred to as “the Special Olympics of Web2.0″.
It just winds me up – it’s lazy journalism. It’s not just giving me the news, it’s spinning it before it gets to me. As it happens, I have an iPhone and I use Twitter (though not Second Life) but it’s not just about feeling wounded – give me more credit than that.
I just like to make my own mind up, that’s all.
–c.
The Register…file under 'Supercilious twats'…
As a mostly non-techie type, I only encounter the Register when I see other people's links. And my impression, every time, is of a bunch of sneering sixth-formers who know far less than they think they know. Lazy journalism, exactly as you say.
Hear hear!
Nail on the head.