Dissing Bill

Prologue

"Press coverage rarely reflects reality because reality is boring. Press coverage needs horse races, conflict, building people up, tearing people down, because spectacle attracts readers and readers attract advertising money."

The Call

I spent an hour or so describing in great detail how I thought the project didn't make much sense from a technical point of view, and didn't make much sense for the Chinese market. I concluded that this was just another case of a big, powerful company coming into China, and spending lots of money to get what they want. And, in this case, what Microsoft wanted was respect for Windows CE.

The next day, I received email:

"Hi, Michael-- I spoke to my editor this morning, and we both agreed that a hard- hitting opinion piece on the Venus system would be far more interesting than a wishy-washy, "well, on the other hand" reported article that would weigh pros and cons and settle upon nothing. Would you be interested in writing something like that? (the opinion piece, that is)

"We would need about 800 words by next Wednesday, March 24. I think the angle that you hit upon last night is perfect-- that like Intel, Microsoft is pushing an old technology on China without any reason to believe it will work any better in the Middle Kingdom than in the US. Up high, in the first or 2nd paragraph, you'd need to describe briefly what the project is, the hype that surrounded it, its place in the larger context of Microsoft's China strategy, etc. Then the argument you laid out last night could follow quite convincingly."

The First Draft

I sent in the draft on Tuesday. Wednesday morning I got a call. They wanted changes. It sounded too much like journalism, and not enough like a "hard-hitting opinion piece".

Ok, no problem, I said.

The Second Try

I received this reply:

"Michael-- Many thanks. This is definitely getting there. The only thing I would add is that you can, if anything, be even more opinionated. What you might think of doing is a lead that's a little less newsy, maybe something noting how Bill Gates is one of the few Westerners who is treated like an emperor when he comes to China, with his pronouncements accepted like gospel. Then point out that perhaps Chinese should be a little more suspicious...

"In a 2nd graf, you could note how at the same time as Gates' visit, Intel was beginning this huge marketing campaign to sell a chip that has been greeted with disdain in the West. Why? Maybe for some of the same reasons Gates is in town pushing the Venus project.

"Then you could explain in a sentence what it is, and Gates' justification for it. BUT (and here the argument begins), he's talking about using technology that has been dissed in the West in favor of PalmOS because... etc.

"And there's no reason to believe it will work any better in China. Why? Then go into the stuff about the Internet and why the problem is not one of cost.

"Then explain that similar devices already exist, and that other companies can (and probably will) easily build competing and cheaper devices.

"Then you could note that maybe Gates isn't so worried about helping China, or about making money specifically off of Venus, before ending with your last 3 grafs (nice kicker, by the way).

"How does that sound? Obviously, you should put this in your own words and make sure the reasoning flows. But do feel free to be vehement in your criticism; the editors will scale it back if it looks too strong."

Obviously, Time was looking for a big, splashy, anti-Gates diatribe that they could use to spice up their coverage, but they didn't want to hurt their own credibility by putting their name on it. So they were putting out a contract on Bill Gates, and I was the journalistic hit man.

At this point, I was feeling a little put off by the whole exercise. I may be opinionated, but I didn't feel like destroying my own credibility for a measly 500 bucks.

Take Three

I received this acknowlegement:

Many thanks, Michael. I've sent this on to the editors. Don't worry too much if they change things around a bit-- TIME is renowned for its heavy editing (I've gotten used to it, but I still remember what it's like...).

"Why don't we just say what we really think?"

And their changes certainly were an eye-opening experience. It was like a little window into how Time would actually be written if they weren't so concerned about maintaining their image of impartial and authoritative respectibility.

In any case, they didn't seem too concerned about maintaining my credibility. I was resolute in my professional detachment, though. It was their magazine, and now it was their article. I wrote my comments and corrections without rancor or recrimination; just a little bit of professionally detached irony.

Humiliated

I was shocked to discover that the phrase, "more than 10 million PCs have been sold in China, but only one-fifth that many Chinese have Internet access" had been "corrected" to read, "more than 10 million PCs have been sold in China, but only one in five Chinese has Internet access."

This was a blatant factual error; careless editing had changed 2.1 million into 260 million.

And that wasn't all. My correction of "3M's PalmOS" to "3Com's PalmOS" had not been made.

These two obvious and embarrassing errors had been printed, with my name on them, and were being distributed to millions of people throughout Asia.

I took some solace from the fact that, as embarrassing as these mistakes were for me, they were doubly so for the editors at Time; they were the ones responsible for the mistakes in the first place, and they are the trained professionals whose job it is to prevent such mistakes.

Actually, I was sort of grateful that, if the editors were going to put errors into my article, at least they were obviously not the kind errors that I might make myself. My reputation wouldn't suffer as much as Time's.

What does it all mean?

The press is in the eyeball business. They grab eyeballs, they sell the eyeballs, they pay the rent.

And in the everything all the time world of instant everywhere communications, grabbing and selling eyeballs is a tough business to be in; corners get cut. You can only hope that the corner being cut isn't yours.