Subscribe:   RSS icon   twitter icon

Let Me Google That For You

Lee Phillips
September 9, 2010

David Pogue is the technology columnist for the New York Times. He often finds and writes engagingly about cool newish technology. However, his reportage is chronically superficial, skimming along the shiny surface of a gadget or service without performing any useful tests or doing much research.

Recently a gaggle of his commenting readers couldn’t take it any more, and took him to task for wondering aloud, in a recent review of a portable WIFI hotspot called the MiFi, why on earth Sprint would allow its manufacturer, Virgin Mobile, to offer customers the use of its data network at prices that are lower than what Sprint itself charges. Pogue just could not figure it out, even though he “researched the heck out of this.”

His scolding readers pointed out that Virgin Mobile is owned by Sprint, and wondered why he didn’t research things before writing about them. Pogue’s defense: “if you have no inkling that something occurred, how can you research it?”. How, indeed? What on earth could one do if one wanted to know more about the relationship between two companies, in order to perhaps understand why they might have entered into a deal that seems to make no sense at first glance? Let’s “research the heck out of this”:


Share with Facebook Share with Twitter Share with Reddit Share with StumbleUpon Share with Digg Share with Slashdot
▶ Comment
lee-phillips.org is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com.
Quotilizer ... loading ...

Tenuously related:

The best tool for CVs with publication lists.