Chinese Whispers style reporting is why tech blogs can’t have nice toys

Paul Thurrott on the whole one hundred million dollars of PR for Microsoft and Nokia stories going around. This is why blogging rumours on top of rumours on top of guesswork to chase page-views really damages a lot of tech reporting online.

I’ve been sitting on this information for weeks so that Microsoft can make its big announcement at CES this coming week. But with these leaks, as with the equally inaccurate LTE leaks last week, I felt the need to set the record straight. The way tech blogs work these days is that any information, no matter how inaccurate, is simply parroted between all the gadget blogs and then, inevitably, to the increasingly lazy mainstream news as well. So let’s at least get it right.

Anyone following All About Windows Phone will not have seen this story in our news headlines, or in the “flow” sidebar of interesting links. It’s long been the rule of thumb at “All About…” that we don’t cover leaks, rumours, spy shots and similar topics. Does it leave us looking a bit behind the curve? In the eyes of some, yes, but we think it makes for a better experience and helps build up the trust between the writers and the readers.