Journalism versus Capitalism

"When I was very small, this was kind of a dream job: a beautiful woman's profession, a life for a gentle person."

Thus laments Ms. Liu Lixia, a 21-year-old who has discovered a circus-like world of bellowing, uncouth passengers as a flight attendant for a Chinese airline. (Bedlam in the Air for China Flight Attendants, New York Times, January 11, 2005.)

My heart goes out to the gentle Ms. Liu. I empathize, though she and I may not appear to have much in common. Long ago, I thought the computer software field was a rational man's profession, a life for a logical thinker. And I discovered a world where most projects go down in flames and where "workers are disquietingly susceptible to the big lie."[1]

Ms. Liu's childhood vision of life aloft was no doubt a natural response to beatific images churned out by airline marketers. My own expectations prior to encountering reality were also quite understandable. Logic, after all, is the essence of computer software.

But of course, I was no less deluded than Ms. Liu.

I was reminded of my computer days by news of the F.B.I's aptly named "Virtual Case File" system. As recently as last May, they thought it would be completed by the end of 2004. The news is that it will probably be completed never. Not, anyway, "as now designed and conceived." (F.B.I. May Scrap Vital Overhaul of Its Outdated Computer System, New York Times, January 14, 2005.)

The news item doesn't mention who loses the $170 million development costs, but perhaps it's too obvious. (Who but the taxpayer?)

For the life of me, I have never understood why software isn't contracted on payment-on-delivery terms.

Anyway, the 170 million may be viewed as a negligible issue, given that the dead system was said to be "critical to domestic security."

A Times op-ed comments:

THE Federal Bureau of Investigation has officially entered what computer professionals call "software hell." After spending $170 million to create a program that would give agents ready access to information on suspected terrorists, the bureau admitted last week that it's not even close to having a working system. In fact, it may have to start from scratch.

Shocking? Not at all. A look at the private sector reveals that software debacles are routine. And the more ambitious the project, the higher the odds of disappointment. It may not be much consolation to taxpayers, but the F.B.I. has a lot of company. Software hell is a very crowded place.

[Does Not Compute, by Nicholas G. Carr, New York Times, January 22, 2005.]

I am obliged to point out that my Notes on an Emperor's Nakedness attempted to call the world's attention to how crowded software hell is seven years ago. At the time, my bombshell seemed certain to hit front pages nationwide (after which I'd of course have the nuisance of fielding endless interview requests). No one had ever suspected what I was revealing. As my essay pointed out:

there is nothing in the panting self-promotion of software product vendors, the giddy pitches of consulting firms, the bold headlines of the computer press, or the polished certainty of renowned gurus, to suggest that anyone paying money for a computer-related good or service ever suffered a setback, anywhere, in any way -- unless a new and improved solution is being promoted that forever extinguishes the possibility of further setbacks.

FYI, however, my bombshell was not terribly widely covered. It was another sad illustration of the frailty of truth in our harsh climate.

The epicentre of truth's warping and slaying is of course the news media.

Now that we have a blogosphere[2], there is a huge amount of discussion about the news media's defects (NYU journalism dept. chairman Jay Rosen's Pressthink is one of many blogs where it's addressed).

Frankly? The blogosphere doesn't inspire huge reverence for civic debate.

And when a real media expert offers some insightful truths about why this crucial component of democracy is failing, the blogosphere ignores him.

But you shouldn't. See Michael Wolff's The Plot to Sell the News.

Related: Pre-War News Coverage: Defective Criticism