Judging the true amplitude of events has always been a challenge for journalists--especially when every other journalist is thundering in the same direction. The heard can wind up driving the herd.
In a piece for The San Francisco Chronicle, Joyce Slaton offers an honest look back at how print journalists rushed to crank out enough stories to stuff between all the dot.com ads and, just maybe, helped feed the tech hype.
John Battelle, publisher of the now-defunct The Industry Standard, pretty much nails it: "There was a loop with journalists, businesses, advertisers, readers....Magazines in the late '90s were not rewarded for doing negative stories. Everybody's stock portfolios were going up, and what sold magazines were positive stories about the geniuses that were making everybody rich."
Now, of course, we're thundering in the other direction.
9:59:50 PM 
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