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September 22, 2006
HP story
HP story: Despite much blogger/journo outrage, it seems strange to protest underhanded investigative techniques used to research underhanded journalistic techniques -- if ya'll acknowledged your sources, and showed how you knew what you said you knew (so that others could check it too), then there'd be less ambiguity and umbrage in this world. Someone broke an explicit agreement of conduct (their NDA), and then someone else broke an implicit agreement of conduct ("how dare they look at my phone records which I know are sitting in some database somewhere subject to any of varied types of invasion" and so on). At least they're not lopping off the heads of infidels and blowing up marketplaces, at least we've progressed that far.... :(
Posted by JohnDowdell at September 22, 2006 03:25 PM
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I haven't been following the details of the story and don't know what's usual in board circumstances. Did the leaking board member or members actually have a signed NDA on file? Just wondering if this is something you actually know (and if so, could you tell us how? ;-) )
Posted by: George Girton at September 22, 2006 05:37 PM
Sorry, that "beheading" line probably sounded strange with the link missing! Here's the BBC account: "Thousands of mourners have attended the funeral of the Sudanese newspaper editor whose beheaded body was found in Khartoum after he was kidnapped...."
Checking the Google News listings, there were 110 (or maybe 40 ;-) publications carrying the story, many of which were weblogs. Europe and Africa had a pretty high proportion of this coverage... Canada's Globe & Mail & the CBC had it... in USA, the Washington Post used an international Reuters feed on it, and Editor & Publisher had an article too. No syndication, though.
Search term "hp dunn board" pulls up nearly 8000 hits.
A commercial journalist finds that their phone transactions are indeed visible and there's uproar, while an editor who was murdered for his work is ignored. Techbloggers listen to each other too much, and don't pay enough attention to what's going on in the world around them. "Echochamber" is more than a cliche.
(George, sorry, I don't have a citation where we can examine the fiduciary obligations to which a member of HP's board of directors agreed before joining. The reporting doesn't cover this angle either.)
Posted by: John Dowdell at September 22, 2006 09:58 PM