[Am-info] Dr. Bombay: Everything but MS is irrelevant

[T. Guilbert]

In a message dated 2003 September 13 (Saturday), timestamp 01:20 AM, 
   on the topic Re: [Am-info] Dr. Bombay:  Everything but MS is
irrelevant,
   "Erick Andrews" <eandrews@star.net> wrote:

"|>He makes little pretense to hide the fact that he is really Michael
"|>Gerst.  Esther Pauline "Eppie" Lederer (Ann Landers) put up a stronger
"|>front than Gerst does. 

"|Forget about it.  We'd be better face to face, or on the phone,
"|definitely.   E-mail has no body language.

But he may publish your email; he sure as heck won't publish your
phone conversation. 

"|Gerst?  Mr. "Bombay Computer MD"?  I guess I still don't get him.

He's a working stiff, a journalist for a newspaper that is hardly at
the epicenter of the nation's media.  He has managed to parlay modest
credentials (journalism degree from TCU -- not a prestigious
journalism school; no major reportorial assignments that I can see; no
big investagatory expose) into a column that regularly runs in dozens,
maybe hundreds, of newspapers nationwide.  That takes both a lot of
work and a bit of luck.  Each column he writes reaches more eyeballs,
and more impressionable minds, than the sum total of eveything that
ever has been written on AM-INFO.  He undoubtedly has a wider (and
less sophisticated, and therefore more easily swayed) audience than
Joe Barr, by a wide margin. 

"|Anyway, what do you think is significant, or what do you think about
"|Mr  Gerst's articles?  Yes, I did some searches on Google, read some
"|stuff, but  nothing remarkable did I find.  In fact, the little I
"|did find was quite  unremarkable.  Who are his advocates or
"|adversaries?

Newspapers need content to draw people to pages that contain
advertisements.  Newspapers exist priamrily to sell advertising;
content is the tool newspapers use to that end.  Dr. Bombay is a
popular column that fills the space between advertisements in many
newspapers.  It is fluff, mostly, but unsophisticated people read it
because they think they are learning something.  Does Chris Berman on
ESPN really know more about football than you do?  Maybe not, but you
tune in to hear him voice-over the highlight clips with, "He. May. Go.
All. The. Way."  Does Michael Gerst know more about computers than you
do?  Chances are pretty good that he knows a good deal _less_, but he
knows more than his readership, who hang on his advice.  He has a
product to sell, and he has done a good job selling it. 

"|I mean, you quoted him as pooh-poohing everything but Windows, yes?
"|Did I miss some sarcasm or grand parody here?

"|Never mind too much, but can you tell us a bit more about where you 
"|think this guy is coming from?  

I think, for him, it is a job, nothing more.  I don't think he is an
advocate or fanatic except to the extent that sarcasm and ridicule can
spice up a dreary column that lacks much substance and get the reader
to go away thinking he was clever and come back again for more next
week. 

"|It's not been abundantly clear to me even reading the direct URL you
"|posted just what this guy is trying to prove.

He is trying to prove that he can regulartly fill X column inches with
material that newspapers can use to draw the reader's eyes to pages
the rest of which are filled with paid advertising. 

"|So why should anyone care about what the heck he writes, even in a
"|syndicated column, if he's being so obtuse?  Maybe he's just an
"|overpaid lightweight.

I doubt if he is paid much at all.  Beat journalists rarely get rich. 
He is doing pretty well with a niche product that eventually may
advance his career.  You can assist that career by giving him grist
for his mill, and, in the process, you may help correct the
misimpressions that he, through his ignorance, is conveying to his
readers.  He has a nice megaphone to reach an audience you could not
reach without him; you have knowledge that can help him fill column
inches.  So be the pilot fish to his shark, be the bird that eats the
insects on the rhinocerous's back. 

-- 
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