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When Journalists Get It Wrong

I have had occasion to speak with journos in the past and I know a few these days. Good people. Their blogger bashing notwithstanding. Hell, there was a time I wanted to be one. A journalist that is. Then, it dawned on me that I like to eat. They’re underpaid and overworked.

Every once in a while though we see one that is bereft of common sense or at the very least gets it wrong. Ellen Messmer from Network World got it wrong. She was apparently in the audience at Black Hat to see Chris Hoff give a presentation on virtualization. She quoted his talk (I should note that he did NOT give her an interview) and dropped a word from what he had said thereby generating a completely altered view of what was presented.

Kinda key when you think about it.

One word can make a helluva difference. It can completely take the original meaning and turn it on its head.

From Network World:

Virtualization “will not save you money, it will cost you more,”

OK, so what’s the problem here? Well, here is what was actually said,

“Virtualizing security will not save you money, it will cost you more.”

A bit of a difference, no?

So, thanks to Ellen’s error, Hoff is now inundated with shark bites lawyer phone calls. Seems like the proper course of action for Ellen and Network World would be to retract the error and publish an apology.

NB. If you run a security blog please take a moment to familiarize yourself with this story. Once you’ve done your homework, please write about it to help out Hoff. (~dave)

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