Author: Fernando Villegas
Date: 10:22:07 12/20/97
Hi all: I am not just a self appointed chess computers journalist. I am a real one, a guy that works in TV, magazines, papers and so on in my country. And If I can say it, a very reputed one, specially as a columnist. So, I think I know something about what is due to journalistic pressure to be the first to put the new and what is due to others considerations. There is not a general rule about this. It depends totally of circunstances. To put it clear with an extreme example, in case of war you are not going to publish anything that hurts your country even if dping so you get a great new strike. Also, you should be a miserable to publish something just to be the first to do so if that publication hurts severely the reputation of an inocent people and for nothing of importance.And, on the contrary, you would be a very bad journalist and even a bad citizen if you does not publish something of importante to your country or the world just because you have a friendship with a guy or two. Then, without general rules you must use specific criteria and common sense and in this case, in the case of KK publication about Ed failure to protect his rights, I think KK is wrong -and so Chris- when he claims a kind of jourmalistic obligation to do something that was clearly damaging a respected member of this community. What benefice are we going to get as chess consummers if Ed goes bankrupt? What is the sense suddenly to play the rol as a journalist here, when in a way or another we know all each others as consummers, posters, programmers or in any other qualification? We are primarely a club, don't we?, and not a general, anonimous community that needs to be informed thought journalists. Are we friends or not? If not, at least we have something in common that is the advance of this field; we are interested not only as programmer that earns a life with this, as Ed, but as customers that wants to get better, nicer programs in the future. I cannot understand what I would be winning if I get Decade 2,0 with rebel 9 and then Ed goes baknrupt and Rebel 10 never will appear. Is my interest -is our interest- to ensure that any programmer gets enough money to stay in his business. That's the reason reasonable people does not copy ilegally even if they can. I prefer to pay a fee, to purchase and so to ensure support, better versions, etc. All this does not mean that if a program seems badly designed or marketed -as i have posted about the DOS obstinacy of MCP7 father- you will not say a word: I did, as maybe you recall, but there is a great difference between to be an objetive or at least sincere critic of a product and to say somnnething that at the same time is not necesary and will produce an extreme damage. Journalism, to be the first to say something, is no so important to legitimate anything. You must pondere the weight of each thing in order not to do unnecesary damage, a damage without compensation for anyone. In the case of MCP7 DOS oobstinacy, I did not damage severely nobody; surely was sold and is being sold well and if some damage was done, is justified in order to put in the table the issue of the platform that people wants now. If I had believed that for any reason my articles about that issue were capable of putting Marty out of business, I had silence my pen, for sure. Is that a "violation" of journalistic ethics or something? No, is just commons sense, not to be a freak, not to be a fundamentalist.
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