This article is more than 1 year old

Lone flamer takes on Britain's IT news Web sites

Joe Farmer is a true hero - to us all

Every couple of years a unique individual is born - a man (or woman) who knows they have a destiny to fulfil, a crusade to launch, a world to tackle and through sheer force of personality change the way we all view the world.

One such man is Joe Farmer. In the modern world, the media has become all powerful. Capitalism is deeply entrenched and spurs on our economies. And between capitalism and consumers lies the media.

Joe has realised the media is not all it purports to be. That it too is corrupted and riddled with yearning for financial gain, disrupting the careful balance of truth and bullshit that our society has achieved. Joe Farmer has made it his lifetime goal to expose this sick situation.

And he has decided to start this epic journey with IT news Web site Silicon.com.

For what other reason would Joe have sent a young female reporter on Silicon an email a few weeks ago stating: "What right have you to tell me about IT and the computer industry. I've checked you out - you've only got a degree in Anglo-Saxon - how does that qualify you to write about computers?"

The woman involved was concerned she may have picked up a nutter. But even then Joe revealed his true vision. "Don't worry, I'm not picking on you. I'm checking you all out."

And so he is. Since that email, a large number of other employees at Silicon has received personal messages from Joe (and much else besides), decrying them for their lack of appropriate qualifications and hence exposing the soft underbelly of the modern media. In fact, he looks determined to cover every member of staff.

Needless to say, since journalism is largely concerned with gathering facts and presenting these in an easy-to-understand way, Silicon sports a large number of reporters from Arts degrees - although a top management bod assures us one or two have science degrees. Joe has made his displeasure clear.

We can only applaud Sir Joe Farmer for his principled stance and Silicon has been obliged to admit it has been suitable humbled. Non-science reporters will soon be summarily fired, regardless of talent. We have no idea of Joe's medical history, but were we to see his files, they would be stamped in bold, red letters: SANE. Because only a truly sane man would recognise what the rest of us have been blind to see.

And when's Joe's finished? Who knows where he will go to spread the message next? We would feel privileged if he would come to The Register. Unfortunately, a quick straw poll revealed two engineering students, two physicists and a maths graduate. But anything to delay his investigation into ZDNet. :-). ®

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