PCWorld article lumps Tea Party activists with axe murderers

Those of us who enjoy working with computers - either as home enthusiasts or as IT professionals - read magazines like PC World to help keep up with the ever-changing nature of the beasts and the software we run on them.

What does this have to do with politics, you ask.

Newsbusters' Ken Shepherd reports Friday that Dan Tynan, a writer for ITWorld.com and PCWorld.com, took a "gratuitous swipe at Tea Party conservatives" in an article entitled Facebook's Phonebook Fiasco.

Who are all these people, and what are their phone numbers doing on my Facebook contacts page? That’s the question I am now asking.

I have 987 Facebook friends, some of whom I actually know. A handful of them are on my Android phone. Most, if not all, of the contacts inside my mobile phone are now listed in Facebook – as well as numbers for things like the pizza joint down the street, which doesn’t have a Facebook page.

You know how it goes on Facebook – somebody you don’t know asks to be your friend, you look over their friends list, decide they probably aren’t an axe murderer or a Tea Party member, and you say Yes, because Facebook is a fairly low risk, low maintenance connection. And if they prove to be truly annoying you can always block or defriend them later.

Shepherd writes that "Tynan describes himself as "very liberal" on his Facebook page," so one should not be too surprised at his "snark."

"It's just unfortunate that the professional writer and editor in him failed to exercise restraint before he clicked publish," Shepherd adds.

The mix of technology and liberal politics did not set too well with some of those who commented on the article.

Commenter "budosworldcomk4f5" wrote:

"decide they probably aren't an axe murderer or a Tea Party member" Why not leave politics out of it? As a Proud member of the Tea Party, I also happen to be in charge of IT.

"DirkBelig" wrote:

Yeesh. I had to look up to see if this was HuffPooAOL's Engadget site who had a headline recently advertising some browser plug in that cross-references email sender to Open Secrets (or something like that) to make sure they haven't donated money to Sarah Palin. When people complained, the nasty liberal commenter hordes attacked them, claiming they were being sent by Fox News to complain because there's no way a real tech aficionado could be conservative and vice versa. The casual anti-conservative bigotry of so many tech writers bespeaks the closed, narrow, blinkered environments they marinate in. Since they and all their pals hate the Tea Party, then all their readers must feel the same way, so why not get some digs in?

Dan Tynan could've written, "they probably aren’t an axe murderer or a professional dryer lint chef," but that wouldn't have allowed him to vent his rage and hatred toward a substantial chunk of the population that he mistakenly believes to have no overlap on the Venn diagram with his cohort of enlightened liberals. He was wrong, not that he cares.

Once again, a potentially useful article requires certain people to endure a gratuitous slap in the face to complete. Gee, thanks. I find I'm reading Engadget less, so why should I keep PC World on my RSS feed if it's just going to be hateful writers masturbating their disdain upon the readers? Laura Ingraham once scolded liberal entertainers to, "Shut up and sing!" How about tech writers just shut up and write about tech and keep their hateful politics to themselves. I know it's tough for liberals to not be jerks about it, but how about trying?

Reader "LeoneDartagnangxfs" adds:

There are a significant number of IT professionals - including this author, who also writes as the National Computer User Examiner - who support the Tea Party.

While Tynan's assessment of Facebook is correct, there is really no room for partisan politics in articles dealing with technology, and Tynan really should know better.

Shepherd concludes:

It's hardly a smart business move to insult a large section of technophiles who read your publication that happen to be Tea Party conservatives.

Update:  Shepherd reports that Tynan issued a tweet apologizing to the axe murderers.  "ok, I apologize. to the axe murderers. you tea party guys need to develop a sense of humor. but I doubt it will happen," he wrote.  Maybe Tynan should familiarize himself with the first rule of "holes," and stop digging.

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