xml-dev - Re: Washington Post column on Ballmer

[Bob Kline <bkline@rksystems.com>]

On Mon, 8 May 2000, Andrew Layman wrote:

> > > In today's Washington Post ...
> 
> > >   Ballmer hopes to build Microsoft's new identity partly around a
> > >   computing language known as XML. Invented several years ago by two
> > >   Microsoft technologists,
> 
> I've checked.  Ballmer never said that.  He merely stressed Microsoft's
> early support for XML.  The reporter is not a technical guy and he made a
> mistake.  
 
I appreciate your checking (I imagine we all do), and I'm relieved to
know that Microsoft is not claiming to have invented XML.  I'm a little
puzzled by the last sentence, though.  What would technical expertise
(or lack of it) have to do with a reporter's responsibility to check the
non-technical facts that he's reporting (such as who, if anyone,
deserves credit for an invention)?

-- 
Bob Kline
mailto:bkline@rksystems.com
http://www.rksystems.com


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