The Future of Tech Journalism: Just Straight Up Working for Facebook
Brittany Darwell has covered, almost encyclopedically, Facebook.com. She knows every detail, every line, every pixel, every small version change. She knows how the ads work, she knows how Likes work, and she wants only to list it for us on her website, Inside Facebook. But now she's joining the mothership.
In a message to Facebook, written on Facebook, about her new job at Facebook, Darwell is subsumed by the Zuckerbergian Godhead, becoming one with the social network she's so perfectly reported without a single ounce of criticism or opinion:
I know, it's confusing because my last job was at Inside Facebook, which was actually not a part of Facebook. Now I'll be working for Facebook itself, specifically on Facebook Stories, which is a place for people to tell the world about the positive role Facebook has played in their lives.
It's actually not confusing at all. Everyone's doing this! But few have Darwell's candor. Increasingly, the tech press is outdoing its peers in PR departments across Silicon Valley. It knows the subject matter better, and more importantly, just cares more. TechCrunch's Josh Constine writes the most compelling, almost narrative-scope press releases for Facebook because he really just loves the thing. Real love, the kind you read in poetry and Plato. Sarah Lacy is probably the best publicist in the game right now—fuck what you've heard. So why burden someone like Darwell with the burden of writing critically, of examining Facebook when all she really wants to do is describe? More defections like this are good for everyone. Let's just call ourselves what we are—the real shame is in pretending you haven't been in PR all along.