January 28, 2009, 8:58 PM — "I am one of the most hated people on the Internet," read the sad, sad tweet from Scripting News blogger Dave Winer. He's even been made into a "Bastards of the Blogs" collector's card. CNET writer Rafe Needleman expanded Winer's one-liner to a list of the five most hated technology pundits on the Internet:
-- Dave Winer
-- TechCrunch editor Michael Arrington
-- Weblogs Inc multimillionaire Jason Calacanis
-- 1938 Media videoblogger Loren Feldman
-- Perpetually bitchy Valleywag editor Owen Thomas.
"I honestly don't believe what people hate is me," Winer later blogged hopefully. Dave, the bad news is people really do hate you. The good news is hate, like love, is a way of being attached to you. On the Internet, it's the acceptable way. Would Needleman ever post about the Five Most Beloved Tech Pundits? No, because who would click?
Here's why I love the five guys everyone hates.
Dave Winer
Big Mistake: Complained endlessly that eggheads at Google and IBM were gratuitously replacing his super-simple RSS publishing format with a too-complex upgrade called Atom.
Why He's Great: It was true.
Michael Arrington
Big Mistake: Broke journalistic "Chinese wall" by using the same email address both to do news reporting and to sell ads for his site.
Why He's Great: In a crumbling economy, no one outside of journalism school cares.
Jason Calacanis
Big Mistake: Loud, flashy, millionaire life eagerly overshared online. Yes, that's his yellow Corvette.
Why He's Great: This guy always picks up the check.
Loren Feldman
Big Mistake: Inexplicable long-running grudge against pundit Shel Israel led to cruel parody puppet videos.
Why He's Great: If you're not Shel Israel, this video is hilarious.
Owen Thomas
Big Mistake: Blogs about Mike Arrington's love life.
Why He's Great: He gets 100,000 pageviews a day. Obviously, we love this junk.
