Charles Arthur of the Guardian tried to get an exclusive from an Anonymous hacktivist, only to get ridiculed. While PCWorld pointed to AnonymouSabu and the Anonymous crowd being jerks, the article and the Arthur exchange show a culture clash—these journalists just don’t get it. Frankly, it’s embarrassing that anyone covering the tech beat have such a fundamental lack of knowledge of the Anonymous microculture.

In my opinion, Arthur expected his position in the institution of the media to grant him some status, by aligning interests. Unfortunately, his lack of knowledge and posturing only served to raise the ire of AnonymouSabu. This highlights the problem that much of today’s journalism is as deep as a birdbath and subject matter experts are giving way to generalists on a deadline.