The IT profession 'ain't above these things,' one reader says

Wow. You just never know what's going to rile some people. Eric Helland of Milwaukee was so upset by my last three Editor's Notes that he took time out on Thanksgiving Day to write a letter to let me have it.

Here's what he had to say about my columns on those women being used as eye candy at the Gartner Symposium/ITXpo ("Using Women" and "Getting Old, Indeed"):

"First you get all indignant about a couple of well paid young ladies appearing at a vendor booth at a technology show. Would you have felt the same if it was the Detroit Auto Show? I don't think so. You must have joined the ranks of those who feel we in the Data Processing business are just ‘above these things.' Well, we ain't. Two issues, eight columns = total waste of my time."

My response is that if it had been the Detroit Auto Show, and I was writing for an automotive industry publication, I would indeed have felt the same, and I would have written about it accordingly. That said, I have such a high regard for the IT profession and the leading role it takes in improving our lives that I do indeed feel strongly that it should be a leading advocate for the eradication of all forms of social injustice as well. Does that mean I feel the IT profession is "above these things?" Yes, it certainly does. Then again, I think every profession should be above practices that are dismissive of women or any other group within the profession.

Mr. Helland went on to denigrate my column, "One View of EMC," in which I expressed the opinion that charges of gender bias and sexual harassment against EMC are inconsistent with my own impression of the company's corporate culture. As I said in the column, I was offering "a perspective that's intended to be considered strictly for what it's worth, which may or may not be much at all." This was Mr. Helland's reaction:

"The November 19th issue hit an all time low. I have never in my 37-year career read such an out and out unpaid advertisement for a vendor. EMC could not have bought the kind of publicity you rained down on them in your editorial.

"Your credibility as an impartial observer of the machinations of the technology industry has gone down the drain, glug, glug, glug."

I disagree that expressing an opinion that conveys an overall positive impression of a vendor hurts my credibility as an impartial industry observer, but I'd be interested in what other readers have to say on that score.