This piece on Pando is an example of real journalism that is so rare in tech. A vendor makes an assertion that doesn't sound right to a reporter. So he gets the story on his own. It isn't a story created by a vendor. It isn't a subject that the vendor wants to discuss. It informs the reader how the market is developing, despite what the vendor wants us to think. And it says, in the headline, that the vendor is doing what all vendors do, leading reporters astray. And why shouldn't they? The tech press generally lets them get away with it.

The Pando piece taught me something, painted a picture I didn't have before. And most important, it makes their case. I'm left wanting to know more, for sure, but all details. I got the kind of overview a good journalistic effort should provide.

Add to this that Pando, alone among tech pubs, has been willing to ask challenging questions about the new Omidyar news company. That's the state of tech journalism in 2013. Now where are the other tech pubs on the Omidyar story?

I said to Paul Carr, a reporter at Pando, that I was surprised, and he asked why. I thought Pando was the worst of the insider tech news sites. I saw them as a PR mouthpiece for the Silicon Valley investor community. That they've been willing to challenge Omidyar, a tech multi-billionaire, and AirBNB, another huge Silicon Valley success, says that they're wanting to do journalism, not just get rich. Which, by the way, is probably why you read so little about Omidyar's company in other tech pubs.

Update: Maybe Pando is hedging a bit.