What do we expect from Wired? Is there a general consensus that Wired is a respectable news source? I'm subscribed to it (the subscription was a gift) and it occasionally has informative and interesting content (the Christopher Nolan issue was cool) but I've been depressed by it as much as I've gotten benefit out of it.
I generally don't read Wired articles when they're linked to here or elsewhere. I find the title format of:
'Why XXXXX.' or 'XXXXX. Here's why:' 'How XXXXXX' to be clickbaitey, and when I get to the story, it's typically this faux-longform narrative which doesn't bring the content you'd expect from reading such a large amount. It's a little distateful.
Furthermore, it has a rep of being style over substance, with facts left unchecked in favour of the more attention grabbing story.
I don't blame the journalists who write it, I understand how fast you have to work in such jobs, and there might simply not be the time to track down every lead (certainly the journalists wouldn't be expected to have the expertise to fairly present every story they're asked to write (as opposed to (say) a political correspondant)). This is especially the case with our content-aggregating type media (although Wired are more able to investigate themselves than most, since they're a big player).
I'm glad it exists, as popsci articles can easily help make people interested in supported of things they wouldn't otherwise be interested in, which is good for the industry, but without trying to be snooty I don't think that I'm their target audience (and I suspect you're not also).
I'd say there's certainly that general consensus. There's a huge difference between "people on hacker news think it's good" and "the general public thinks it's respectable". It's not the National Enquirer -- completely out of thin air I'd guess that well over 90% of the American public think Wired is generally reliable on technical issues.
