How online journalists get ensnared by spinning webs

Be in it for the long haul. There is so much competition when it comes to hardware sites that many writers will sell their soul, presuming they have one, to get an exclusive. In the short run, the exclusive may boost your traffic and create something of a buzz. In the long term, there are two possible outcomes. Firstly, the exclusive story you wrote was bang on the nail and you look brilliant. The alternate is that the exclusive was fed to you to get good coverage where none should have really existed. This can lead to you looking stupid when everyone else comes to a different conclusion.