I guess they're probably useful to lefties.

Oh, I'm sure they've got armies of paid shills operating dozens of sock puppets apiece, too.

....but also plenty of flat-out shilling.

Half of tech media is/are breathless cheerleader fanboy^H^H^Hpersons, and the other half is/are cynical shills ready to sell whatever half-baked notion the Valley's highest minds have come up with now.

...that is better than many other major organizations, at that. Their Jeff Passan has been out in front of a good many breaking stories in the last several years, and their other guys are pretty solid, too. Best of all, they mostly don't go out of their way to start a "controversy or fluff story du jour" like other orgs do. (I'm looking at you, ESPN.)