Why No Penalty for False Prophets?

[Lemur]

[T]he incentives for increasing one's profile (and hence career & earnings) lead commentators down the path of braying perhaps deliberately/contrived outspoken views.

You just described John Dvorak's entire career in 23 words. Kudos.

Recent forehead-slappingly wrong prediction from Enderle: Nokia (who aligned with Windows Phone due to desperation and truckloads of cash from Redmond) will "beat" the iPhone. No, you drooling idiot, Android will beat the iPhone. Sheesh. Any idiot could tell you that. Nobody, but nobody is putting their money on Windows Phone 7. Whatta maroon.