Dave Winer points out that Evan Williams of Odeo seems to get more than his fair share of love from the New York Times. Seems like he's on to something here.

Ev gets lots of love at the start of Odeo and then more love when he buys back the failed effort from the venture capitalists. So why all the hype even though this company still hasn't done anything all too noteworthy?

It's an inside job plain an simple. Those with the money can buy the PR juice and get love in certain online and offline publications. Evan Williams himself has admitted that even as he was trumpeting his great knowledge on how to launch a Web 2.0 company that he didn't even follow his own advice. He took the money, got the love and launched an un-inspiring product in Odeo.

Now they bought back the failure, renamed to Obvious Corp. and he's hailed as a pioneer of a new business model. Completely ridiculous.

Evan had his success with Blogger and that needs to be recognized. But in business (and certainly in the business of podcasting) there's no such thing as a guaranteed legacy. Me thinks that the money and fame bestowed upon the young Silicon Valley lions goes to their heads. And then they believe that further efforts will be lifted like helium.

The lesson here is that no matter who you are you can have failures or successes. If you stop following the basic principles and believe your own hype then the former is very likely to occur.