EDIT: Just reading the TC comments, it amazes me how often this basic misunderstanding comes up, even after an article that explains it.
No but explaining this might help HN readers to resist posting these types of stories.
Competition of any sort generates "trash-talk" from competitors and the like. Joel has a nice explanation in "Fire & motion" ~ http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000339.html why competitors might do this. HN readers are ( "unnecessarily" ) getting caught up in the cross-fire.
In the case when journalists are those who "dislike" and not people, someone could think that their motives to write something bad are not so innocent, if not directed by someone who pays to create a bad impression.
Although to be honest the majority of press I see about YC is really positive.
As for the question of whether we help people or not, I don't think many people who know what goes on inside YC would argue that we didn't improve startups' prospects by 6.4%, which is what we have to do to earn our keep. Considering the amount of effort we put into it, we'd have to be pretty ineffective not to manage that.