The real question: How to keep Microsoft on the transparency track
,----[ Quote ]
| Some media members are simply shocked that Microsoft's PR team keeps
| dossiers on the reporters and bloggers who cover the company. That's
| old news, folks. And not even very interesting news.
`----
http://blogs.zdnet.com/microsoft/?p=353
Related:
Dan Rather: Journalism has 'lost its guts'
,----[ Quote ]
| To longtime CBS broadcaster Dan Rather, American journalism in recent
| years "has in some ways lost its guts."
|
| [...]
|
| I do not exclude myself from this criticism... By and large, so
| many journalists--there are notable exceptions--have adopted
| the go-along-to-get-along (attitude)," he said.
|
| [...]
|
| "In many ways," said Rather to loud applause, "what we in journalism
| need is a spine transplant."
`----
http://news.com.com/2100-1025_3-6166528.html?part=rss&tag=2547-1_3-0-20&subj=news
Related:
What happened to the guts?
,----[ Quote ]
| Of one thing I am fairly certain. Microsoft all but eliminated
| mainstream software competition. As a result, Microsoft became
| the primary source of advertising revenue for mainstream publications.
| You don't bite the hand that feeds you. So instead of publishing
| issues calling for a worldwide boycott of Vista because it focuses
| more on what you can't do than what you can do, you see special
| editions praising Vista as the greatest advancement in computing
| since Windows 95. Granted we all know that Windows 95 was a dog
| from day one, but by the 90s, the mainstream press had already
| become rampant with Microsoft sycophants and they pushed Windows
| 95 like it was the second coming.
|
| [...]
|
| In short, I'd love to see a mainstream publication become an
| advocate for the consumer once again.
|
| As noted above, there are exceptions, including Linux Journal,
| most other FOSS-centered publications and even The Register.
| But we're the little guys.
`----
http://www.linuxjournal.com/node/1000173
http://slated.org/bbc_microsoft_bias
Bill Gates lends cash to buy newspapers
$350 million to MediaNews
,----[ Quote ]
| Gates involvement has been very behind the scenes. In fact many of
| those involved in the deal didn'teven know he was one of the investors.
| It was carried out through the Gates Foundation, the world's largest
| philanthropy outfit.
`----
http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=33849
Microsoft Xbox to Join the Battle for Video Downloading
,----[ Quote ]
| Editors' Note: November 10, 2006, Friday An article in Business Day
| on Tuesday described a decision by Microsoft to offer movies and
| episodes of television shows for downloading through its Xbox Liveo
| nline service in the United States.
|
| The article quoted Rob Enderle, principal analyst at the Enderle
| Group, discussing the features that set Xbox Live service apart
| and its position in the market.
|
| But the article did not note that Mr. Enderle had Microsoft as a client,
| a fact later pointed out by a reader. Mr. Enderle does consulting work
| for several of Microsoft's product groups, though not for the one
| developing the Xbox; still, had The Times known of Mr. Enderle's work
| for Microsoft, it would not have sought out his opinion on the product.
`----
http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F50713F83A5B0C748CDDA80994DE404482
http://tinyurl.com/y3avsv
Corporate Propaganda Still On the News: Study Finds Local Stations
Overwhelmingly Fail to Disclose VNRs
,----[ Quote ]
| A new study by the Center for Media and Democracy says Americans are
| still being shown corporate public relations videos disguised as news
| reports on newscasts across the country.
`----
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/11/14/1518200
Wrong Yesterday Wrong Today Wrong Tomorrow
,----[ Quote ]
| I just got through watching a segment on the Today Show on NBC
| highlighting the launch of the Microsoft Zune.
|
| First of all, I thought journalists were suppose to reveal their
| affiliations with any product if such an affiliation exists.
| Microsoft owns a stake in NBC ie MSNBC News Network.
|
| [...]
|
| Second, all the side by side product comparisons showed 4th Gen iPods
| with monochrome screens with no song selected or playing, while the
| Zune was playing a video.
|
| [...]
|
| This isn't the first time NBC has misled its morning viewers with
| puff pieces about the Zune.
`----
http://fixyourthinking.com/2006/11/wrong-yesterday-wrong-today-wrong.html
Should MSNBC really be "reviewing" (Microsoft's) Gears of War?
,----[ Quote ]
| MSNBC recently reviewed Gears of War, calling it the Xbox 360's first
| killer app.... Nowhere on the page is any indication of the possible
| ethical issue MSNBC is "Microsoft-NBC", and the site is hosted as a
| subdomain of msn.com (a major Microsoft portal). Is this really balanced
| journalism?
`----
http://www.thisisby.us/index.php/content/should_msnbc_really_be__quot_reviewing_quot__gears_of_war_
,----[ Quote ]
| Long before it employed bloggers to do the job for it, Microsoft hired
| sympathetic members of the public to make its case in online forums,
| posing as disinterested citizens. Things got much more professional as
| the antitrust trial unfurled. After hiring DCI in the late 1990s,
| Microsoft created two new trade groups, the Association for Competitive
| Technology (ACT), and the Americans for Technology Leadership (ALT),
| and marshaled campaigns such as "Freedom to Innovate" - encouraging
| Windows users the chance to make spontaneous gestures of support for
| Chairman Bill.
|
| These weren't always too successful. A campaign in 2001 to petition 17
| state's Attorney Generals - who had pooled resources to bring their
| own antitrust action against Microsoft - resulted in supportive letters
| being written by dead people.
|
| And the astroturf taint continues today.
|
| Most recently, a spoof video portraying Al Gore as a Penguin was reported
| to have originated from a computer registered to the DCI Group, although
| the lobby group said it did not fund or approve the video.
`----
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/09/14/google_lobby/
|
|
