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[News] Biased Comparison from Microsoft's Acquired 'Media'

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

This reminds me more than ever before of Stallman's suggestion never to
follow mainstream media because it's controlled by companies and delivers
their interests.

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

Related, from a couple of days ago:

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_


Sadly, forums and blogs can't be trusted either...

Microsoft Traps and Hunts for Bloggers in India !!

,----[ Quote ]
| Microsoft has announced the "Microsoft BlogStars" contest, to Hunts
| for Developer Bloggers in India. After feeling the power and increase of
| the Bloggers community in India, Microsoft tries to trap and hunt Bloggers
| in India to buildup the blogging community, for writing blog posts
| supporting towards Microsoft Technologies.
`----

http://i5bala.blogspot.com/2006/10/microsoft-traps-and-hunts-for-bloggers.html


Don't mess with Google's astroturf squad

,----[ 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/

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