>From anonymous [sent by E-mail]
,----[ Quote ]
| You probably know about this already. And sorry for the lousy scan
| quality.
|
| What is more interesting however, is the fact that this article,
| which mentions LINUX en passant, is nowhere to be found on the New
| York Times archive. All other articles published by the same author,
| Thomas Crampton, in the last few days, are easily downloadable.
|
| Could it be that Mighty$oft sent some message or did some calls to
| the New York Times to let them know that they were not at all pleased
| with this rather bad news for them. Imagine, if the masses in the US
| suddenly realized that such a cheap PC could never be sold here
| simply because Windows alone costs almost 400 dollars. Even if
| people usually do not learn much at school, one thing they are
| normally good at is adding figures. This all does definitely not
| smell good for the Gates-Ballmer "duumvirate".
|
| Thought you might want to know about this.
|
| [...]
|
| By the way, just to make sure I got my facts 100% right, I checked
| again this morning in their archives for that article.
| And, indeed, it is the only one missing in a long series of articles
| recently published by that author.
| Definitely sounds fishy.
`----
Here is a scan of the excellent article in question:
http://www.schestowitz.com/temp/screenshots/FRENCH_CHEAP_PC.jpg
Related:
Here is a story about the NYT's repsonse to many complaints. It regulrly
quoted an anti-Linux shill, but apparently the readers' pressure was just
too much to bear.
NY Times bans Microsoft analysts from Microsoft stories
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| The New York Times continues to perplex with its analyst- quoting
| policy. Rather than having analysts declare their ties to clients,
| the paper would prefer to quote analysts that have no experience
| with a client - a protocol which seems to undermine the very point
| of citing analysts.
|
| The Register this week started pushing the Times to explain its
| quoting stance after noticing that Rob Enderle - the most quoted
| technology analyst on the planet - had been blocked from commenting
| on companies with which he has a financial relationship. The ban
| against Enderle appeared odd, given that Times reporters continue
| to cite analysts from larger firms who also have financial
| relationships with the companies discussed.
|
| [...]
|
| Just days after banning Enderle from discussing Microsoft because
| he has Microsoft as a client, the Times quoted Gartner analyst
| Michael Silver and AMR Research analyst Jim Murphy in a story
| about Microsoft's Windows and Office software.
|
| If the paper would prefer not to quote an analyst who has
| experience with a client, it did a poor job. Silver is Gartner's
| vice president in charge of client computing. Microsoft happens to
| do lots of business with Gartner and also happens to have a
| client-software monopoly. We're guessing that Silver knows
| Microsoft's products well and has direct involvement with the
| company.
|
| And, sure enough, he appears a number of times on Microsoft's
| own site and thousands of times in stories about Microsoft.
|
| Jim Murphy - wait for it - covers Microsoft too and is even more
| prolific than Silver.
|
| [...]
|
| Part of the problem stems from the reticence of companies such as
| IDC and Gartner to reveal their clients. That should make everyone
| nervous, but it doesn't. So called objective technology publications
| keep publishing material bought by vendors without telling you this.
| They're also too lazy or scared to ignore the likes of Gartner and
| IDC until the firms change their disclosure rules.
|
| As it turns out, there's a cottage industry devoted to Rob
| Enderle, where Linux zealots fire off this form letter to editors
| whenever Enderle appears talking about Microsoft. Perhaps the Linux
| crowd could put its fabled collective mind toward creating letters
| for all the major analysts. Lord knows, the Times could use
| some help.
`----
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/12/15/nytimes_ms_ban/
More FUD for thought:
Bill Gates lends cash to buy newspapers - $350 million to MediaNews
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| 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.
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http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=33849
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