Verily I say unto thee, that Roy Schestowitz spake thusly:
> __/ [ The Ghost In The Machine ] on Wednesday 25 April 2007 19:19 \__
>> This just in from the "Oh really? How could we tell?" department.
>>
>> http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/04/23/gamers.vista.ap/index.html
> As I've said elsewhere, CNN could be doign some promo here, nothing less.
Q: When is a "news" item, not a news item?
A: When it's Microsoft sponsored promotion.
Isn't it funny how the independent articles (i.e. Blogs by actual
*users*) are nearly all *negative* towards Vista, and yet these "Viva la
Vista" network "news" items keep popping up out of the blue?
Odd that.
Even the BBC, it would seem, are not immune from this type of
"persuasion". Witness their general "fawning" towards their new
"business" pals Microsoft, and in particular their coverage of the Vista
launch:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/player/nol/newsid_6340000/newsid_6348300/6348391.stm?bw=bb&mp=rm
That little stunt resulted in them being "flooded with complaints" from
viewers:
http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=37411
But even *worse* than that indiscretion, was the excuses given by their
so-called Technology Correspondent Rory Cellan-Jones, when he was called
to account for this unethical behaviour on NewsWatch (presented by
Raymond Snoody):
RS: Rory, why was so much coverage given to what was a commercial
product launch?
RCJ: Well I wouldn't like you to think that we don't discuss and argue
about whether product launches are news. I get involved in these
debates quite a lot, and one of my lines is always 'Would we have
covered the launch of the Model T Ford when that was around?
Should we have done more when the first PC arrived?'. But if you
look at the Microsoft Windows Operating system, it's on more than
ninety percent of the world's computers; for millions of our
viewers it's an essential part of their lives, for good or evil -
a lot of people have a lot of problems with it. So when a new
version of it comes out, I think it would be bizarre if we didn't
actually cover that, and try to cover it in an informative, but
also a critical way.
RS: But a lot of viewers have said it wasn't really critical. Now for
instance, national newspapers covered the story. The Times,
for instance, talked about all the difficulties with bugs, the
fact that it's twice as expensive in the UK, and also that a lot
of people won't be able to run it on their computers. You didn't
get that sense of detached analysis from the BBC main network
coverage, did you?
RCJ: Well I disagree with that, I certainly mentioned in my pieces that
it was expensive. We actually put up on a graphic the fact that if
you got a computer more than two years old it's unlikely you'd be
able to install it. I think in the interview with Bill Gates, he
was actually confronted about that question about price. And we
also directed people towards our website, which incidentally got an
enormous amount of traffic - I think showing the interest - where
it was shown - we had a whole demonstration on the Website of how
difficult it was to install, and how pricey.
RS: Was that interview with Bill Gates 'fawning' as one viewer said?
RCJ: I don't think that's a fair view of that interview. Mr. Gates was
asked difficult questions; the whole question of security was
raised, and crucially, the question of price, and I thought -
watching that interview - Bill Gates looked a little bit on the
back foot about the whole price issue.
RS: The BBC is trying to redefine its technology coverage, and indeed
you're part of that process, but is there still too much reliance
on commercial product launches, rather than - at the moment -
explaining what these things mean for viewers and their lives?
RCJ: Often commercial product launches are a kind of stepping stone to
look at issues, but we are actually trying to put a lot more
thought and depth into our coverage of technology. There's a
deliberate effort going on right now to integrate what we do on the
television and radio with what happens on the Website; to cover
bigger themes. We did a big series on broadband at the end of last
year, which is now in nearly half of Britain's homes - a big sign
of how technology is developing - looking at the difficulties of
getting it, the changes it makes to people's lives, the whole
technological difficulties people face in using it.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/player/nol/newsid_6320000/newsid_6325800/6325843.stm?bw=bb&mp=rm
So Cellan-Jones equates the launch of Vista with the introduction of the
Ford Model T, or the world's first personal computer? Good God! It's
just an Operating System for Christ's sake, *one* in a line of *many*,
and (as had been known for months before hand) one of the *least*
meritorious in that, or any other, line of Operating Systems ... ever.
To compare something as unworthy as Vista to these world changing events
is ridiculous, and frankly suspicious. Is he corrupt or just stupid?
At *most* it should have been nothing more than a twenty second piece,
stating quite flatly that Microsoft were releasing a new Operating
System, and perhaps also mentioning that many who'd tried Vista already,
had been experiencing problems. The difference between *reporting* the
news and *making* the news, is that in *reporting* you simply discuss
what is already *known*, whereas speculating about what *might* happen
in the future, or praising commercial products, is frankly just
advertising ... it certainly isn't news, especially when that single
"news" item lasts *half an hour*. Jesus, I'm surprised the BBC didn't
set up a freakin' sales hotline!
He neatly dodged the issue of the UK price difference, just stating (to
paraphrase) "but I said it was expensive". Ah but, Mr. Cellan-Jones, you
didn't answer the question of why it was *more* expensive in the UK. It
*was* mentioned in the free "Vista advert" (in passing) but without
*any* elaboration at all.
He also failed to address the issue of bugs, referring to security
issues only, which is not the full story. This is particularly relevant
since *that* is one of Vista's biggest failings. Nice dodge there, Mr.
Cellan-Jones. There was also not a single mention of Vista bugs in the
"advert" either. Looks like Microsoft really have made some new friends, eh?
One sneaky little maneuver that some may have failed to notice, was his
manipulation of the fact of the "enormous amount of traffic" on their
Website resulting from this "advert", implying that "Vista must be
great, look how popular it is". That, as most people will appreciate, is
a crass assumption; that traffic might just as easily have been as a
result of people being *displeased* with this Vista advert, on what is
supposed to be a *neutral* network. The resulting "flood of complaints"
would certainly seem to bear out that theory ... another issue that he
conveniently ignored in the interview.
His defence of Bill Gates in the "fawning" accusation was pitiful. It
was like reading FUDenbusch apologising for Microsoft, only even less
convincing.
On the issue of commercial product coverage, once again he essentially
just ignored the question, misdirecting his answer to go off on a
tangent about *broadband*, of all things. Yes, that *really* answers the
question of BBC bias, Mr. Cellan-Jones.
I'm not going to transcribe that whole "Vista advert", but here's a
little taste of what it's like:
Jenny Lam, Creative Director, Vista:
(Talking about the irony of having to press "Start" to "Shut Down" Windows.)
"Getting rid of [the] Start [button] actually solves that problem, so
that's kind of a nice thing now, that we're a little proud of."
Max Flint, BBC Reporter:
"And rightly so."
[puke]
But incredibly ... it gets even *worse*:
Max Flint:
"But Microsoft doesn't need to worry too much if people are put off by
the cost of an upgrade. Vista will be pre-installed on almost all new
computers, so they'll get the big sales anyway."
Wait for the punchline ...
"That's the genius of Bill Gates' business."
Holly crap!!!
Or IOW, apparently the BBC thinks monopolies are a GoodThing !!!
God save us.
--
K.
http://slated.org
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| I found [Vista] to be a dangerously unstable operating system,
| which has caused me to lose data ... unfortunately this product
| is unfit for any user. - [H]ardOCP, <http://tinyurl.com/3bpfs2>
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Fedora Core release 5 (Bordeaux) on sky, running kernel 2.6.20-1.2312.fc5
08:00:01 up 9 days, 5:32, 2 users, load average: 0.23, 0.27, 0.27
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