Slashdot Mirror
NY Times Tries to Untangle Analysts and Shills
twitter writes "The Register and others are examining a New York Times effort to eliminate bias from technology reporting by not echoing paid opinions. (Other coverage here.) They target Microsoft specifically. InfoWorld has an insightful summary of the two sides of this old debate. Fake think tanks, dubious sponsored research, and Astroturf are not considered but should be. Companies using these tactics deserve to be held at arm's length, but that's hard to do when the company is also a monopoly able to make or break any 'expert.' It would be refreshing to see the New York Times discover the FSF, opensource.org, EFF, and other sources of computing expertise."
Hey, that means Fox News is years ahead of the New York Times>/i> which apparently only believes in presenting one side of any debate. That said, I would line all the motherfuckers against the wall...friends and foes alike.
You want to know who isn't running Firefox 2.x? They spell it "definately" and "rediculous".
I don't see where you pulled this from. The story gives links to articles which mention several recent cases, and my post, to which you are responding, provides links to two more, and yet you conclude that this is about one jounalist? Based on what, exactly?
And even putting the counting problems aside for the moment, we aren't talking about "doing a bad job" here. We are talking about knowingly and systematically presenting a picture which is intentionally misleading or even completely fabricated in order to promote the agenda of some third party (in other words, bald-faced lying). And the editors either being asleep at the switch or (more likely, given the other cases) knowingly permitting it. This isn't just "doing a bad job," it's closer to criminal misconduct.
--MarkusQ