Assessing Media Bias: Microsoft Vs. Everyone Else

snydeq writes "J. Peter Bruzzese questions whether Microsoft receives unfair criticism in the media, while Apple, Facebook, and Google seem to get away from missteps unscathed. 'I've noticed an unfair, ongoing trend: If Microsoft does something a little off, it gets bashed into the ground for it. But if Google, Facebook, or Apple (all three of which can be categorized, like Microsoft, as The Man in their own rights) missteps, it generally gets mild reprimands and even support from the media and those drinking the Kool-Aid.' Do you feel any inherent media bias in its coverage of the tech industry?"

Comments

There is a huge positive bias

[Anonymous Coward]

towards Apple.

Re:There is a huge positive bias

[sgrover]

Their former tactics are still at play. They've just learned to hide them better. Like getting surrogate companies to do their will (may I direct you towards the SCO vs IBM and Oracle vs Google cases? Form your own opinion of course...)

Re:There is a huge positive bias

[Anonymous Coward]

Nevermind that Microsoft invented the basis of AJAX, XMLHttpRequest, which other browsers ended up copying to start the entire Web 2.0 era right? And they changed a web browser from something you had to buy to something that was free and shipped with every operating system.

Other than that, Microsoft has done nothing but hold back the web.

Microsoft Deserves It

[wrightrocket]

If Microsoft hadn't already alienated the world by trying to bully them, then I might care.

Re:Microsoft Deserves It

[Anonymous Coward]

During the 90's, Microsoft supporters were super-quick to bash, deride, and mock anything that Apple came out with, or anything in the open-source world, while corporate publications poured endless praise on Microsoft itself.

Now the situation is reversed and Microsoft wants to complain about bad press? Maybe they should sit down, shut up, and watch as what goes around comes around.

(Alternately, if you don't want bad press, don't ship bad products. If Microsoft wants to stop a flurry of articles about how awesome their competitors are, maybe they should ship products that are clearly, measurably better than their competitors.)

Re:Microsoft Deserves It

[Fluffeh]

MS has so thoroughly pissed me off

I think that is the crux of it right there, but for most people, perhaps not so much the /.'ers but rather mainstream media, they get snitchy with Microsoft because they are associated with "My Computer crashed again, damn Microsoft!". Microsoft does get a big bunch of bad press - or rather stories that they are involved with might get a bit more of a sour take due to their association with problems, lets face it, if a PC crashes right before the sales rep finishes putting that sales presentation together - and then has nothing to show, the sales rep will remember that and blame Microsoft. Google, Facebook and the likes don't have this problem. It might be argued that they offer a better service then, but that would be comparing apples to oranges.

I am not taking the side of Microsoft here, they piss me off as much as the next guy, but more for the fact that they abused their power greatly, they acted in amazingly un-ethical ways, especially in the early days, their (in my opinion) abuse of their operating system to push out other inferior products (Hello IE, I'm looking at you!). When it comes to the Windows side of it, I have to say that I am both in awe and loathing over the product. It is terribly unstable, though getting better with Win 7, the security is poor compared to *nix - but when you look at just how much hardware they support, and how well it works, any techie will have to say that it is amazing that it works. Slap any old or new hardware together and you can load Windows. It might not be terribly efficient, and bloat up, but it fricken works.

So, to sum up, I agree with They deserve it but not for the reasons that most people do.

Re:Microsoft Deserves It

[StikyPad]

Google didn't spend decades ignoring security, stability, quality, and performance all while strong-arming providers into using their product. They didn't start a "software alliance" that focuses almost exclusively on piracy of MS products and provides incentives for people frame their employers for fun and profit. Apple didn't file lawsuits against open source projects trying to give people viable options.

While MS is somewhat better behaved these days, and arguably focusing more on delivering a quality product than using questionable methods to achieve and maintain dominance, they still have a long and sordid history that doesn't just magically go away because they decided to start playing a bit nicer. Google has plenty of faults, but those who would compare it to MS in its heyday are either ignorant of the facts, or viewing history through rose colored glasses.

Re:Microsoft Deserves It

[king neckbeard]

Google's dominance in the search market is/was largely based upon technical merit. Also, Google has fairly limited lock-in to end users. You can switch to Bing, Yahoo, DuckDuckGo, etc., very easily if you so choose.

Re:Microsoft Deserves It

[Anonymous Coward]

Even IE 6 was good when it was released.

So I see you're not a web developer. The problem with IE was not related to the user interface, or rendering speed, or security. The problem was proprietary extensions, which to some degree were intended to replace the standards. You coded your web page the standards-compliant way, or the microsoft way, or went to awful lengths to support both.

Oh, and the user interface, rendering speed, and security were abysmal.

Re:Microsoft Deserves It

[nschubach]

Kinect was outright bought from another company if I remember correctly (PimeSense?). XBox I might give you but it's just a console running Microsoft Software... I would call it more evolution than innovation

Seriously?

[Anonymous Coward]

Are we really entertaining the topic of Facebook getting a free pass on PR? They get slammed every time a privacy issue comes up;

Likewise Apple gets hammered every time there's an iphone glitch or IOS issue effecting battery life.

Google? You mean the near universal punching bag for reasons why "do no evil" cannot be their motto?

Are you kidding me?

[dell623]

Microsoft has been left relatively alone while Google and Facebook and Apple have faced the most severe scrutiny of late. Also the fact that conversation about the patent wars is dominated by Florian Mueller and people quoting Florian Mueller has meant Microsoft has got off very lightly, even in its extremely dubious attempts to collect royalty for Android based on software patents, and attemps at bullying smaller companies like BArnes and Noble: http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=2011111122291296

Or the fact that despite anti trust rulings, we still get Windows bundled with all non Apple laptops with no option to avoid paying for it, and IE is still bundled?

No, they still get off too lightly.

Bias thy name is Gartner

[gelfling]

Gartner couldn't be any more insanely pro MS if they were branded a subsidiary of MS.

Re:Did Fox News write this?

[Anonymous Coward]

Did Fox News write this?

J. Peter Bruzzese did. He's simply a

Microsoft MVP, Triple-MCSE, MCT, MCITP: Messaging. J.P.B. is the Enterprise Windows columnist for InfoWorld and an avid Windows and Exchange advocate.

Why wouldn't he be fair and balanced?

Re:Media vs tech media

[MightyMartian]

The media always goes after the biggest target. For much of the last two decades that has been Microsoft, but now as they're browser share slips badly and their latest foray into the smartphone market still isn't lighting fireworks, well, Apple is the guy to beat on. Google and Facebook get a lot more heat in Europe than here, maybe because everyone here has already sold their souls to those particular privacy devils already.

Frankly, I'm seeing a lot less negative MS stories on Slashdot these days. To some extent, I'm seeing a lot less Microsoft stories period. Desktops aren't sexy things any more, nobody really gives a crap about the next version of Windows. Windows 8 buzz lasts exactly as long as the space between the latest story on Google being bashed by German courts or Apple being nailed for the number of Chinese get buried for every thousand iPods produced. Microsoft is a middle aged company now, and it really isn't doing anything terribly interesting or even inflammatory, or at least nothing that's nearly as interesting as Apple getting nailed as part of an e-book cartel.