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Verizon Launches Tech News Site That Bans Stories On US Spying
blottsie writes: The most-valuable, second-richest telecommunications company in the world is bankrolling a technology news site called SugarString.com. The publication, which is now hiring its first full-time editors and reporters, is meant to rival major tech websites like Wired and the Verge while bringing in a potentially giant mainstream audience to beat those competitors at their own game.
There's just one catch: In exchange for the major corporate backing, tech reporters at SugarString are expressly forbidden from writing about American spying or net neutrality around the world, two of the biggest issues in tech and politics today.
There's just one catch: In exchange for the major corporate backing, tech reporters at SugarString are expressly forbidden from writing about American spying or net neutrality around the world, two of the biggest issues in tech and politics today.
Talk about a straw man.
"Mainstream" tech sites are bad enough already.
And I care about one more crappy corporate-controlled portal site why? Other than the "will they set up a GeoCities page next"-esque shock-value that any company in 2014 still believes their customers give the least damn about their ISP's home page, of course.
If Verizon doesn't want news about the ways the intelligence community and Verizon conspire to rape us all, hey, their portal. And if I want actual news, hey, not their portal. It all balances out.
Adrian Cronauer: RIGHT! In... in Saigon today, according to official sources, nothing actually happened. One thing that didn't officially happen was a bomb didn't officially explode at 1430 hours, unofficially destroying Jimmy Wah's cafe.
Sgt. Major Dickerson: [to censor] Get him out of there!
Adrian Cronauer: Three men were unofficially wounded, and two men whose identities are not known at this time...
Sgt. Major Dickerson: [to censor as both are trying to get into the locked studio] Break the goddamn door down!
Adrian Cronauer: ...the fire department responded, which we believe to be unofficial at this present moment...
Sgt. Major Dickerson: [bursting into engineering room and barks to engineer] Turn it off! Now!
Adrian Cronauer: I just want to think that you should...
[the VU needles rest on their pins as the console goes dark... Cronauer removes his headphones and pushes mic boom aside]
That is like making a crime website but not reporting on murders and robberies.
In exchange for the major corporate backing, tech reporters at SugarString are expressly forbidden from writing about American spying or net neutrality around the world, two of the biggest issues in tech and politics today.
You gotta admire the chutzpah. Even as they are saying to the FCC that they can be trusted with the authority to be the gatekeepers of the Internet, they put on a public display of their intent to inhibit public policy debate on the very issue of Net Neutrality itself.
The extraordinary lack of self-consciousness is difficult to fathom. It rises to the level of, "Let them eat cake."
Stop-Prism.org: Opt Out of Surveillance
The most-valuable, second-richest telecommunications company in the world is bankrolling a technology propaganda site called SugarString.com
FTFY
SJW's don't eliminate discrimination. They just expropriate it for themselves.
It's the perfect example of why those who distribute media/news should never have been allowed to be the same ones who create the media/news.
It's OK, everything is still shiny ... look, we have pretty buttons, and widgets, and apps ... why no, we've never heard of spying or net neutrality ... your government is here to serve you ... the corporations are your friends, we're here to help... we've always been at war with East Anglia ... War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery.
Fucking Pathetic.
They're basically starting the campaign of disinformation and leaving out the bits of reality which are inconvenient to them.
I sincerely hope people either boycott them, or make damned sure to either pollute their comment boards with the stuff they're hiding, or otherwise publicly shame them.
A "Tech News" site which isn't allowed to discuss some of the most important news about tech going on today is a horrible thing, and do not deserve any support from anybody.
Screw you Verizon. I hope every other tech news site spends time pointing out the crap you're doing and this blows up in your face.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
I found NSA intrusion long before it became headline news.
Noticing probing on the firewall I did traceroute look ups through multiple paths to define a pattern of problem servers.
When a common server was discovered I fired up the Robtex Swiss Army Knife Internet Tool.
Cross referencing the trees and information and records of servers I saw a former employer server was the problem "leaky insecure"
Interestingly it was being hosted on NSA servers. In other words the internet is hosted by dot mil and nsa servers.
A side note is just writing this post induced a buffer pointer over run, coincidence? : )
If you want to know who is in charge, Find the person you're not allowed to talk about. Being a recipient of the controversial retroactive immunity for spying, as well as a contentious and vociferous opponent of net neutrality, Its fairly clear who cracks the whip. So if the arguably two largest concerns facing the internet and tech community are off-limits for SugarString, how is it they intend to beat the competition 'at their own game' if the competition offers in depth, comprehensive coverage and analysis?
Good people go to bed earlier.
I can't believe no one is talking about how to hack the site to allow those sort of news articles.
I miss the bad old days.
There are two types of people in the world: Those who crave closure
SugarString.com is USELESS and should be ostracised as a propganda site, NOT a news site.
In fact, it should be legally barred from calling itself a "news" site.