Summary: This post looks at the insult Microsoft-sponsored studies really are; it also looks at high-level Microsoft staff (incoming and outgoing) and which companies are affected

EARLIER this month we showed that Microsoft had paid IDC (IDG at another level [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]) rather handsomely in order to assist with lobbying of governments. This has hitherto been covered in:

1. Microsoft Pays IDC (Again) to Assist Government Lobbying
2. Microsoft Already Uses IDC Study it Paid for to Further Digitally Colonise India and Portugal
3. IDC, Gartner, NPD, and Other Corruptible 'Analysts'

We ought not to repeat the above examples or show what was contained in the propaganda; previous posts did this already, but curiously we are starting to find the backlash, which apparently comes from concerned citizens who come across the self-serving, self-glorifying propaganda from Microsoft/IDC (with lobbying in mind). Here is one new rant from a rather respectable source.

As Microsoft Goes, So Goes Nation?

[...]

Turns out we were wrong, for it is solely Microsoft’s recovery that is being hoped for (presumably by Steve Ballmer and the population of Greater Seattle, if no one else). Nowhere in the article was there any mention of hopes for a broad-based U.S. recovery. Nor did the article speculate on whether Microsoft, the General Motors of the software industry, might help pull the rest of the economy out of the hole.

Microsoft is not recovering; its revenue and profit have sunk and more layoffs are rumoured. But Microsoft is awfully busy selling the "too big to fail" illusion to prospective customers; thus the sudden need for Microsoft-sponsored IDC propaganda. It ought to be added that nothing unusual has happened here; they do this all the time.

“The side that benefits adopts a different, more convenient perspective than that of the exploited.”The author above rightly mentioned the "Greater Seattle" population. It is known to many that the Seattle press is as biased as its readers; they mostly love Microsoft, but who in a royal family, for instance, would ever rant about an expanding empire that pays off? The side that benefits adopts a different, more convenient perspective than that of the exploited. It eliminates guilt.

In the past week we found out that the Seattle-based Amazon is hooking up with Microsoft (several Amazon managers came from Microsoft in recent years). This is worth keeping track of.

We have also found out that NPR gets a Microsoft senior as president and CEO at a corporate sponsorship firm.

National Public Media, the corporate sponsorship firm for NPR, PBS and Boston-based WGBH, named Stephen Moss its president and chief executive officer yesterday.

More in the article "NPR Taps Former Microsoft, DoubleClick Exec To Head Sponsorship Arm"

By mere coincidence, NPR did a special (and long) glorification segment about Bill Gates this week; so, this is a valid reason to at least keep track of who runs the show/s. Razorfish seniors run back to Microsoft after the sale and another ad executive from Microsoft is now joining AOL. He will serve as the advertising vice president in Europe. This gives him (and maybe his former employer/convictions) power over the media.

“By mere coincidence, NPR did a special (and long) glorification segment about Bill Gates this week...”And lastly, speaking of media, Murdoch and Gates get a little more effectively connected with the joining of MSN and MySpace (For audio).

To name a more benign new appointment, a Microsoft manager lands in Starbucks too, but Starbucks is not in technology. ⬆