Bonum Certa Men Certa

Today's News is PR

“[A]fter analysing a five-day working week in the media, across 10 hard-copy papers, ACIJ and Crikey found that nearly 55% of stories analysed were driven by some form of public relations. The Daily Telegraph came out on top of the league ladder with 70% of stories analysed triggered by public relations. The Sydney Morning Herald gets the wooden spoon with (only) 42% PR-driven stories for that week.”

--"Over half your news is spin"



Summary: How sources of information get perturbed by sources of power and why it matters

NEWS filters are nowadays as necessary as spam filters. A lot of news is fake and a lot of it is just trying to sell something. My uncle who is also a Ph.D. told me this month that when he was recently brought to the radio to explain a subject in which he is an expert he was gently asked to promote a particular product he does not believe in; the radio station actually had a hidden agenda to push, but he declined. That's how radio gets some of its revenue and people who do not cooperate with it are likely not to be invited to future shows. It's sad, but it is also true and it's merely anecdotal. When this is done in a high-quantity, retail-type fashion with entire companies mastering and developing an expertise in such manipulation, then they get called advertising agencies, PR firms, and other such euphemisms. They truly believe they do the right thing by "promoting small businesses", "informing the public", "driving the industry", and other such excuses. Some would justify fake reviews in more or less the same way. At another level, news pushes political agenda and think-tanks are sometimes formed to put some names on a predetermined document. It is, in essence, a case of opinion for sale. Privileged audiences are sold for corporations to confuse, scare, or fill with artificial wants and desires; it is for consumers (passive) or for citizens to behave as someone else wishes for them to behave. The more successful strategists are able to create vast political movements like the Tea Party and then label it "grassroots" when in fact it is all funded and coordinated by those who merely gather a voluntary mob for themselves, usually to harm those very same people's interests; they help enrich their exploiters.



For people who are aware of the vast amount of false signals surrounding them, it is easy to be demoralised at times. It is not a failure to block out noise that can prove rather depressing; sometimes it is the concern for others whose critical skills are too weak to carry out a signal selection process. That leads to peer-imposed pressure for compliance, which increases as the intervention of the so-called "PR industry" increases. This industry is vastly greater than journalism, estimated to be dealing with a turnover of over one trillion dollars per year in the US alone, depending on what qualifies as PR. In this vortex of dishonesty people are inclined to do irrational things and misinterpret just about everything, unless popular movements somehow manage to overcome mercenaries, controversial laws, and propaganda.

While this whole writeup may seem misplaced, it is actually very relevant to Techrights because educating the wider public -- not just dyed-in-the-wool Free software supporters -- is not easy when there are walls that act as boundaries of "allowed" thinking. For example, go ahead and explain to the ordinary person that cellular phones are nowadays used for surveillance, all E-mails are being scanned, and the world's richest (and publicly "charming") people are finding new ways to keep the public under control, sometimes misdirecting the perception of danger and threat to those who are poorest, and not by their own choosing, either. The role of Free software in this picture is akin to that of a leveler -- where the software producer basically cannot elevate one above another. The user has as much control over the software (but not the network, at least not yet) as anybody else and therefore the user can enjoy access to the same knowledge others used to keep sheltered. The idea of software freedom is just one piece of a bigger puzzle and one whose solution can improve the lives of many, usually at the expense of very few who capitalise on disparity. In addition to software freedom (in the computer code sense), technology has other aspects of it which Techrights addresses; among them there are net neutrality, censorship, DRM, open access, transparency, collaboration, weakening of monopolies like copyrights and patents, even trademarks to a degree. A lot of these issues eventually affect access to virtual, non-physical resources, mostly information. These naturally exist in abundance, but those who want to increase their own power impose limitations; they create self-serving scarcities and it remains the task of everybody else to undo these artificial restrictions or unneeded limitations, otherwise class war (the main type of war in this world, which can be spun as something else to create phantom enemies, e.g. narcotics) will never really be grasped and truly end. A class war is not fought with equipment of conventional war; it is best fought with information, which can sway one side onto another. Egypt is a good example of this.

With the decline of classified ads and other vital sources of revenue newspapers used to enjoy, journalism is truly dying, but its hollow shell is quickly being filled by PR personnel, to whom the void establishments -- with some reputation and distribution left -- provide opportunities to exploit. Deception pays a lot more than truth; changing people's perception is something powerful people are willing to pay for and nowadays a lot of the "news" is just like that. There is a new example of it which involves a fear-mongering firm. Watch this firm injecting self-promotion into IDG, which is commonly done there. The Apple hype machine is another useful example where a company is changing perceptions and turning a gadget into a status symbol, even when it's a piece of deficient, overpriced hardware. Gone are the days of genuine and investigative journalism, which is why so many people turn to sources like Wikileaks. Raw material can truly embarrass those whose coverage is entirely contradictory to truth.

"Beyond the 'Public Relations'" is a post we wrote a while back in order to shed some light on the role of Bernays et al. A century ago it was quite acceptable to openly engage in engineering of people's minds in order for them to accept unjust wars and defend aggression. Before the term "PR" was coined it was called "propaganda". Only later it became a very negative word, which suffered from a connotation not with colonialism but even with Nazi methodologies of turning indifferent populations into consenting followers.

One organisation which gained notoriety for supporting Western power games is the BBC. There are many examples of articles on the subject and they can easily be found on the Web, too. Microsoft UK took control of many positions of power at the BBC, including BBC World Service as we covered at the time it happened. Objectiveness is compromised this way. In addition to that, there is major news right now about "BBC World Service to sign funding deal with US state department". This suggests that if the BBC continues to be used as tool of foreign policy-setting/US agenda-pushing, then payments will help validate long-held suspicions (it is a shame that British taxpayers too must pay for this). To quote this report from today:

The BBC World Service is to receive a "significant" sum of money from the US government to help combat the blocking of TV and internet services in countries including Iran and China.

In what the BBC said is the first deal of its kind, an agreement is expected to be signed later this month that will see US state department money – understood to be a low six-figure sum – given to the World Service to invest in developing anti-jamming technology and software.


The reporter happens to work for The Guardian, which is funded by Bill Gates to worship and spin what he does as part of his investments. Then again, there is almost no big channel/publication which the Gates Foundation has not already bribed to ensure agreement. In fact, the latest bit of spin (from several days ago) again stresses that this tax evader, Gates, who forces people to pay him a tax on every new PC, is in fact a giver, whose 'example' everyone must follow. Satire is dead when it is said so seriously. It's PR. Similarly, Microsoft can now point the finger at some bogus claims that it is the "most ethical" in the world; yes, a think-tank like Alexis de Tocqueville claims so. This one particular think-tank, Ethisphere Institute, is studied and its nature explained by one of the few investigative journalists who still exist. Sam Varghese writes:

Surprise! Microsoft, big Oz banks among most ethical



[...]

If that wasn't enough to tickle one's nerve of risibility, the good folk at Ethisphere have selected three of the four big Australian banks - Westpac, ANZ and NAB - as being among the most ethical as well.


"About Microsoft," he adds, "one does not need to say much apart from observing that if it is among the most ethical, then the word ethics has certainly been redefined."

"The people who run the institute haven't responded to a query as to how many companies among the 110 selected this year have donated money to its noble cause," it concludes.

Who paid for this information to be generated? It's not as though it is some known ladder and the people attending/participating in this think-tank are not just doing it "for fun". It's just not what think-tanks do. To Microsoft, ridiculous output such as the above would be very handy and probably worth many millions of dollars. Imagine being able to tell customers that rather than being the industry's longtime bully you are the "most ethical" out there. Other companies that use such think-tank tactics range from oil companies to tobacco companies. They use think-tanks to distort information and control perceptions. It's all about information (and contrariwise, disinformation), which is now delivered predominantly using electronic means.

Some time ago Yahoo! Mail started to reject my outgoing E-mails, which is probably just an unfortunate coincidence, but how about this new rant from LWN? It says:

The wise folks at Hotmail have decided to start blocking email from LWN's server; they also have not really bothered to inform people of how to get themselves unblocked. As a result, anybody who has subscribed to an LWN mailing list from a Hotmail account has been unsubscribed. It must be said that we were surprised by just how many of those there were. Please accept our apologies for the inconvenience.


How pleasant. Those who control routes of information can misuse this power. If technology gets centralised (in private hands), it is a recipe for trouble. LWN is still one of the best sources for Linux news; the rest is dominated by large corporations such as Comcast, GE, and Universal. Who would ever sponsor news about software freedom?

Recent Techrights' Posts

Investigative Journalism Protects Society From Corruption, Crimes Against Women, Assaults on Civil Society
"what is the point of men doing military practice to defend a system that is so rotten?"
Swiss pimp usurping reputation of legendary Tissot boss Francois Thiébaud from France (BaselWorld, SWATCH Group SA)
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Paris 'Love Nest' & Debian Outreachy: from Lycée Lakanal to ENS Cachan, Cr@ns, nepotism
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Richard Stallman to Give Public Talk in 3 Hours, Then in the Technical University of Munich (Germany) Next Week
Richard Stallman at TUM on 21.10.2025 18:00, MW2001
Leaks and Whistleblowers: Our Plan for Today
Society simply cannot advance when too many people self-censor
 
The EPO's War on Techrights Was a Massive Mistake
The EPO started the SLAPPs after we had published a few hundreds of articles; we've since then published close to 6,000 because the attacks on us emboldened insiders to help us
General-Purpose Computers to Become Growing Area of Coverage
Without them, we have little left for controlling our lives
"They missed a great opportunity to shut up." -Jacques Chirac
Brett Wilson LLP has been trying to cheat the legal system many times
Harassment evidence: Switzerland, overcrowded fitness and yoga centers, incompetence and racism in accident response
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Vincent Danjean & Debian NXIVM collateral, blackmail risks
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
In Sweden This Past Friday Richard Stallman Explained Why Copyleft is Important
And he didn't have to 'bash' BSDs, either
Dystopian Trends in Technology Make Richard Stallman More Relevant Than Ever
It's good to see him attracting vast audiences
IBM Layoffs Due to a Lack of Money and Company Debt Rising by Almost 10 Billion Dollars in 6 Months
IBM didn't buy Red Hat for any ideological reasons; it was a fast "cash grab" for revenue
Forbes Already Stopped Being a News Sites. Now It's a Spam and Propaganda Platform for "Paying Partners" (Companies).
news from Forbes became very scarce
Is the Second-Largest Institution in Europe (EPO) Gradually Becoming More Like a Sweatshop?
Underpaid, unqualified, inexperienced and incompatible people are already recruited to replace veteran examiners
The Register MS Has No FOSS Coverage Anymore
The Editor in Chief is like a Microsoft plant
Links 13/10/2025: "Toasty Subwoofer" and WiFi Speakers "Are About To Go Dumb"
Links for the day
Gemini Links 13/10/2025: iNaturalist and Tove Jansson’s Moominpappa at Sea
Links for the day
Microsoft Does Not Deny That Large Retailers Like Walmart, Costco and Target Are Giving Up on XBox (and Not Stocking It)
No doubt XBox is in trouble and rumours suggest that more mass layoffs are imminent
We'll Encourage Richard Stallman to Talk About Software Patents at the EPO Next Week When He Visits Munich (EPO Headquarters)
Go listen to Richard Stahlmann
Arnaud Parreaux lost case defending rogue employer
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Mathieu Elias Parreaux declared bankrupt in Switzerland
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Breakdown of the Rule of Law and Patent Law in the European Union (EU)
The EPO cannot recruit suitably qualified patent examiners this way, let alone retain them
Gemini Links 13/10/2025: Good Films, Wizard of Earthsea, Upgrading the Steam Controller's Stick
Links for the day
It's Not Justice When One Side Denies the Other Side the Ability to Even Speak
At this stage, Brett Wilson LLP is in my humble opinion acting in contempt of the Court
Links 13/10/2025: Australian Catholic University Uses Slop to Libel Students, Canada Threatens to Kill Beluga Whales
Links for the day
How Not to Silence Tux Machines (It'll Only Backfire, Badly)
defending Microsoft while attacking this site
Slopwatch: UbuntuPIT and Google News
It seems abundantly clear that Google News and Google in general participates in the slop epidemic
Vincent Danjean (not INTERPOL), Claire Bardel & Debian pregnancy cluster
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Christmas lynchings: Martin Krafft (madduck), Penny Leach (mjollnir) & Debian pregnancy cluster
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Gemini Links 13/10/2025: Birthdays and "Committee Unable to Contact Nobel Prize Winner"
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, October 12, 2025
IRC logs for Sunday, October 12, 2025
The Same People Who Attacked Richard Stallman (RMS) Are Attacking Daniel Pocock to Discourage People From Listening to His Information
Pocock is being demonised for the same reasons and by the same people who attack RMS
Your Typical Anti-Richard Stallman (RMS) Cancellist
"About the RMS cancellation"
Richard Stallman (RMS) Has Announced His Talk in Rome Less Than 20 Hours in Advance (and on a Sunday)
Why did he wait until the night before?
We Are Safe in a Modern "Tech" Society, Right?
People are safer if they control their own computing
GNU Tools Cauldron Event in Portugal: Videos Now Available via Invidious
Go have a look
The Way Things Are Going, They May Soon Stop Saying "Web Address" and Instead Say "Chrome Address"
The Web isn't built or based around open Web standards anymore. It's centered around user-agent.
Microsoft as a Golden Cage
"I was laid off by Microsoft and can't find a job. I'm weeks away from giving up my apartment and moving across the country to live with family."
Weekend Discussion About How IBM's Bluewashing of Red Hat Will Cause "Enshittification" for Users
"I worked at a software company that was acquired by IBM so I knew it was game over for RedHat the day they were acquired"
Brett Wilson LLP Getting Sued by Its Very Own Clients, a Legal Story That Has Made the Mainstream News (Law360)
Law360 or Law.com are about as mainstream as one can get in that "sector" (litigation 'industry')
Slopwatch: GNU/Linux Sites That Became Slopfarms and Spamfarms
The Web is a mess and "Linux" or "Ubuntu" sites became part of the problem
Richard Stallman's Talk 25 Hours Away, Aula Magna Palazzo del Rettorato (CU001), Sapienza Università di Roma (Piazzale Aldo Moro, 5)
The talk is 25 hours away and we see some QR code for it
Gemini Links 12/10/2025: Watches, the Depression of 2026, Gamboling with Odds
Links for the day
Links 12/10/2025: 'False' DMCA Claims and Slop Facing Perils Again (the Hype Wears Off)
Links for the day
Microsoft Has Just Lost Privacy Case in Austria and Its Latest Moves Make a Complete Ban Seem Imperative
Microsoft is not a software company, it's a spying agency that uses software to collect data
The Register MS: Microsoft is the Security Expert, Not the Prime Culprit, So Buy More Microsoft
This front page feature is devoid of any actual substance, it's just Microsoft copypasta
Stefano Zacchiroli (Zack) & Debian pregnancy cluster
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Lucas Nussbaum & Debian pregnancy cluster
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Gemini Links 12/10/2025: "Palm Computering", Further Exploration of Slide Rules, and Key Takeaways from The Well-Grounded Rubyist
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, October 11, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, October 11, 2025
Tomorrow: Founder of the Free Software Foundation and of GNU/Linux, Richard Stallman, Speaks in Roma (Rome), Italy at 4PM
GNU/Linux is more important than ever in this dystopian world
Microsoft and Apple Are Rare Topics in Geminispace
in Geminispace it's rather safe to assume everyone is into BSD, GNU/Linux, and sometimes retro
Qualcomm and Manchester United Appear to Have Dumped Microsoft (Qualcomm Now Invests More in Linux, Apparently)
It's a relief to no longer see Microsoft logos and brands on a local football club's gear (I'm not a Manchester United fan, but not a foe either)
As Guest of Honour in Rome, Founder of the Free Software Foundation to Speak ("Distinguished Lecture") After Introduction by Leonardo Querzoni
Happy hacking...
All Things Open is Proprietary
The OSI has become a front group of proprietary software openwashers, led and sponsored by proprietary giants
When Microsoft Lays Off Lots of Workers They Say It "Invests in AI" (a Lie), Now It's "Reshuffles" or "Microsoft Tightens"
Microsoft "news" by bots
"I saw Richard Stallman give a talk in the mid 80s, which began my fear and loathing of software patents" and "Richard Stallman was always right."
"By betraying the legacy of our ancestors, we’ve set ourselves on a path toward self-destruction — moral, intellectual, economic, and ultimately biological."
There Were Several Waves of Microsoft Shanghai Layoffs in 2025, Western Media Continues to Turn a Blind Eye to Chinese Layoffs of an Epic Scale
Sometimes select Taiwanese news sites (published in English) or automated translations are all we have
Brett Wilson LLP Spreads Trumpism to the United Kingdom, Looking to Profit From 'Legal Colonialism' (Overriding Sovereignty)
There's growing recognition of this conundrum worldwide
The Demise of Shopping in Person
In a world like this, how valued is the customer?
This Past Friday, "Nearly 700 People Came to Listen to RMS!" (Richard Stallman)
"Nearly 700 people came to listen to RMS!"
Distinguished Lecture by Richard Stallman This Coming Monday in Rome
After "Free software, Crucial for Freedom in a Digital World"
Slopwatch: UbuntuPIT Churning Out Plagiarism and the Slopfarm LinuxSecurity Turns to Pseudonyms
Our hunch is, UbuntuPIT will sooner or later realise that this toxic approach is just harming UbuntuPIT and tainting the reputation of past articles
The Lawsuit by Clients of Brett Wilson LLP Against Brett Wilson LLP is Officially On, It is Progressing, The 'Experts' Pick Outside Law Firms (RPC and Mills & Reeve) to Spare Them From Litigants in Person
So it is probably quite potent
Gemini Links 11/10/2025: Nyctography, Gerrymandering, and Lurking
Links for the day
The 'Culture Wars' in Free Software Have Gone Out of Control
Social control media amplifies such utterly infantile discourse
Teaser: To Compensate for the Fact Our Clients Are Terrible Human Beings Who Strangle Women (While on Microsoft's Payroll) and We Get Paid by Mystery Parties We Bombard You and Your Wife With Almost 10 Kilograms of Legal Papers
If you can't win an argument, then drown the other side with papers?
Links 11/10/2025: World Mental Health Day 2025, Another European Legal Defeat for Microsoft 360
Links for the day
MIT Technology Review is Part-Time SPAMfarm of Billionaires and Mega-Corporations
Does MIT operate its own "b2b" SPAMfarm?
Open Source Initiative Executive Director Leaves, Replacement Sought by Monopolists, Not the Community or OSI Members
Serves to show who runs this show...
Links 11/10/2025: China-US Tensions Grow Again, "Hey Hi" More Widely Recognised as Bubble Made of Capital That Doesn't Exist
Links for the day
Now Confirmed in Western Media: Microsoft Azure Layoffs This Month
Affirmed by more sources moments ago
Peter O'Callaghan QC represented grandparents, Westernport Hotel, at Liquor Royal Commission
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Either The Register MS Divests From FOSS Coverage or Liam Proven is on Long Holiday
Publishers perish when their audience loses trust in them
Microsoft Cancelling Another Datacentre is a Sign of Financial Trouble and Lack of Growth
The debt continues to grow
Gemini Links 11/10/2025: An Evening at the Fair and Fast Fourier Friday
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, October 10, 2025
IRC logs for Friday, October 10, 2025