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BBC Deletionism of Open Source

Satellite dish



Summary: Another good example of the BBC's hostility towards non-Microsoft ideals and products

Techrights has spent several years showing that Microsoft UK executives infiltrated the BBC and that the BBC is FOSS/Linux-hostile. It's very blatant sometimes and given that taxpayers fund the BBC, this is outrageous. The BBC even received bribes from Bill Gates several times last year [1, 2]. This criminal is buying/ordering stories, so we know that the BBC is not an independent media entity.



As an exercise, over the past few months we grabbed the 1,000 or so latest headlines from the BBC's Technology section (via RSS) and found that Linux was never mentioned in titles. Being trend-setting press, the BBC can suppress the acceptance of GNU/Linux even in these passive ways, The BBC is moreover "Censoring Open Source," according to Homer who provides striking proof. Here are the two versions in question, shown side by side (vertically).

"I read the MSBBC article bbgruff posted," wrote Homer. "Of course I was delighted by the news, but I immediately noticed a striking difference between what he'd quoted and what was in the actual article. Specifically, bbgruff's version looked like this: 'It will be replaced by an "open source" curriculum in computer science and programming designed with the help of universities and industry.'

“I wonder who leaned on Judith Burns to censor "open source" from that article?”
      --Homer
"But the MSBBC's version looked like this: 'From September it will be replaced by a flexible curriculum in computer science and programming, designed with the help of universities and industry.'

"Note the subtle change from "open source" to "flexible".

"At first I assumed bbgruff had merely "embellished" the article a bit to wind-up the trolls, until I checked Google's cache, which clearly showed the phrase "open source" had indeed originally been in the article.

"Google's cached copy of the non-mobile version has unfortunately already been synced, but the mobile copy still shows the original content.

"I also archived both copies for my records [.,.] I wonder who leaned on Judith Burns to censor "open source" from that article?

"But the MSBBC isn't biased. Honest."

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