Someone amongst our readers sent to us a link to an advertisement from a Microsoft booster. An article by Lance Whitney/CNET is not much different from habitual advertisements, but it is disguised as news. This former Microsoft press writer, Lance Whitney, has been doing this type of thing for years, so promotion of Microsoft's latest little scam is only to be expected. Almost every Microsoft marketing scam gets promoted in CNET and one just needs to review the authors' background to understand why. "A special version of Bing will be offered to schools later this year," says the booster, "one that promises no ads, no adult content, and special learning features."

"An article by Lance Whitney/CNET is not much different from habitual advertisements, but it is disguised as news"The only learning is machine learning. Microsoft will be profiling children along with the NSA. The same author is also advertising Vista 8, embedded in something that has little to do with Windows, where Microsoft is barely even a contender. Watch him injecting his Microsoft agenda into artticles that actually speak about tablets -- an area where Microsoft does so poorly that some expect Microsoft to give up altogether and dump Windows RT (we covered this earlier this week).

CBS is not a news network and coverage of the NSA leaks helps prove it. It's no better than the embarrassing CNN. It's mostly propaganda and agenda, shrewdly disguised as balanced reporting.

ZDNet, another CBS site, has just spiked an article titled "Is Microsoft Abandoning Its Mobile Operating Systems?"

Yes, the article has been deleted and censorship is likely the cause.

"The original article which started this whole investigation is helping Microsoft to infiltrate schools and spy on everyone’s children (clients)."The author told me "It's in the middle of an editorial fight that has nothing to do with the content."

I asked: "If it has nothing to do with the content, what does it have to do with, the author?"

"One way or the other it will see the light of day again," the author told me. This author is responsible for the little Microsoft criticism that's left in the site. ZDNet seems to be in bed with Microsoft in the sense that Microsoft pays for the editorial structure to be altered (I gave examples over the years, notably Microsoft Windows 7/8 promotion in designated editorial sections). A lot of ZDNet writers are also associated with Microsoft. CBS does a similar thing in CNET, so watch out. Generally, the very act of challenging a critic can lead to self-censorship. It interferes with independence of writers. I am not naming the author, for his own protection.

The original article which started this whole investigation is helping Microsoft to infiltrate schools and spy on everyone's children (clients). Any spying for toddlers or children disguised as "education" is fundamentally malicious. "In the past," says iophk, "if M$ gave hard cash to schools, they just turned around and used to buy Apple to avoid M$ garbage." He points to this article which uses the word "pushing" (like a drug deal) to describe what Microsoft does here, gathering data on children and schools and then selling it, just like Gates and Murdoch [1, 2].

It is not nice when privacy abuses are marketed as helping poor kids. This is crude. ⬆