06.06.20
Gemini version available ♊︎The Need for Purely Independent Media
Widely-debunked lies promoted by ZDNet for Microsoft (even in articles about Microsoft’s competition; it has gotten exceptionally bad lately)
Summary: The media crisis, which has deepened greatly as more journalists are laid off amid pandemic, means that the PR/B2B industry takes over what’s left of news sites; we need to counter this worrying trend
PEOPLE everywhere have their “biases” or worldviews, which can be shaped by family, friends and even employers (upbringing plays a major role, as does the influence of patents; mine are left-leaning). That’s inevitable. But for output to remain reasonably sane there should be no strings attached (like threats of firing for expressing a particular viewpoint).
“So much for ‘European’ Patent Office… not even for Europeans but for a bunch of international (sometimes also European) law firms…”“Sponsored” self-serving self-promotional garbage such as this new example is still routine at Managing IP and other sites about parents (2 days ago IP Kat promoted Team UPC again!). Just check who sponsors such sites in general (these spammy pieces aside); they exist not to spread news but to promote litigation, whiten the reputation of patent trolls and so on. It’s partly because of it that we hardly see proper journalism about the EPO anymore. Of course it doesn’t even help that the EPO itself bribes and intimidates publishers, never mind the interests of law firms (António Campinos and Benoît Battistelli are in bed with them, which is why they promote software patents in Europe). So much for ‘European’ Patent Office… not even for Europeans but for a bunch of international (sometimes also European) law firms…
“I loathe censorship, I don’t believe these types of bribes are a crime (there are vastly worse types of bribes), so instead we should name and shame them, treating them accordingly, based on their deeds.”What we’re seeing in the domain of software is equally rigged; I very often complain about so-called ‘news’ sites that are shamelessly funded by the companies they cover; they produce puff pieces for them while slamming their competitors. The bias isn’t to do with worldviews or humble assessment; it’s everything to do with money. They’re bribed, they’re corrupt and they’re lying for a buck.
So what’s the solution to all this? I loathe censorship, I don’t believe these types of bribes are a crime (there are vastly worse types of bribes), so instead we should name and shame them, treating them accordingly, based on their deeds. Days ago I noticed that ZDNet started putting auto-playing Microsoft spam in all articles about GNU/Linux. Yesterday my wife noticed the same thing. Can ZDNet make it any more obvious that it is a Microsoft propaganda site? It’s hardly even trying to hide that anymore. It has gotten really, really overt. The screenshot above (annotated) is one among dozens of possible new examples; it cannot be stressed how insulting that is to the reader! SJVN should really just resign; he’s participating in something very nefarious.
“If there’s an independent news site that we ought to know about, by all means let us know. We’re always pursuing more of them.”One thing we truly lack is a broad range of independent Web sites, which are also very active (daily updates). I often struggle to find any, e.g. for Daily Links. Finding even a single one (that I don’t already follow) can take, on average, 10 minutes. We’re still trying to do just that; Daily Links are at least supposed to improve over time (in terms of accuracy and speed). We periodically share our reading lists or lists of sites that we consider trustworthy. Sadly fewer and fewer over time because more of them become inactive or barely active; COVID-19 has not helped.
If there’s an independent news site that we ought to know about, by all means let us know. We’re always pursuing more of them. █
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