10.22.20
TechRadar is an Irresponsible Clickbait and Misinformation Site Disguised as ‘News’
Real damage is being done by such sites, which distort journalism in the name of selling ads and rogue agenda
Summary: TechRadar is no tech and no radar, either. It’s just an opportunistic click-harvesting machine, disguised as a source of “news”; today we deal with the latest example (among many).
PUTTING ASIDE the anti-GNU/Linux bias of TechRadar, there’s a bigger issue. The site has almost always had an anti-journalism aspect as well. They’re not into accuracy, only whatever gets people to click, watch ads, and be spied on (for personal data to be sold). It’s well overdue for us to discuss this. We’ve long complained about IDG, ZDNet and various other networks of misinformation, funded by the companies they cover (their products and the rivals of those companies). There isn’t even a disclosure. They don’t bother because it would do more damage than good (honesty would be outweighed by the financial harm and damage to their credibility).
“We’ve long complained about IDG, ZDNet and various other networks of misinformation, funded by the companies they cover (their products and the rivals of those companies).”Our objective here isn’t to give an extensive list of FUD examples. In the past month alone TechRadar published several highly misleading FUD pieces about GNU/Linux and we’ve mostly ignored these (trying not to send provocateurs who lie any traffic at all). We’ll focus only on the example above, for this example is hours old and it’s timed (not dated) several hours before the actual release.
So what’s the big deal?
It actually is a big deal.
Because today we once again see people who announce a Ubuntu release prematurely, probably just for traffic through clickbait (the author knew it hadn’t been released yet). It really ought to stop. TechRadar is a clickbait site disguised as “news” and there are actual victims. The fact that it was today’s main/sole culprit isn’t particularly surprising. Unlike sites which said things like “Ubuntu to be released late today” (that’s an accurate thing to say), TechRadar was ‘announcing’ a Ubuntu release before it actually happened. Which is opportunistic fake news.
“Each and every 6 months period someone jumps the gun and ‘announces’ a Ubuntu release before it’s even released.”How many people relayed the headline, in effect misinforming other people (for instance, in social control media)?
I was hawking to see which site would be first among the offenders, knowing there was always certainly going to be at least once offender.
I’ve used or experimented with Ubuntu since its very first release in 2004. They typically make their release announcements later in the day (end of business days), quite often on Thursdays (not before weekends, just in case of show-stopping incidents that necessitate intervention). Each and every 6 months period someone jumps the gun and ‘announces’ a Ubuntu release before it’s even released. Some even link directly to mirrors that are still work in progress (with possibly mislabeled or partial ISOs, services still going up and down, limited workload/bandwidth capacity, undergoing preparation and configuration etc.).
“TechRadar is not (and likely was never) a news site but a streaming pile of crap looking to misinform and spy on readers.”People who prematurely ‘announce’ such GNU/Linux releases don’t just piss off the distro makers. Which they do by the way (this is no secret). They do a lot of technical and practical damage (which has many angles and aspects).
TechRadar is not (and likely was never) a news site but a streaming pile of crap looking to misinform and spy on readers. TechRadar is likely aware of it, but it’s hoping nobody will publicly point this out. █
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