Bonum Certa Men Certa

Inside the Minds of Microsoft's Media Operatives — Part VI — Lessons Learned on Moral Depravity

Series parts:

  1. Inside the Minds of Microsoft's Media Operatives — Part I — Bishops in Rooks
  2. Inside the Minds of Microsoft's Media Operatives — Part II — Justifying a Career as a Microsoft Mouthpiece That Destroys Lives of People With Actual Facts
  3. Inside the Minds of Microsoft's Media Operatives — Part III — Attacking Real Security, Promoting Lies and Fake 'Security'
  4. Inside the Minds of Microsoft's Media Operatives — Part IV — “Same Sort of Journalistic Bias Infecting Russia at the Moment”
  5. Inside the Minds of Microsoft's Media Operatives — Part V — In Deep Denial About One's Harm
  6. YOU ARE HERE ☞ Lessons Learned on Moral Depravity


“The true hypocrite is the one who ceases to perceive his deception, the one who lies with sincerity.”

--Andre Gide



Summary: So-called 'journalists' who are in fact Microsoft spinners are a truly toxic bunch; they're allergic to truth and dangerous to truth-tellers; they're better off avoided and exposed, not informed (or shown hard evidence) because their covert allegiance means they're simply a trap rather than genuine agents of truth in reporting, thinly disguised as "objectivity" (to better parcel the lies Microsoft tells)

A previous part showed a rather lengthy attempt at justification from a so-called 'journalist' (Microsoft "asset") who is burning sources, including Microsoft whistleblowers. The "asset" or "mole" or "operative" (or whatever one calls it; the behaviour matters, not the term/label) has no remorse. This led us to a safe-to-reach conclusion that it can be rather pointless trying to enlighten such people. They're too close to Microsoft, too financially tied up, and simply unwilling to change their ways.

The last word on the matter comes from the burned whistleblower, who lost the job over the shoddy 'journalism'. Protecting sources may not be easy, but it wasn't an act of sloppiness but mean-spirited intent. It wasn't neglect but virtue-signalling to the Microsoft aristocracy. It's just the "cost" of Microsoft cover-up.

Congrats on the interview [with Microsoft's Brad Smith] and sorry I didn’t have the cycles to get back to you. I definitely would have some fun ones; oh well. Between you and me, I actually have a sincere respect for Brad Smith. I view him among the best attorneys in the country, among the likes of David Boies, and hope to have a opportunity to have a beer and a laugh with him off the record some time down the road.

Likewise on perspective. I’m not emailing you because I want to make you feel bad or think that I have the moral high ground; that would be hypocritical of me. Although it’s not a competition, even on your hypothetical worst day as an "evil Microsoft shill” or whatever (kidding) you’d be hard pressed to shade out the mountain of work I’ve done for them in 10 lifetimes 🤣. I just have genuine concerns about the state of tech journalism.

With regard to criticality and while I think it’s a fundamental of journalism, I don’t think it’s definition can be comprehensive of journalism itself; only in-part. I tend to agree with you on #1 under most circumstances and as a component of journalism though. While critique is usually reserved for experts and polemicists, there are plenty of circumstances when journalists are dealing with something asinine that runs contrary to common sense and conventional wisdom and doesn’t need the same level of dignity as it’s more rational counter-argument. So far as I understand, this is especially the case when there is potential for individual and societal harm and can see this in covering involving our environmental and financial catastrophes; all of which intersect with technology; correct me if this is inaccurate.

Case in point, if I wanted to just throw radioactive waste from Hanford into the Columbia and let nature handle it, journalists wouldn’t dignify that for a moment or need an expert for a counter-argument because they know that the outcome is most likely catastrophic. There’s no, “what about all of the good things radioactive waste does in a fresh water supply?” because you know it to be universally horrible by default. The same is true for murder, war, rape, torture, puppy kicking, pyramid schemes, leaded fuel/water, CFCs, tide pods, flat earth theories, cryptocurrency, ransomware, and…monopolies by default.

Just as no one is going to argue with me about puppy kicking being bad, no one is going to argue with me when I say that competition is the single greatest consumer protection and driver of innovation and that monopolies are bad because they impede said competition. Alternatively and if I were to tell you that I wanted to run an anti-competitive software monopoly and liquify all competition, you’d also probably advise against it. This is because we all know that monopolies are bad for society by default; not good or even neutral.

Despite substantial historical precedent and no viable economic, environmental, ethical, or evolutionary model in existence advising us to meet monopolies with anything other than critique and skepticism, we can consistently find most tech journalists doing the exact opposite of this and giving tech monopolies the benefit of the doubt instead a shrewd awakening; Microsoft or otherwise. Most won’t even call them a monopoly despite their convictions; only behemoths, giants, and other powerful euphemisms instead. Monopolies being bad is especially the case in free markets that are predicated on ample competition; different in monarchies etc.

With this in mind though I can’t really go with you on #2 at least with respect to journalism and monopolies, at least in outcome. After all, what am I left to rationally infer besides something between bias, conflict, and ignorance when veteran journalists consistently do what no credible economist would do by giving monopolies the benefit of the doubt, let alone likening my stance to that of biased-overly critical for mirroring conventional economic wisdom instead of whatever fringe hypothesis they’re operating on? Or am I behind on the times and is there some emergent economic theory that exonerates monopolies from the fundamentals of economics, history, and nature? Should I also un-read Merchants of Doubt, Manufacturing Consent, and Dark Money? Is Jane Mayer and Noam Chomsky full of shit now? I didn’t get the memo?

All joking aside, I’m genuinely left scratching my head as to how anyone, journalist or otherwise, can speak with any amount of integrity on highly technical matters pertaining to the forefront of STEM without possessing significant expertise and capacity for root cause analyses among other traits obtained from the rigors of decades of engineering that naturally escape most journalists without the same experiences. While some may see it as curse, a thin veil of unbiased objectivity is all that one can rationally expect from from such a dynamic non-experts and conflicted PR people before us. Nor can I see how placing non-experts in such positions that they cannot possibly account for fully doesn’t groom them for failure and society by proxy as an unintended consequence.

As far as fairness to journalists is concerned, I also agree with you to an extent and try to be decent but thick skin is implied with journalists and if they can give it then they have to be able to take it just the same. It’s also important to remember that one must accept the very likely risk of offending a lot of people whenever they're brokering hard truths.

In present form, I honestly don’t think that most journalists are anything distinct from a coal miner from an ethical perspective. Many journalists can name countless instances where they’ve been given no choice but to treat a paycheck like an ethics waiver like the rest of us; none of which is a worthy of shame until journalists try to package every day work for integrity.

This isn’t to say that I don’t empathize with journalists at all, I do, hence this discussion. I’m sure they’re overworked and underpaid like the rest of us too. I just can’t rationally prioritize either over net effect and outcome when it comes to societal catastrophes such as big tech at the moment for which they are a horcrux of as I see it. I realize that no one set out to be stenographers for the powerful as children but it’s hard to deny that industry makes it really easy to do just that, that many end up doing just that as a consequence (I can relate), how beneficial it is for industry, or how detrimental this dynamic has been to society.

Journalists like to project that there is this code of conduct and rigorous dedication to integrity and that just isn’t the case. Sans medical and science journalists, most journalists aren’t really obligated to follow a formal set of rules like doctors or lawyers and lack the protocols to guarantee the integrity they project. Journalists can’t be disbarred or have their non-existent licensees revoked. They employ the same 1st amendment that anyone else does and are held to the same libel/slander laws when publishing as well. And if you were to ask 100 journalists to define ethics or integrity then you’d likely get 100 conflicting answers besides “I don’t know”.

I fully realize of journalists may have the best of intentions but I also realize that the road to hell is paved with good intentions just the same. Ultimately, nothing that I’m saying would offend the likes of Noam Chomsky or Ralph Nader nor am saying anything that journalists haven’t already said about journalism themselves behind closed doors or even in books that both of us have referenced in this thread. So I’m quite comfortable with my views.

In all, the individual feelings of journalists, let alone journalists that were fine with doxxing me and didn’t care about my feelings, life’s work, or career, is of no consequence to me. If the truth kills them let them die. If it triggers them, then they need to get a doctor. And if they can’t handle the truth then they have no business being in journalism or any professional setting for that matter. Plus you seem to be handling the nature of this discussion just fine.

I digress, but I also realize that hard truths tend to pass through three stages. First they are ridiculed and/or labeled as offensive and treated like heresy, then retaliated against, and only after that will they be accepted as being self evident if the bearer remains persistent enough. I’ve already endured the ridicule. I’ve already endured retaliation to the point of reputation destruction and loss of my career. And if I’m not mistaken, I’m not really getting much of an argument back from you on the core of my arguments, from my assessment on Microsoft to the state of tech journalism, so much as I’m seeing you slowly accept and concede something about your industry that you and other journalists and intellectuals have been pondering and writing about long before me. I have nothing to lose by pushing this theses to their logical conclusions and plenty to gain if they end up holding true and being well received.

That said though and if you value my perspective and wish to incorporate it with deadlines and such then I think it’s only fair that you extend a formal offer to accomplish this.

Good chat!


Here ends this mini-series. We still have two ongoing series. As always, feel free to contact us with any information that's suppressed by the corporate media.

Recent Techrights' Posts

They Tell Us Slop Replaces Workers, But the Reality Is, US Debt Has Surged 2,300 Billion Dollars in Six Months (the Economy is Collapsing)
Oligarchy already entertains the option of running away to (or colonising) some other planet without pitchforks and "unwashed masses"
Reddit as a Hive of Trolls, Social Control Media Curated (Many Voices Censored and Banned) by Marketing Firm of GAFAM
Typical Reddit
The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) Delusion - Part III - Women Failing Women to Help Violent Americans From Microsoft
Summed up, SRA will gladly prioritise the "legal industry" over women strangled, raped etc
The World Gets Smaller, as Does Its Real Economy ('Human Resources') and So-called 'Natural Resources' (What Humans Call the Planet)
Don't talk about "AI"
 
Getting the European Court of Justice to Annul the Illegal and Unconstitutional Unified Patent Kangaroo Court (UPC)
We're still working on it
Forbes: BitCoin, Cryptocurrency pages removed from investment database, links stop working
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Bitcoin warning followed immediately by network outage
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Money Funneled to Protection of Software Freedom, But Nothing Really Lost
Crossposted from personal site
Mozilla Firefox Sinks to Just 1.5% in the United States
According to analytics.usa.gov
We're Still Fast
The site is even faster than the BBC's despite being on shoestring budget with only a small technical team
Gemini Protocol is Not a Waste of Time of Effort
We see more and more GNU/Linux- or BSD-focused bloggers turning to Gemini
Our Gemini Protocol Support Turns 5 Today
today is a rare anniversary for us
In Today's World, One Must be Tough and Principled to Get Ahead Morally
But not financially (sellouts)
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, February 07, 2026
IRC logs for Saturday, February 07, 2026
The Right Wing in the United States Does Not Support Free Speech, It Supports Its Own Speech
Free speech is often opposed by those who also oppose Free software
IRC is a Lot Better Than Social Control Media (They're Not the Same at All)
A good social analogy for IRC is, there are many buildings with a party in each building
Microsoft 'Open' 'AI' is 'Dead Meat'
Or 0xDEADBEEF as some geeks might call it
When Identifying "Low Performers" and "PIPs" Aren't About Improving Performance But Reinforcing a Clique in Your Company/Organisation
It's very troubling to see once-respectable brands like IBM and institutions like the EPO resorting to this
Slop and Flop (IBM), Slopfarms and Hybrids (Linuxiac)
Did Bobby Borisov assume he would never get caught?
Crowdfunding vs Bitcoins: donations are better investment than digital tulip mania
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Links 07/02/2026: Misinformation by Slop, Overrated Slop Causes Stock Market Panic
Links for the day
Gemini Links 07/02/2026: Diode Function Generators and Panic Over Buzzwords and Slop
Links for the day
A Can of WORMS - Part III - Envying the Influence and Accomplishments of RMS, Socially Deleterious Attacks on Popular Movements
the actions are deliberate and coordinated, not some 'organic' or grassroots behaviour
Crisis teams assembled as financial regulators anticipate Bitcoin implosion
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Converting FOSDEM Talk on Software Patents in Europe Into Formats That Work for "FOS" and Don't Have Software Patent Traps
transcoded version of the video
Links 07/02/2026: More White House Racism, "Europe Accuses TikTok of Addictive Design"
Links for the day
Silent Mass Layoffs: It's Not the Revolution, It's the Loophole and the Hack ("Low Performers" or "Underperformers")
Layoffs by another approach
Mark Shuttleworth (MS) Pays Salaries to Microsoft (MS) Employees
Canonical selling Microsoft
Links 07/02/2026: Windows TCO Rising, Lousy Patents Invalided
Links for the day
Microsoft Leadership: Stop Taxing Us, Tax Only Poor People
Does Microsoft create jobs?
Biggest "AI Companies" (Meta, Alphabet, Microsoft) Borrowed (Additional Debt) About $100,000,000,000 in a Year
Who will be held accountable for all this?
In Case You've Missed It (ICYMI), Google's Debt More Than Doubled in a Year
Wait till it "monetises" billions of GMail users with slop
In 2009 Microsoft Was Valued at ~150 Billion Dollars, Now They Tell Us Microsoft Lost ~1,000 Billion Dollars in Value. Does That Make Sense?
Or Microsoft lost 700 billion dollars in "value" in less than two weeks
PIPs and Silent Layoffs at IBM (and Red Hat) Still Going on, It's "Forever Layoffs" (to Skirt the WARN Act)
American workers out
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, February 06, 2026
IRC logs for Friday, February 06, 2026
Stressful Times for Team Campinos ("Alicante Mafia") at Europe's Second-Largest Institution
Keep pushing
Growing Discrimination in the European Patent Office (EPO)
it's a race to the bottom, basically
Google News Drowning in (or Actively Promoting) Slopfarms Again
LLM slop is a nuisance
Microsoft Stock Crashed When Alleged Vista 11 Numbers Disclosed
And last summer Microsoft indicated that it had lost 400 million Windows users
Gemini Links 07/02/2026: "Choosing a License for Literary Work" and "Social Media Is Not Social Networking (Anymore)"
Links for the day
Gemini Links 06/02/2026: Git and Email Patches; MNT Pocket Reform
Links for the day
Geminispace Net Growth in 2026 About a Capsule a Day
A pace like this means net gain of ~300 per year, i.e. about the same as last year
It's Not About Speed, It's About the Message (or Its Depth)
Better to write news than to just link to news if there's commentary that the news may merit
Benjamin Henrion Warned About the Illegal and Unconstitutional Unified Patent Court (UPC) in FOSDEM 2026
Listen to Benjamin Henrion
Economies Crashing Not Because of Slop Improving 'Efficiency' (That's a False Excuse) and 'Expensive' (Read: Qualified) Workers Discarded in Race to the Bottom
Actual cocaine addicts are pushing out moral people
IBM's CEO Speaks of Layoffs, Resorts to Mythical (False) Excuses
This has nothing to do with slop
Links 06/02/2026: Voter Intimidation and Press Shutdowns in US, Web Traffic Warped by LLM Sludge
Links for the day
Does Linux Torvalds Regret Having Dinners With Bill 'Russian Girls' Gates?
See, the rules that govern the Linux Foundation and its big sponsors aren't the same rules that apply to all of us
IBM: Cheapening Code, Cheapening Staff, Cheapening Everything
IBM's management runs IBM like it's a local branch of McDonald's. IBM is a junk company with morbid innards.
GNU/Linux Measured at 6% in One of the World's Largest Nations
Democratic Republic Of The Congo
Linux Foundation Operative Says We and Our Software All "Owe an Enormous Debt of Gratitude" to a Software Patents Reinforcer
The only true solution is to entirely get rid of all software patents
Mobbing at the European Patent Office (EPO) - Part IV - EPO Can Get Away With Murders, Suicide Clusters, and Systematic and Prolonged Bullying by 'Team Campinos' ("Alicante Mafia" as Insiders Call It)
Nobody in the Council or the EU/EC/EP gives a damn as long as laws are broken to fabricate 'growth'
Jeff Bezos Isn't Just Killing the Washington Post, He's Killing Thousands of News Sites/Newsrooms (in Dozens of Languages) That Rely on It for Many Decades Already
Not just slopfarms; even the Ukraine-based reporters are culled by Bezos, who's looking to please the dictators of the world
Central Staff Committee Confronted António Campinos for Giving His Cocaine-Addicted Friend Over 100,000 Euros to Do Nothing, Just Pretend to be Ill, While Cutting the Salaries of Everybody Else
"On the agenda: Amicale framework & Financial assistance for courses"
How to Win Lawsuits in 5 Simple Steps
Keep issuing threats every week and send 60 kilograms of legal papers to the target
More Than 99% of "AI" Companies Aren't AI, They're Pure BS
We need to discard those stupid debates about "AI" and reject media that gets paid to participate in such overt narrative control (manipulation like The Register MS)
AI Used to Save Lives, Now "AI" is a Grifting Scheme That Burns the Planet and Will Crash the Economy
What the media calls "AI" (it gets paid to call it that) is the same stuff that could instead be dubbed "algorithms"
Living in Freedom When 'False Flag Operations' Like EFF Get Captured by Billionaires to Take Freedom Away
There are many ways to think of Software Freedom
Amutable is a Microsoft Siege Against Freedom in GNU/Linux, Just Like the People Who Brought You 'Secure Boot' Controlled by Microsoft
Do whatever is possible to avoid Amutable and its "products"
Growing Focus on Publication
Over the past ~10 days we always served more than a million Web hits per day
"Going to be a large number of Microsoft layoffs announced soon"
Everybody knows a giant wave of layoffs is coming Microsoft's way
End of the 'GPU Bubble' and NVIDIA Finally Admits It Won't Bail Out Microsoft OpenAI Anymore
circular financing (financial/accounting fraud)
Corrupt Media Won't Hold Accountable Rich People for Role in Pedophilia
Journalistic misconduct or malpractice is a real thing
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, February 05, 2026
IRC logs for Thursday, February 05, 2026
EPO Management ("Alicante Mafia") Not Properly Sharing Information on Scale of Strikes by EPO Staff
disproportionate (double) deductions in salaries against people who participate in strikes, which are protected by law
Gemini Links 06/02/2026: Slop/Microslop, Home Assistant, and Valid Ex Commands
Links for the day
Blackmail evidence: Debian social engineering exposed in ClueCon 2024 talk on politics
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Bitcoin crash: opportunity or the end game?
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Changes at the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA)
SRA is basically a waste of money
Claims That IBM Will Lay Off 20% (or 15%) of Its Workforce This Year Unless It Finds a Way to Push Them All Out by Threats, Shame, Guilt
Where are the articles about IBM layoffs?
IBM Isn't a Serious Company Anymore, It's a Ponzi Scheme Operated by a Clique and It Misuses Companies It Acquires to Prop Up or Legitimise the Scheme
IBM seems like it's nothing but a "Scheme"
Google News Drowning in Slop About "Linux" (Slopfarms Galore)
Google should know better than to link to any of these slopfarms, but today's Google is itself a pusher of slop