Does Microsoft Take Over the BBC from the Inside?
- Dr. Roy Schestowitz
- 2009-02-17 03:33:13 UTC
- Modified: 2009-02-17 03:33:13 UTC
"We have 17.1 million users of bbc.co.uk in the UK and, as far as our server logs can make out, 5 per cent of those [use Macs] and around 400 to 600 are Linux users."
--Ashley Highfield, BBC executive at the time (2007), now at Microsoft
THE PROBLEM with
inside influence by Microsoft was noted here in the past using concrete examples, one of which was the BBC. For background:
Here is the latest
exhibit to be added an already large pile:
Industry Moves: Microsoft Online Chief Baylay Joins BBC After Highfield’s Arrival
[..]
There’s an irony in this latest turn of the revolving door between the two organisations - Baylay had been with Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) when former BBC/Kangaroo online chief Ashley Highfield was in November announced as MD and VP of Microsoft’s online and consumer business; her division merged with another. It also follows the earlier appointments of Erik Huggers and Jon Billings to the BBC’s future media team from Microsoft in 2007.
Glyn Moody
remarks:
Why doesn't Microsoft just take over the BBC and be done with it?
It's truly shameful to see Microsoft conquering positions of influence not only in technology companies (here is a
recent example) but also in media companies which control what people think and how they feel. Unlike
media companies that Microsoft owns, controls or funds, the BBC is paid for by taxpayers, which makes this a lot more outrageous. It's no wonder that the BBC is regularly accused of advertising Microsoft products and services rather than covering noteworthy events.
⬆
"Ideally, use of the competing technology becomes associated with mental deficiency, as in, "he believes in Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, and OS/2." Just keep rubbing it in, via the press, analysts, newsgroups, whatever. Make the complete failure of the competition's technology part of the mythology of the computer industry. We want to place selection pressure on those companies and individuals that show a genetic weakness for competitors' technologies, to make the industry increasingly resistant to such unhealthy strains, over time."
--Microsoft, internal document [PDF]
Comments
amd-linux
2009-02-17 06:47:34
Same like in Italy, (http://www.rai.tv, what a shame, nobody uses this public archive cause all Italians I know have no clue what Silverlight is), but in Italy, they do not need to implant remote controlled drones but can do their brainwash straight from the top via their influence on Berserkoni, sorry Berlusconi.
What a ridiculous easy world - implant some former employees and let them sell out the public interest to their former employer. A shame.
Karsten
2009-02-17 10:42:32
Roy Schestowitz
2009-02-17 11:06:27
anonymous
2009-02-17 14:46:25
[you know who i am]
anonymous
2009-02-17 14:48:35
Roy Schestowitz
2009-02-17 14:52:16
I know just one person who lacks the SHIFT and CAPS Lock keys. :-)
Jose_X
2009-02-17 15:48:07
Things would be clearer to people. Gates and friends know the power of confusion and deception.
Roy Schestowitz
2009-02-17 15:49:41