Deception Watch: AstroTurf, Lobbying, and Dirty Politics
- Dr. Roy Schestowitz
- 2014-03-01 13:42:51 UTC
- Modified: 2014-03-01 13:42:51 UTC
Media Bias
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The BBC has been accused of yielding to political pressure since the last election and allowing a right-wing bias to emerge in its journalism.
The serious criticism by a distinguished media professor suggests that the BBC has compromised its impartiality by depending too heavily on sources from business, the media, law and order and politics.
Covert Marketing
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Two-time "Worst Company In America" winner Electronic Arts isn't doing its publicity department any favors. The company's new freemium game Dungeon Keeper tricks frustrated players into leaving bad reviews on its own site, instead of on the Google Play Store, Gamasutra reports.
Politics
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Rep. Michael Grimm, R-N.Y., is defending his actions after he physically threatened a reporter at the Capitol after President Barack Obama's State of the Union address.
The confrontation began Tuesday when Michael Scotto, a reporter for New York cable news station NY1, asked Grimm about a Justice Department investigation into his campaign finances.
After cutting the interview short, Grimm told Scotto, "You ever do that to me again I'll throw you off this (expletive) balcony." He also threatened to "break (Scotto) in half."
NY1 posted video of the incident on its website.
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The Franklin Center for Government & Public Integrity (through its Wisconsin Reporter and Watchdog.org websites) has aggressively attacked the "John Doe" probe into possible campaign finance violations during Wisconsin's 2011 and 2012 recall elections. Its outlets have also published new information about the apparent targets of the investigation, but they have omitted an important detail: Franklin Center has close ties to individuals and groups that may be caught up in the John Doe.
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Google, the tech giant supposedly guided by its “don’t be evil” motto, has been funding a growing list of groups advancing the agenda of the Koch brothers.
Organizations that received “substantial” funding from Google for the first time over the past year include Grover Norquist’s Americans for Tax Reform, the Federalist Society, the American Conservative Union (best known for its CPAC conference) and the political arm of the Heritage Foundation that led the charge to shut down the government over the Affordable Care Act: Heritage Action.
South Korea
Revisionism
Consumerism and Distraction
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This ad strongly promotes the values of consumerism, and implies that consumerism leads directly to happiness. In the ad, the girls bought these shoes, are wearing them, and are now fashionable, popular, and happy. This message encourages the belief that spending money and obtaining material goods is the only path to happiness for girls. This big lie will lower girls’ self-esteem and perhaps cause them to purchase unnecessary goods in their quest to appear cool and likeable.
Recent Techrights' Posts
- Professor Eben Moglen on How Social Control Media Metabolises Humans and Constrains Freedom of Thought
- Nothing of value would be lost if all these data-harvesting giants (profiling people) vanished overnight
- Debian Left Twitter (MElon "X"), We Think the Free Software Foundation (FSF) Should Do the Same
- What would the FSF really lose if it stopped posting there?
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- Links 07/02/2025: Amazon’s Stock Collapses and US Government Being Dismantled (Still)
- Links for the day
- Gemini Links 07/02/2025: Mid-level Details and Simple Code
- Links for the day
- Links 07/02/2025: US 'Demolition Crew', e-ID Loopholes, and Sanctions
- Links for the day
- Social Control Media is Narcissism
- Nowadays there's a lot more literature and even press coverage explaining the harms of Social Control Media
- statCounter Sees GNU/Linux Share Doubling in China Over the Past Year
- It'll be interesting to see what data in the coming months shows
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Thursday, February 06, 2025
- IRC logs for Thursday, February 06, 2025
- Richard Stallman (RMS) Confirms Next Week's Talk in Europe
- He gave at least 2 talks in Europe last month
- Nationalism As A Service (NaaS) by Microsoft Azure, Gutting the US Government for Profit
- Will Microsoft be receiving bailouts as a reward for all this?
- Rumours of IBM Layoffs Apparently Confirmed Yesterday, IBM Canada Consulting Impacted (as Rumoured)
- when IBM has layoffs we must also read it as Red Hat layoffs
- Tons of Anti-Linux 'Articles' Published by Bots (LLMs), Maybe Microsoft's
- Upon closer inspection, all this FUD turned out to be LLM garbage
- Gemini Links 06/02/2025: Voicemail Sucks and Night of Lights
- Links for the day
- Ubuntu Desktop Director of Engineering Has Only One Blog Post. It Promotes Microsoft Windows.
- Remember that even 15 years ago (more or less, maybe 16 years ago) Canonical appointed a a 'former' Microsoft manager (Spencer) to lead Ubuntu on the desktop
- Links 06/02/2025: YouTube Takedowns Out of Control, 'DOGE' Breaking Laws
- Links for the day
- IBM Red Hat on "era of cloud computing", pushing "hey hi" (AI) hype in Microsoft Azure
- LLM slop might actually be more benign than Microsoft promotion
- Corruption and Rule-Breaking Prevail at the European Patent Office (EPO), Europe's Second-Largest Institution
- The law does not really exist at the EPO; it can be perceived as merely a "recommendation"
- statCounter: More Countries Where Windows is Around 1% "Market Share" (People Have Moved to Android/Linux)
- in some nations Windows is already 1% or less
- 404 Media Says "Workers at NASA Told to Drop Everything to Scrub Mentions of Indigenous People, Women from Its Websites" But There's Also Accessibility in the Firing Line
- In the case of abandoning accessibility, everyone stands to be hurt and proprietary software can be brought in to replace standards
- When BetaNews Writes Real Articles About "Linux" They Promote Windows
- The Web is in a bad state. We need to at least try to correct this.
- Gemini Links 06/02/2025: Cynicism and "Real Magic on the C64"
- Links for the day
- Links 06/02/2025: New Sanctions, Layoffs, and Executive Orders
- Links for the day
- Distros and Desktop Environments, Devices
- GNU/Linux focused
- New Rumours of IBM Layoffs in 2025, IBM Consulting Still Struggles, Based on Management
- "Hey hi" (AI) has been a common excuse for business failure
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, February 05, 2025
- IRC logs for Wednesday, February 05, 2025
- Links 05/02/2025: Kessler Syndrome and News Online
- Links for the day
- statCounter: Monaco Now 7% GNU/Linux ("Proper")
- GNU/Linux, not counting Chromebooks, is on the rise
- Many Parts of Google Lose Money
- It's quite apparent that many parts of Google - even some that rely on ad revenue or push ads - aren't profiting
- European Internet Forum (EIF) is Dominated by American Corporations and Microsoft Lobbyists, Staff Take the Lead
- Should the officials over here or the European Parliament pay attention to these people?
- Links 05/02/2025: Connection without Connectivity and Unionised Grocery Workers
- Links for the day
- Just Because People on Top of the Microsoft Pyramid Made a Lot of Money Doesn't Mean Microsoft is Wealthy
- The bigger they are the harder they fall
- Gemini Links 05/02/2025: Learning, Madman Ruling a Mad Country, Back in Geminispace
- Links for the day
- statCounter Shows "WIntel" Chasing a Dying Market
- Microsoft acts as if it's running out of money
- Free Software Foundation, Inc. (FSF) Still Raising Money, Richard Stallman Contributes
- total exceeding $430k
- A Lot of Stuff About "Linux" in Google News is LLM Slop, Fake 'Articles'
- It seems to be getting worse
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, February 04, 2025
- IRC logs for Tuesday, February 04, 2025