01.08.10
The Guardian Sells Out to Microsoft Again — Claim
Summary: A respected British newspaper, which has already shown that it occasionally delivers Microsoft lies, is up to no good again
ONE of our readers, ThistleWeb, understands very well that audio-only content is medium through which to transmit a lot of nonsense without getting caught, or at least with one’s limited ability to point at the proof. Back in October he warned us that The Guardian was advertising Vista 7 (as an 'article'/'podcast') and wallclimber kindly volunteered to transcribe it so that we can rebut and dissect the lies.
The Guardian is sadly doing it again. Well, The Guardian is a paper I generally enjoy on all sorts of topics, so it’s a true and utter shame. Reporting officially becomes corrupted by Microsoft when there are placements or money (advertising) at play. It means that self censorship is to be expected, if not from reporters, then from editors.
“[I]t’s a promo piece making MS out to be something they’re not”
–ThistleWebWhen it comes to technology, British papers are often not reporting the news but rather just parroting what Microsoft pays them to say (in exchange for money). The Register, for instance, sells out to Microsoft under the "whitepaper" excuse (Ziff-Davis is the same) and the BBC is just generally run by many people who used to work full time at Microsoft UK [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7].
ThistleWeb previously helped show the biased reporting at the BBC about Vista 7 and now he analyses the latest Microsoft promotion from the The Guardian.
He wrote: “Have you heard the Guardian tech weekly CES special with MS?” He paraphrases/quotes/says: “plans for MS in the future is about consumer choice, better value etc
“They’re a “horizontal” player where you can choose a Sony tv, Toshiba laptop, Nikon camera etc…. a “partnering company” [...] it is a MS spokesperson, I just wonder what planet he’s describing, because it ain’t this one [...] bringing tech to a larger number of manufacturers, lowering costs to consumers rofl [...] how the hell do MS get away with blatant lies like this? [...] it is a MS interview so you’d expect the bias, but this is a joke [...] it’s a promo piece making MS out to be something they’re not [...] the interview is only the first 10 mins, but it’s complete fantasy [...] talking about horizontal plans being better value for consumers, like they did on the PC market….in their plans for mobiles [...] and the Xbox 360 being a success [...] or how they were gonna use the power of the Web to connect people……like they’ve failed over and over and over to do in the past [...] apparently the Xbox is an open eccosphere [...] anyone who knows anything beyond the MS PR will have several “points” per min with that interview…”
Is anyone willing to transcribe this full audio? █
Content is available under CC-BY-SA
clayclamp said,
January 8, 2010 at 6:17 pm
You don’t have time?
Robotron 2084 Reply:
January 9th, 2010 at 10:53 am
Ha ha ha. That, sir, is what I call a “zinger”, and I personaly thank you for it.
your_friend Reply:
January 9th, 2010 at 12:32 pm
I’m sure you will love the transcript, which someone obviously spent a lot of time putting together.
That’s the power of cooperation. Roy gets to spend his time doing the links everyone loves while others take care of nasty jobs like reading Microsoft garbage. Cheers.
Roy Schestowitz Reply:
January 9th, 2010 at 12:36 pm
Two readers separately did a transcript, but I posted the first one that I got.
satipera said,
January 9, 2010 at 4:56 am
Yes this does go on at the Guardian far more than I would like. I carry on reading the technology section despite this as there are a small minority of independent minded articles and blogs. These continuous examples in my mind are due to lazy journalism and the need to churn out product to a tight schedule as well as wanting to keep the advertisers sweet.
There has been the start of a debate as to whether product placement is to be allowed in UK telly programmes. Those against cite some USA programmes where the programme has become a vehicle for the product and the advertisers interfere with the writing. This type of commercial pressure we see in newspapers and magazines could be coming to your favourite telly programmes.
Roy Schestowitz said,
January 9, 2010 at 6:19 am
We’ve had two people volunteer to do a transcript (independently, i.e. collision), which I’ll post in a moment.
“You asked for a transcript of the Guardian CES interview,” one of them said, “so I made one.”
Hopefully we won’t have more than one person doing this at the same time, which is why I post this quick placeholder.
Roy Schestowitz said,
January 9, 2010 at 6:40 am
OK, here is the full transcript.