11.09.08
Ed Bott: Bought by Microsoft
Up Microsoft’s Butt, or Just Wishful Thinking?
A familiar name and another familiar Microsoft booster. Ed Bott literally makes a living out of Windows books. Without Windows, Edward would be out on the street or taking GNU/Linux 101 courses, so no wonder he’s stubbornly defensive. Moreover, no wonder Microsoft gives him free gifts to maintain a relationship which keep his ZDNet blog emitting Microsoft PR.
Although he probably received his separately, Bott was among the recipients of these infamous laptops which we mentioned in:
- Wanted: List of Bloggers, Journalists, and Analysts Whom Microsoft Bribed at PDC 2008
- Microsoft Polices Coverage of Vista 7 by ‘Kicking Out’ Disobedient Journalist
- Microsoft is Bribing Bloggers Again… for Vista 7 Raves
- Praise Microsoft, Receive Bribe
- Harry McCracken, Technologizer: Bribed by Microsoft
- Tim Anderson Received Bribe for Vista 7 Review
- Jason Brooks (eWeek): Bribed by Microsoft
- Laptop Magazine: Bribed by Microsoft
Here is his fairy tale story.
Microsoft executives showed off the new Windows upgrade in a day-long series of demos on Sunday, doing their level best to impress a room full of journalists with a long list of new and improved features. At the end of the day, they loaned me a sleek new Lenovo X300 notebook running a recent build of the OS so that I could test Windows 7 for myself.
Ed Bott received a $2,000 gift from Microsoft. He has been writing nice things about the abusive monopolist and attacked the abuser’s critics for ages. Expect more of the same n the future.
Bott also defended similar Microsoft bribes the last time they happened. Here, have a look. Another journalist, Dan Warne, rebutted at the time.
# Dan Warne says:
I think that people who have the opportunity to get a free high-spec computer are going to find any way they can to paint it as -not- affecting their integrity.
In all my time as a tech journalist a software company has never given anyone a free computer. Sure, computer companies give out computers on long term loan, etc, but that’s not the same thing. It’s their product for a start (Microsoft doesn’t make computers) and they’re loaners, not keepers.
I don’t see this so much as reflecting badly on bloggers’ ethics, but rather reflecting badly on Microsoft’s ethics.
The offer should have been a loan. Microsoft shouldn’t have offered the option of keeping the computer, because that dramatically muddies the waters for everyone concerned – Microsoft, the bloggers and the readers.
Posted December 28, 2006 @ 1:11 am
# Dan Warne says:(sorry, of course, that should have been: in all my time as a tech journalist, no software company _that I’m aware of_ has given anyone a free computer. I’m sure it _has_ happened.)
High points for Mr. Warne. Shame on Bott though. He was a useless source before (see the credibility index where he was always ranked “0″) and deep inside the bitbucket he stays. █
“I’ve been thinking long and hard about this, and the only conclusion I can come to is that this is ethically indistinguishable from bribery. Even if no quid-pro-quo is formally required, the gift creates a social obligation of reciprocity. This is best explained in Cialdini’s book Influence (a summary is here). The blogger will feel some obligation to return the favor to Microsoft.”
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