05.27.11
Gemini version available ♊︎What Has Happened to The Guardian?
Summary: Traditionally a progressive publication with guts, The Guardian has softened after receiving money from Bill Gates and it now provides a platform for the software patents lobby
“Patent lawyer argues for USA style software patents laws for Britain,” warns Satipera about this new article. “All the same old false claims, good only for patent lawyers,” he continues. What is the Gates Foundation-funded Guardian thinking when it resorts to publishing such unpopular opinions recently? Last week it published a piece from a lobbyist against open standards (or patent-encumbered ones) and not so long ago it also gave a platform to Microsoft Florian, whose agenda is similar. They let him write entire articles there. Where is the criticism of Gates’ patent monopolies? It seems to have vanished when Gates them some money to keep silent and self-censor. The Guardian became a ruling class guardian rather than watchdog press when it accepted the money [1, 2, 3] (it could decline politely, but it did not), which probably made it part of the corporate press. Will they also accept money from BP?
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Needs Sunlight said,
May 28, 2011 at 7:21 am
Disturbing, but it seems to work to silence the media that way. PBS and NPR in the US have been mum on technology issues since co-mingling with the Gates’ lobbying slush fund, the Gates Foundation.
Needs Sunlight Reply:
May 29th, 2011 at 5:08 am
TheRegister also went soft on tech coverage many years ago after taking on some kind of advertising deal with M$. Same with Linux Today, which recently let Carla Schroeder go apparently after a deal with M$.
Dr. Roy Schestowitz Reply:
May 29th, 2011 at 5:54 am
Andy Updegrove stopped criticising Microsoft after Microsoft had paid him (contract).