11.15.21
Gemini version available ♊︎Microsoft GitHub Exposé — Part VI — The Media Has Mischaracterised Nat Friedman’s Departure (Effective Now)
Series parts:
- Microsoft GitHub Exposé — Part I — Inside a Den of Corruption and Misogynists
- Microsoft GitHub Exposé — Part II — The Campaign Against GPL Compliance and War on Copyleft Enforcement
- Microsoft GitHub Exposé — Part III — A Story of Plagiarism and Likely Securities Fraud
- Microsoft GitHub Exposé — Part IV — Mr. MobileCoin: From Mono to Plagiarism… and to Unprecedented GPL Violations at GitHub (Microsoft)
- Microsoft GitHub Exposé — Part V — Why Nat Friedman is Leaving GitHub
- YOU ARE HERE ☞ The Media Has Mischaracterised Nat Friedman’s Departure (Effective Now)
Summary: We take another detour to discuss the poor state of journalism, which is mostly amplifying self-serving statements from corporations, without ever bothering to properly investigate the facts
BY THIS point we were hoping to already deal with corruption and misconduct, but two weeks ago Nat Friedman announced his impending “departure” as CEO (he had gotten the boot).
We think it’s extremely important to get the facts right, seeing media revisionism such as this. Not only Microsoft sites did this; even some Microsoft-funded sites did the same, contributing to revisionism.
The Register says “Nat Friedman to quit this month,” but he was compelled to leave, he did not quit. Techrights will show why… just be patient as this series will last months, not days/weeks. We have plenty of material.
On balance, The Register has become more harm than good, or more nonsense than information, especially on topics like Microsoft. Too much influence from Microsoft operatives (such as Microsoft Tim), which is likely related to why the founder of The Register left. He left in protest over the direction which the site had taken. Most mentions of Microsoft in The Register this past week can be described as brand boosting*, no matter what the context may be. At the same time they mostly ignore the biggest Microsoft scandals and crime.
Microsoft loves to take over publishers. It is very important if not imperative to understand what happened to The Register because Microsoft does the same to other publishers, sometimes through Bill Gates with his bribes disguised as “donations”.
The Register is not yet as bad as ZDNet, but gradually it is getting there… much like Slashdot over a decade ago.
In Microsoft’s own words [PDF]: “Mind Control: To control mental output you have to control mental input. Take control of the channels by which developers receive information, then they can only think about the things you tell them. Thus, you control mindshare!”
Of course The Register wasn’t alone in perpetuating Microsoft’s face-saving narrative (which gives Friedman a chance of finding a job elsewhere); for instance, SPAMnil’s site (propped up by the Linux Foundation for PR SPAM) repeats Microsoft’s narrative: “Nat Friedman Steps Down As GitHub CEO”…
But real journalists should actually investigate (e.g. interview people) and know he was pushed out. Then, they should find out why and report on it. As we shall show later in the series, the so-called ‘tech’ media silenced/gagged/chose to gaslight women; that media basically protected abusive men from negative coverage… at a later stage/part of the series we’ll name the sites that did this.
When the “media” isn’t about journalism and isn’t employing actual journalists but a bunch of Microsoft mouthpieces and hacks (like SPAMnil, who lies for Microsoft) truth itself becomes “weird” and “contradictory”, whereas PR seems “legit”. Suddenly the actual facts get labeled a “conspiracy theory” and relegated/censored. Likewise, women who suffer abuse are portrayed as the aggressors and those who oppressed them are defended by sexist companies like Microsoft.
Thankfully, however, many people read our series because they want facts, not Microsoft’s face-saving PR… in service of the financial agenda of GitHub.
“GitHub (Microsoft) wants us to think that everything is fine now and women are safe because Friedman is out (they got rid of this awful CEO, but that’s not enough), yet GitHub is still not getting rid of the ICE contract.”It’s Nat Friedman’s last day today, or contrariwise the first day of another CEO (he said “I am excited to announce that effective November 15th [...] GitHub’s Chief Product Officer, will become CEO and I will become Chairman Emeritus.”), but don’t worry, Mr. Friedman. We know what you did last summer and we have evidence.
GitHub (Microsoft) wants us to think that everything is fine now and women are safe because Friedman is out (they got rid of this awful CEO, but that’s not enough), yet GitHub is still not getting rid of the ICE contract. Forcibly sterilising women? Fine! “Please stay with us while we participate in human rights abuses” is their implicit message. Back in the days they googlebombed the media with “Arctic Vault” to distract from what they had done for ICE. GitHub also bombarded the media with a bunch of fluff when its employees defended insurrection and fired opponents of the January 6th insurrection.
In the next part we’ll get back to our normal publication schedule in this series. █
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* To give two recent examples, here’s The Register promoting a misleading narrative which strangely enough omits the mention of Microsoft and Windows. It is a serious incident exclusive to Windows, but you would not know this is you read The Register. It generally ‘feels’ (we did not count, but we did an exhaustive survey of this past week’s headlines) like 20% of ‘articles’ in The Register are about Microsoft and the majority of these can be classified as “spammy” PR.
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