THE so-called 'news' is mostly junk. Mostly. I mean, one has to watch carefully for real news sites, as opposed to spam farms and this plague of sponsored fake 'reports'. They've come to dominate the Web, replacing actual journalism with PR. It's not always easy to spot them though; it helps to know and keep abreast of site names and moreover the track record of pertinent authors.

"Journalism and investigative (inquisitive and in-depth) reporting about Free software and GNU/Linux is still a small niche, a specialised area that requires trust for access to privileged sources with scoops."In any event, this video deals with Microsoft googlebombing of so-called 'news' sites which claim to cover Linux but instead help Microsoft promote proprietary software, based on false pretenses (like false claims of 'porting' to GNU/Linux, WSL being "Linux" rather than Vista 10, or SQL Server being really available for GNU/Linux).

Towards the end I make recommendations. In the video I said "Linux 9 to 5" but it's "9 to 5 Linux", https://9to5linux.com/ (I don't edit videos or redo videos, so it's too late to correct it in the video). Some sites are smart enough to know what's really news and what's just pure noise. The person behind "9 to 5 Linux" actually left Softpedia, where a Microsoft operative turned the GNU/Linux section into a Microsoft propaganda dump. What a sad loss of what used to be an invaluable source of news... sometimes there are gifts (e.g. "access") or payments exchanging hands. They don't disclose it upfront and they can be very evasive when caught. This may merit another, seperate, future video. This may merit another, separate, future video. As recently as an hour ago I found another new example of sponsored "articles" with Microsoft strings. They're being clever about it, so there are several layers of indirection, e.g. so-called 'analysts' paid by Microsoft through the employer.

Journalism and investigative (inquisitive and in-depth) reporting about Free software and GNU/Linux is still a small niche, a specialised area that requires trust for access to privileged sources with scoops. It's becoming hard to recommend sites that aren't compromised. Many so-called 'Linux' sites became spam farms, affiliate marketing, SEO opportunists, or just dead/defunct/offline. The sponsored garbage isn't always properly tagged, either. Earlier today we explained how EPO crooks (Benoît Battistelli, António Campinos, and their close friends/former colleagues) misuse EPO budget to corrupt the media. Companies such as IBM and Microsoft do the same thing, and have done so for decades (usually without disclosures in the puff pieces, unless the payments for placements are very direct and overt). Don't participate in their PR charade, either wittingly or unwittingly. Credibility cannot be bought and it can be lost for eternity with just one error/mistake in judgment. ⬆

"If you can’t make it good, at least make it look good."

--Bill Gates, Microsoft