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Is The Boston Globe In Agony Over Peter Quinn?
Kathleen Parker, a syndicated columnist whose views I quite often agree with recently wrote about the less thoughtful folks in the Blogosphere, who write without consideration for the consequences their words may carry. While I agree that we should ignore these thoughtless word thugs, I am also wary of the Pharisees in the established press. After all, I don't exactly see the Boston Globe agonizing over its treatment of Massachusetts' former CIO, Peter Quinn. To some extent, it depends on whose blogs you read. The Blogosphere seems to work much like life itself, where the people you hang out with will also be the ones who most influence you. Thus, those who typically deserve to be ignored are. Not that people don't come a runnin' to see a good fight. Still, thoughtless bloggers may get the spotlight for a moment, but as soon as people see them for who they are, they'll ignore them. The people who will be attracted to them are typically in the same moral boat. Thus, if you're smart and observant, you'll ignore the ignorant bloggers. Ms. Parker, I'm on board with you here. However, Ms. Parker's words are pharisaic, especially in light of the Boston Globe's treatment of Peter Quinn. She writes, "Say what you will about the so-called mainstream media, but no industry agonizes more about how to improve its product, police its own members and better serve its communities. Newspapers are filled with carpal-tunneled wretches, overworked and underpaid, who suffer near-pathological allegiance to getting it right." I think that the Boston Globe has at least one reporter - not to speak of the editors responsible for placing the articles - who has not yet developed this "near-pathological allegiance to getting it right". The Boston Globe published on the front page, for all the world to notice, an article essentially outlining charges against Peter Quinn, that later proved to be false. The Boston Globe then buried his acquittal in the middle of the paper for the world to find. Thus, a good man's reputation has been tarnished with only the most feeble attempt, on the part of the Boston Globe, at restoring his reputation. Where is the justice is in this? As a man of faith, as a member of the clergy, I am called upon to act justly, to do justice. Therefore, I call upon the Boston Globe to give Mr. Quinn some sense of justice. The very least they could do is to offer a public apology for their grave disregard for his reputation. In sharp contrast to a newspaper sold on the street, blog entries generally spend at least a few hours on the front page. There is more opportunity for people to see corrections, retractions and apologies than in a printed publication. While not a blog, LXer.com (Linux News), offers news in a blog-like fashion. When I ran a story containing some errors, I followed up with an update correcting those errors. The statistics show that the corrective story was read by nearly as many people as the original story. The audience may have changed a bit, but we can safely assume many of the readers were the same. The same possibilities apply to blogs in the "brutal blogosphere". By contrast, a news story printed in the middle of the front section is not as likely to be read as a story published on the front page. People who became intimately familiar with the charges against Peter Quinn - or any other person against whom false statements have been made - may never realize that he has been acquitted. We can argue that it's their own fault for not reading the whole newspaper. However, it makes more sense for the newspaper to have published the acquittal story on the front page to attract more attention to the fact that Quinn had been exonerated. After all, if the press is so interested in "getting it right", why not make it right? Many in the libre software community believe, correctly or not, that there is a tie to Microsoft in all of this. It could be a government staffer, or a Microsoft employee. It could have been someone who merely supports Microsoft. Whatever one believes about how these false accusations came about, the Boston Globe should be agonizing over its failure to treat Mr. Quinn fairly. I would like to think that Ms. Parker can be likened to Nicodemus, the Pharisee who obviously was aware of the flaws of his peers. Perhaps she'll join the call for justice. |
LXer Feature: 2-Jan-06
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Comments (3)
What happens now?
Allow me.
Organizations like LXER, Lobby4Linux, TuxMachines...those who haven't been contaminated with "Get The Facts" ads splattered all over the interface are called to arms. You think that is over-dramatic? Given Tom's supurb presentation of the fact, it cannot be dramatic enough.
There are few who care, but those who WOuLD care are unaware of the depth of MS deceit. The "news" of MS practices needs to be calmly and steadily published in non-Linux sites. Individuals who can argue the case without wild-eyed frenzy should make phone calls to their local Tech Editors at the local fishwrap. These facts need to be clearly and calmly published at neutral websites. Simple conversations with friends and family can make a difference as well.
The truth of the matter is this: Bandages are not applied to unwounded tissue. Until people know they have been bitten, or bitten badly enough...the dog will run free.
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Peter Quinn is a good man who sought to do the right thing for the people of Massachusetts. Unfortunately what's right for the people of Massachusetts and the future of their information technology infrastructure, isn't the right thing for Microsoft. Now he faces one of the most destructive and corrupt machines ever assembled. Unable to compete on the facts or meet the basic requirements of the sound and well thought out ETRM (MA Enterprise Technical Reference Model (ETRM)), Microsoft has launched a smear campaign of intimidation, fear and extortion. And oh yeah, does anyone doubt that the single largest advertiser in the history of the technology industry isn't using this leverage to influence big media shills?
The technology media industry was corrupted long ago by this very same potent combination of Redmond advertising dollars and carefully controlled and parsed out access to the center of technology decision making. The Microsoft monopoly gives them as much power and control over big advertising – technology oriented media as it does over the technology marketplace of hapless users and boastful but wholly neutered competitor wannabes.
The same reprehensible tactics of intimidation, collusion, extortion, and exclussion that landed Microsoft in the anti trust docket, and were found to be used by Microsoft against competitors to illegally establish and maintain their monopoly control, are now being used against individuals like the honorable and respected Peter Quinn. The intent is the same; maintain and expand the monopoly control of Microsoft.
Where's the Department of Justice? Or how about Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly? Talk about being asleep at the switch! And it's not just the reprehensible array of intimidation, FUD, and outrageous corruption of democratic processes to further their own business needs that should cause us all to shout loudly that Microsoft be immediately hauled back in the docket. Take a look at the MSXML ECMA specification, and you'll find that this isn't about an XML file format, open or closed. Nor is it even about a product. No, this is about a platform. Illegally extending the Microsoft desktop monopoly into an entire platform; the highly integrated and tightly bolted MS Vista stack.
When the the MSXML file format was first introduced in MS Office 2003, it was encumbered by application specific dependencies, and one very ugly anti XML binary key. After much argument with the Valoris Group and the European Union's TAC/IDA committee, Microsoft finally agreed to remove the binary key in subsequent versions of MSXML. With the recently released ECMA MSXML specification though, we're seeing something far more insidious and disturbing. Something that should have anti trust guardians the world over up in arms and screaming. The application specific dependencies are being replaced with platform specific dependencies. So much so that the ECMA effort is likely to be more about ratifying MS Vista as a platform standard than anything having to do with XML file formats, transformations, or the wonders of XML interoperability.
We all suspected, and recent events unfolding in Austin, Texas look to confirm, that Microsoft purchased a Presidential pardon for their illegal anti trust activities. The events that link together noted Republican fund raiser Tom Delay, high powered former Preston, Gates and Ellis lobbyist, Jack Abramoff, the BSA, and Microsoft are a chilling testament to ferocity and power of the monopolist monster now having their way with marketplaces, governments, competitors, and big media. A chilling ferocity and show of raw power that was brought to bear on a single individual, Peter Quinn, who by trying to do the right thing for the people of Massachusetts, stood in the way of the mighty Microsoft criminal enterprise machinery.
Tom Adelstein, in his Pulitzer prize deserving reporting on the Microsoft machine, sights a VarBusiness Magazine headline dated June 26, 2005, which read:
It's A Microsoft World :: Five years after running afoul of the Feds, Microsoft is as powerful than ever. Pushing a platform instead of products could make it stronger still. Why nothing seems to stop it.
Pushing a platform instead of products? That's exactly what the ECMA MSXML specification is all about. Where's the gendarme when you really need them?
~ge~