Advertisers influence on Editorial Policy
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| Author | Content |
|---|---|
| phsolide Dec 01, 2004 12:55 PM EDT |
Look: advertising is the art of getting as close to the untruth about a commercial product as you can, without getting called on it. MSFT is almost certainly targetting ads toward linux-related sites, and linux-related stories. MSFT ads just come up far too often for this to be sheer coincidence. MSFT has a $40 billion (BILLION) dollar cash reserve. It's not out of the question that they're devoting some of this to anti-linux advertising all over the place. It's rather disingenuous of any editor to plead that advertising has no effect on editorial policy. We all know it does. Don't try to shine us on. It's also disingenuous to plead that the marketers make the decisions about what ads to take and what to run. Experience of people like AdBusters (or, indeed, anyone with a non-mass-market viewpoint) who have tried to run sarcastic parodies show us otherwise. If you take MSFT money, for advertising or for "sponsored" studies, you have to be prepared to take the consequences, which are derisive laughter, protest emails, and loss of credibility. That's the way it is - too many "grass roots" letter writing campaigns, too many studies that turn out to be sponsored by 3 layers of MSFT proxies, too many shrill, pro-Windows advocates have turned out to be Wag-Edd funded. |
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