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And We'll Furnish The War (6/18/01)
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Looking to take over the world using somewhat less-than-ethical means? Well, when shaping public opinion is key to your success, your own media outlet is an awfully convenient thing to have around. (Just ask William Randolph Hearst the next time you happen to be at a seance.) That's why we got more than a little nervous a few years back when Microsoft climbed into bed with NBC to form-- what else?-- MSNBC.
Now, to its credit, while the technical side of MSNBC's web site makes little attempt to hide who's pulling the strings ("MSNBC is optimized for Microsoft Internet Explorer and Windows Media Player"; surprise, surprise), any pro-Redmond slant in MSNBC's actual news stories over the years has typically been subtle-- or, at least, subtle enough to keep the public from mobbing its headquarters and burning it to the ground. But as faithful viewer Johnny Asbury points out, MSNBC may be getting sloppy in its old age: according to The Register, the news channel was "caught doctoring copy originating from the Wall Street Journal to make it more favourable to... Microsoft." Well, it's about freakin' time; for any Microsoft offshoot not to get caught doing something unethical is downright unnerving. At least now we can sleep at night.
Allegedly the original WSJ story included "a harsh analysis" of the recent escalation of Microsoft's holy war against the open source movement, and, in order to prove that the company itself was dependent upon open source software, stated the following: "Microsoft said that since last summer, Hotmail has been running on both Windows 2000 and the Solaris operating system from Sun Microsystems Inc." MSNBC reportedly edited that down to "Microsoft said Hotmail has been running on Windows since last summer"-- which, while technically true, just slightly sorta kinda changes the whole point of the sentence. (MSNBC eventually changed it back after being called on it.)
Honest mistake? Well, that's up to you to decide. As for us, we're increasingly certain that if Apple ever really wants to capture more than 5% of the installed desktop OS base, Steve's going to have to launch his own news outlet and start distorting reality for the other 95% of the world. Perhaps a partnership with CBS to produce MacBS. Er... maybe not.
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SceneLink (3123)
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And Now For A Word From Our Sponsors |
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 | | The above scene was taken from the 6/18/01 episode: June 18, 2001: Numerous reports indicate that the Cube is finally on its last legs. Meanwhile, the Naked Mole Rat blesses us with a link while talking up the speed benefits of the Mac OS X "Puma" release, and MSNBC is caught rewriting a Wall Street Journal article to show Microsoft in a more favorable light...
Other scenes from that episode: 3121: Vital Signs Getting Weak (6/18/01) We've heard it many times in the past, and from many different sources, but at this point our minds are pretty much made up: it's just about time to say sayonara to the Cube. That's a shame, of course, because Steve's eight-inch Mac in search of a market is so many things to so many people... 3122: Fame! Glory! Faster Copies! (6/18/01) Holy yikes, we've hit the big time! Sure, it was an honor to be chosen as a member of the elite MacAddict Network (now recently deceased). Yes, we were overwhelmed when Apple's iReview bestowed upon us a glowing five-star rating (before also vanishing into the ether; hmmm, do we sense a pattern?)...
Or view the entire episode as originally broadcast... | |  |
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