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Path: utzoo!hoptoad!amdcad!sun!pitstop!sundc!seismo!uunet!nuchat!flatline!erict
From: erict@flatline.UUCP (eric townsend)
Newsgroups: alt.flame,soc.misc,misc.misc
Subject: Slanted Journalism for Fun and Profit.
Keywords: IBM must be paying someone for all the glowing OS/2 reviews. :-)
Message-ID: <331@flatline.UUCP>
Date: 24 Jan 88 00:04:40 GMT
Organization: flatline in Houston(Montrose, really), Tx.
Lines: 73

From Info-World, 9 Novemeber 1987, front page:
Headline:  OS/2's Arrival Marks The Dawn of a New Era
Byline: Michael J. Miller

     Next month's shipment of the first version of OS/2 will mark the
beginning of a new era in software development.


This is some of the most biased, slanted, editorialized, etc, etc
so-called "journalism" that I've seen in the past few months.

In this age of 'desktop publishing' it seems that many individuals and
corporations have taken it upon themselves to publish 'news' magazines
and newspapers.  In some cases, these are little more than poorly disguised
advertisements that still manage to fool the unsuspecting businessmen that
are allowed to make decisions about buying computer equipment.

Take, for instance, LanWorld, a semi-weekly (bimonthly?) newspaper-like
publication owned by.... guess who...

Novell, Inc.

Hm.  Now if GM owned Car and Driver, and regularly covered GM products,
many people would cry "Foul!" while others of us would write letters
to anyone that would listen about this great problem.

Which brings up the flip-side of the coin: regulation.  The last thing
anyone wants, especially journalists, is regulation of the print media.
Written publications are still the only form of mass-media communication
that are not regulated by the U.S. Governement to a significant degree.
(Significant being equivalent to having to apply to the FCC or an
equivalent regulatory body for permission to express one's ideas.)
Regulation of the print media is not the answer.

*Education* is, however.

Make it known to your employers and your friends that the publications
they read may not, and in some cases are obviously not, fair and unbiased.
A growing trend in specialized magazines/publications is to not only
be owned by a company that produces the product, but to only review products
that are advertised in that magazine.

An example:
FooBar, Inc. makers of widgets for all types of computers, decides that
it wouldn't be such a bad idea to fund a magazine/newsletter for
owners/operators/buyers of widgets.  Corporate command would stop
all funding the instant a FooBar product was reviewed in a bad light,
so all FooBar products will either be given good reviews or none at
all.  To keep from seeming unbiased or unfair, the editors of Widget
Magazine decide to sell advertising to FooBar's competitors. To
keep things from getting out of hand, products from other companies
will be reviewed, but only if they buy ad space in the issue of the
magazine that has a review of their product.

I've yet to find a periodical that is obviously this biased, but I'm
still looking.  If you know of any, please email me, or anon smail me.

Check the publication information (required by law) that is usually included
in the first two or three pages of a magazine.  Also, pay close attention
to real news items about magazine and newspaper publication companies, and
who owns what.  Peterson Publishing, for instance, owns two photography
magazines, at least 5 auto magazines, a couple of sports magazines, and
so on.

(If there's enough intrest, I'll continue my cursory examination of
who owns what and post the info to the net.)
Also note that my information about Novell, Inc. owning LanWorld has
a slight chance of being incorrect.  As soon as I find the copy I had
around here, I'll verify that accusation.
-- 
J. Eric Townsend ->uunet!nuchat!flatline!erict smail:511Parker#2,Hstn,Tx,77007
Just another journalist with too much computing power.| 'Hey, watch me ollie 
'Girls play with toys. Real women skate.' --Powell Peralta ad.| this <whump>'