As all my regular readers will know, I have very seriously considered finishing this blog, because the more I saw of ‘the tech news industry’, the more I realised it was extremely crooked. As you know, Professional Tech News Journalists, so-called ‘A-List’ Tech Bloggers and Tech News Websites are all paid for by way of advertisers or sponsors.
This leads to stacks of conflicts of interest – where you see them ignore negative stories about their sponsors and give totally biased reviews of their sponsors products or services.
There is a MAJOR issue here - because these people are getting paid by the very people they are SUPPOSED to be reporting fairly about! This gives the people paying these guys WAAAY too much control over what they write – and what you are given as ‘news’.
I have learnt that with enough money, a Bloggers sponsor, a websites advertisers or a podcasters sponsor can literally ‘BUY’ a great review or ensure their products and their ‘friends’ products will be shielded from negative publicity. I got offered kick-backs to give fake reviews as soon as this blog started getting loads of traffic.
I have found that large parts of the tech news industry stinks and that the news sources I WAS RELYING ON were too dishonest to trust. I don’t attend the trade shows and I don’t live in California – I am just a consumer like you! So, I relied on these lying bastards for my tech news the way you probably do.
But I was worse – because I then gave my thoughts on this news here – without realising I was being used to pass on their lies and bullshit!
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Then ‘it’ happened!
I received over a dozen emails from readers; telling me that there was something REALLY wrong with the way a BIG tech news story was being TOTALLY IGNORED by EVERY major tech news journalist, tech news website and A-List tech blogger – so I checked it out and it was 100% correct. A story was being shielded!
I asked every single tech news journalist, every leading tech blogger and every tech podcaster I know; why NO ONE was carrying the story.
NOT ONE PERSON RETURNED MY EMAILS, MY CALLS OR EVEN MY TWEETS VIA TWITTER – THIS HAS NEVER HAPPENED BEFORE!..
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The story that proved what I already knew!
A news story broke last week; which showed WordPress.com / Automattic in a very bad light. They decided to charge their millions of users a $30 ‘ransom payment’ – otherwise they would continue to post adverts into their blog posts! These adverts could be for anything from sex toys to booze; regardless of the bloggers religious or moral convictions – a really big story!
A religious or morally sensitive blogger who’s too young to have the $30 or who lives in a developing nation and form whom $30 is a months income – now has to quit their blog!
None of the tech news websites and none of the ‘A’ list tech bloggers carried it – even though it related to millions of WordPress.com users.
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I made lots of noise
Eventually, the story was covered – BADLY – but way too late to make any difference and with no actual reference to the key issue. This is a common way to kill a story – make it seem like it’s ‘old news’ by ignoring it until your listeners / readers assume it’s all over and done with!
Buzz out Loud on Cnet covered the story and mentioned me in their show notes. However, they cleverly ‘spun’ the story and refused to mention the actual key point EVEN ONCE!
Are we honestly to believe that these intelligent tech journalists were to fricking stupid to realise the major point being made – you tell me?
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Tekzilla on revision3
That same week saw a man I have admired for years, Patrick Norton, pimping Becks beer during Tekzilla. Patrick doesn’t drink alcohol!
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Here’s where I need YOUR help!
The only bloggers I truly trust are those of you like me, with no financial interest in lying about a company, product or service. That’s why I am going to use YOUR blogs and YOUR opinions to balance the insane advertiser-friendly shit that you will find on the BIG tech news websites!
I need you to message me through the blog or message me on Twitter @thetechnewsblog and tell me what YOUR opinions on tech news, products, services, sites etc is! You can do this by name or anonymously!
From here in, (until one of these bastards arranges for this blog to disappear) I shall be using this blog to show you the difference between the way the paid-for websites and bloggers report the tech news and the way the consumer sees it.
Tell me where YOUR blogs are and what YOU think, by clicking here
