Inside Big Tech’s Years-Long Manipulation Of American Op-Ed Pages
Author: Alex Katrowitz for Big Technology
For years, the tech giants and organizations they fund have pushed op-eds from small business owners, think tanks, and academics into US newspapers without disclosing their involvement….
…A second tech giant communications pro described the process: “They're always written by the company, edited by whomever they're affixing the name to, and sent back and forth,” the person said. “Eventually they get it to where they want, and the company places the article.”…
…“News publishers should be disciplined in asking where financial backing, or communications backing came from, and disclosing that,” David Chavern, the head of the News Media Alliance…
I would guess that 80-90% of all eDiscovery articles, blogs, webinars, white papers, etc. are directly or indirectly paid PR pieces. I do not have issues with vendor backed content as long as the financial relationship is clearly disclosed so that the reader can watch for any hidden bias or agenda. When Barry Murphy and myself started the eDiscoveryJournal blog back in 2008 it was amazing how quickly we had marketers asking to place ads, get our subscriber list (which never happened) and generally steer our content towards their key messages. There are a few peers who write because they enjoy the public discourse. Most public figures in the eDiscovery world have some kind of financial relationship with a product, provider or organization. Very few disclose those relationships when they write an op-ed, blog or speak on a panel. Who do you trust for eDiscovery perspectives?