All the News That's Microsoft

[Dave Farber <farber () central cis upenn edu>]

CyberWire Dispatch // Copyright (c) 1995


Jacking in from "The Front Page" Port:


Washington -- Here's the equation;  don't forget it:  Take any venture, mix
gently.  Toss Microsoft into the mix, sit back and wait for all hell to
break loose... Well, wait no more:  It was (added to the mix) and it (hell)
has broken loose.


Actually, it was a journalists-only Internet mailing list that damn near
came apart at the seams this weekend.  Why?  Seems the big "M" is readying
plans to launch its own news service, a venture that, in its own right,
might make journalists just a bit edgy.  


The previously undisclosed online venture, tentatively called "Microsoft
New Service," will apparently spoon feed the Microsoft Service Network,
according to story first published by _Interactive Week_ on their World
Wide Web electronic magazine [URL -- http://www.interactive-week.com].


Microsoft, Monday, found itself in the uneviable position of having to play
catch up after being blind sided by new hire, mid-level employee.   The
employee, John Callan, inadvertently leaked the existence of the Microsoft
News Service to the New Information Technologies list on Saturday.


The list itself erupted into a hallestorm of charges and counter-charges as
established members of the list fired questions at Callan, who was applying
for membership to the list through moderator Joe Abernathy, senior news
editor for PC World.  


Callan described himself as a "journalist" working for the "MSN news
service."  That revelation drew a swift series of questions from the list
participants;  Callan was left twisting in the Ether, trying to defend his
new employer and his apperance on the list, a postion which Abernathy
granted.


Seeking to quell speculation that he might be some kind of Microsoft Mole,
sent to smoke out disgruntled technology journalists, Callan wrote a
personal message to an Interactive Week reporter, copying his remarks to
the open list, as well.  


"I'm not on an explicit mission from Microsoft to infiltrate this news
group, for goodness sake," Callan wrote.  "It does so happen I work for
Microsoft and I do plan to work hard to make the news services on Microsoft
an industry leader and a great service to its users."


And still the journalists grumbled...  Callan refused to answer basic
questions about the service, how it would be structured and whether or not
the new group would be creating content (read:  Writing original news
stories) or merely repackaging the news, a la CompuServe, Prodigy and
America Online.


Bill Miller, director of marketing for Microsoft's online services group,
acknowledged the existence previously undisclosed service told Interactive
Week.  However, Miller denied the company would be creating original news
stories.


"It seems we've created some real confusion out there," Miller told
Interactive Week.  "What we're creating is not unlike what's on other
online services" only better, he said.  


What makes it better?  "We're buying  news feeds and news
sources and repurposing them online," Miller told the bi-weekly trade
newsmagazine.  


Miller, however, didn't explain what the hell "repurposing" was supposed to
mean.


The news bureau will be set up outside Seattle, Miller said.  It will have
a "small staff" of editors who, Miller told Interactive Week, "will be
adding a human element" to the news.


When asked by Interactive Week what that "human element" might actually be,
Miller punted:  "Making decisions such as giving one story a bigger
headline and another one a smaller headline. "  No, I'm not joking, that's
what he said.  Real heart warming, isn't it?  


Does any of this make you wonder how a Microsofte owned-and-operated "news"
service might handle a story headlined something like, "U.S. District Court
Hammers Microsoft For Anti-trust Violations"?  


Well, Microsoft is ahead of you;  Miller says such dicey questions were
hashed out by top level executives.  The company, Miller told Interactive
Week, has realized it will "bite the bullet" when confronted with the
natural corporate tendency to censor unflattering news.


As proof of the company's supposedly unflinching support for traditional
journalistic practices, Miller said the company had even "joked" about
creating a "Microsoft sucks" column.  (And yet, he just said that the
company wouldn't be creating content... he didn't explain that one.)


Without a solid allegence to rigorous journalistic practices, Microsoft
will get crucified in the press and public.  "We realized that if you try
to control the content, you'll have an even bigger problem," Miller told
Interactive Week.  


Though Microsoft now acknowledges the development of a news service, it was
just last October that Chairman Bill Gates stood before an editors'
conference and proclaimed that he wouldn't be hiring reporters or editors
to work as part of the Microsoft network, according to Ralph Frattura, an
executive editor for features and electronic media for the Sacramento Bee,
who attended the conference and took part in the racuous on-line debate
that raged over the weekend on the NIT list.


What had been a trickle of debate and message traffic on the NIT list,
turned into a torrent with every message Microsoft reporter Callan posted.


At one point Callan was asked:  "Have you ever been asked to forward
messages you see here to Microsoft executives?  Do you have plans to do so
now or in the future?


To this query, Callan replied:  "As for forwarding messages up the
corporate ladder, I think it's always good practice to treat public news
groups as just that: public."


Hello?!  The NIT list journalists lit up the Ether with glowing phospher
streaming from their keyboards.  The NIT list, the concensus view held, was
indeed a "private" list, despite that the fact that messages were posted in
the open.


To become a member of NIT falls somewhere on the difficulty scale between 
decyphering the Cap'n Crunch Secret Decoder ring and learning the Kaptan
Kangaroo friendship handshake.  Okay... it's a little tougher than the
handshake, I lied.


But the list's privacy and "safety" factor is jealously guarded by its
members.  Most joined to trade candid and frank comments about the beats
they covered (almost exclusively technology oriented) and various companies
they were chasing down for this story or that.  To suddenly have infused
this journalistic safe harbor with what at first appeared to be nothing
more than a  Microsoft shill was, well, unsettling to say the least.


And not all members of the list were vocal desenters.  The cooler heads
among them (no typo, you read that correctly) lobbied for giving Callan a
chance to prove himself (or give him enough rope to hang himself, as the
case may be).


As of Monday, Callan hadn't responded to several pointed questions posed by
members of the list;  he disappeared as quick as he appeared.  Messages
left in voice mail weren't returned... and the list is waiting... 


Meeks out...


.