IT Media - Cutting Edge Reporting
By Big Galoot
Here we go again. Yet another example of highly questionable reporting in our local IT media. Ladies & gents, these type of ’stories’ need to be highlighted for what they really are - paid advertising.
This time, it’s our old friend at Symantec - schmoozing big time, one expects, in the hope of favourable commentary & cheap brand exposure in the Australian IT newspaper.
Whats the ’story’, you ask?
Well, according to the ‘news’ article, traditional security methods are “failing to protect companies against new and emerging threats”. (Sound like a familiar mantra?) So says Symantec’s chief exec, John Thompson, in his keynote speech at Symantec’s Vision conference in Las Vegas this week.
And guess what - in order to protect ourselves against “new and emerging threats”, we’ll all need to rush out & buy Symantec’s latest range of products, apparently.
Now there’s not a single mention by the Australian IT’s reporter as to how Symantec might stack up against other products, nor did he seek any opposing views about Symantec’s outlandish & well known, questionable
product claims, from any other sources.
By now, you might be wondering as to why all this came to be. The article’s writer, Mahesh Sharma, added a small, but rather important footnote; “Mahesh Sharma travelled to Las Vegas as a guest of Symantec.”
Well I for one don’t buy it, Mahesh. Your disclosure doesn’t negate your sloppy & unquestioning reporting:
http://www.australianit.news.com.au/story/0,24897,23846808-15306,00.html
BG
June 12th, 2008 at 3:47 pm
agreed. article is absolute rubbish. yet another reason to start a hall of shame i think, for ceo’s and also journo’s.
June 12th, 2008 at 5:36 pm
Heehehehehehheheheheh Open Collaborative Architecture
TCP/IP, http[s], DNS, BGP, Muhuhuhuhuh ahahahahahahhahah…. XML, SOAP, ODBC, CORBA, JAVA…. text files, data, meta-data, API’s….
Crystal Reports, data… erm, data…. data
June 12th, 2008 at 6:59 pm
http://beastorbuddha.com/2007/10/16/integrity-of-annoucing-new-silver-bullets/
When I posted this one, I had a few journos email and call me to support what I had written.
More from BG’s Forum post:
http://beastorbuddha.com/forums/index.php?action=vthread&forum=1&topic=65
June 12th, 2008 at 7:26 pm
As an avid fan of Media Watch:
http://www.abc.net.au/mediawatch/
I have seen them go to town on “journalism” for far less. Some IT journos are lucky they’re not on their radar yet. Then again, maybe no one has pointed them to “news” like this.
June 13th, 2008 at 12:53 am
@BG, It is JT here from Symantec. I am offended by your remarks. We have solved the security problem everytime but people like you keep bringing it up!
June 13th, 2008 at 9:53 am
Shame, shame, shame.
June 13th, 2008 at 3:35 pm
@BG,
this stinks. So much for ‘independence’.
The readers of The Australian are owed full explanation from it’s Editor - outlining *exactly* what the phrase “traveled to Las Vegas as a guest of Symantec” entails.
For instance;
* What class of air travel did the journo fly in to Las Vegas & return - courtesy of Symantec?
* What class of accommodation in Las Vegas did the journo stay, and for how long - courtesy of Symantec?
* Were there any additional softeners included (ie meals, entertainment, drinks, laptops, pdas, ipods? ) - courtesy of Symantec?
June 15th, 2008 at 12:43 am
It’s been happening forever. You are not alone in Australia. I have enjoyed the read here and in other posts and support this initiative to out the advertising for articles.
Looking at your IT press, few are original with ‘news’, you seem to rely on what comes from here in the US as Gospel and we know now that that is not good!
The best news comes from our industry bloggers. Beast or Buddha’s Daily News feeds gives me more insight and REAL news than any big media does!
June 16th, 2008 at 10:40 am
@Ph00l, good to raise but does it ultimately matter to what level this was ‘funded’? It still smells.
June 16th, 2008 at 11:28 am
@Secman,
I take your point, but I would argue that the level of funding, and its *full* disclosure, potentially does matter.
Now the disclosure in this case was simply - that he “traveled” to Las Vegas, courtesy of Symantec.
On the basis alone, you could argue that Symantec’s funding of the travel component alone and its’ subsequent disclosure (ie, airfare only) might not provide a sufficient enough incentive to submit a biased news report.
If, on the other hand, his “travel” had additional components, such as expensive meals, accomodation, gifts, entertainment etc, then this would provide the reader with an entirely different set of facts from which they could form an opinion as to it’s bias, if it were disclosed.
But we aren’t privvy as to whether additional incentives were provided.
All we have is that he “travelled” to Las Vegas, courtesy of Symantec.
Are we to then take at face value that “travel” in this case, only involved an air fare ?
I think it matters.
June 17th, 2008 at 3:21 pm
IT GETS WORSE !!!
If you thought that was the end of The Australian’s advertorial-styled Symantec ‘news’ stories, think again. It gets worse.
This time, its the same reporter, same subject (Symantec), same newspaper, different spin, and different day. The Symantec ‘news’ this time ? A very long-winded, schmultzy biography on Symantec’s CEO, John Thompson, sub-titled “World According to John Thompson”.
Alas, this time, there’s not a single mention by the Australian’s reporter that he travelled to Las Vegas - as a guest of Symantec.
Perhaps he simply forgot to tell his readers that he travelled to Las Vegas, courtesy of Symantec & new buddy, CEO John Thompson ?
http://www.australianit.news.com.au/story/0,24897,23871976-24169,00.html
June 17th, 2008 at 6:42 pm
It’s all nothing more than sales and marketing dribble and nothing we haven’t heard before. It’s an ongoing cycle of dribble aimed at trying to keep share prices up with a little relevance to actual advancements.
What amazes me is that this is company that told us not so long ago that it has the End Point security product that protects from all unknown and zero day threats! So did they lie then?
This article is not journalism in my opinion. It’s just regurgitated marketing. If the writer is short on stories, I am sure that we have plenty of local companies quite willing to feed him some “news”. Absolute garbage from the Australian! Sadly this journo is not the lone voice in doing marketing for some of these companies and as I’ve said before, they give the whole industry a bad name.
If one IT security person reading this has anything good to say about this article in regards to it’s news-worthiness or benefits over what we already know, I would be in a state of shock!
Bottom line is Symantec needs to grow its business, maintain shareholder value and sadly, this means BIG BS statements about future intent. They’ve been “solving” the security problems of the world for years now and they will continue to do so! I wonder if John Thompson actually believes the stuff he says?! (Symantec are not the only ones!)
Journalistic code of conduct compliance? I don’t know! Any journos want to comment on this?
June 18th, 2008 at 8:14 pm
Luckily, there are still some great jurnos around like Patrick Gray over at itradio.com.au who don’t just copy+paste vendor press releases and cash for comment crap. I’m a very happy regular listener.
DISCLAMER:
Patrick does not pay me a cent to promote his site, nor has he paid for me to fly around the world. (That said, Patrick if you are reading this, and want a schmultzy biography on BorB……
June 19th, 2008 at 2:39 pm
@Declan,
right on dude, Patricks’ show rocks. It’d be unfair not to mention others in this.
Patrick Gray, “itradio” (yeah, he’s entertaining) - brought to us recently, courtesy of Microsoft.
Maharesh Sharma, “The Australian” - brought to us courtesy of Symantec.
Local GP - gifts, conferences etc - sponsored by Viagra, Pfizer & GlaxoSmithKline.
Sponsorships’ a fact of life, yeah, its not always a bad thing.
But lets never lose sight of why sponsors sponsor. It aint charity, man.
Peace, brother.
June 19th, 2008 at 3:40 pm
Pat is very open with his sponsors and sponsors aid in the production - similar to how sponsors help with organisations like AISA - as mentioned above, it has it’s place. But there’s a huge difference in content and quality of content on RB as compared to much of the IT Security press. I can’t recall PG doing a story on RB that was a blatant regurgitated press release just because that organisation happened to sponsor that podcast.