Blasting Biassed Blog(s) Masquerading as Legitimate News Source(s)

When I was young I wanted to be a newspaper man. So I trained as a journalist and learned old school journalism and the New York Times stylebook. One of the basic tenants of journalism back then was to “remain objective,” and report the news without bias. Otherwise an article is not “news,” rather, it is mere opinion and belongs on the op-ed page, if anywhere at all.

Newspapers and reporters who wrote articles with a bias (toward an advertiser, or a political party, or an underwriter, etc.) and tried to pass them off as NEWS were considered unethical and unprofessional. Their opinions were considered worthless and non-authoritative, and they didn’t last long in the legitimate press. Their reputations were (in my opinion) justifiably impinged.

Then came the Internet and blogs. I’ll get specific and point fingers.

I am no longer in the Journalism business. I’m in the software business with a company that is at the forefront of its industry. My company produces press releases and announces new software. We write white papers and publish books. We make news nearly every week – news that is worthy to be printed anywhere (and is,) just like the news made by our few competitors.

However, one particular blog that would like to be considered  “authoritative” refuses to print my news. At the same time, they print my competitors’ news, and even fawn over them. Why? BECAUSE THEY BUY ADS AND I DON’T. That’s called “pay for placement” and it is absolutely unethical.

To be totally honest, there was an incident a few years ago where the guy who runs that blog asked me for material for an upcoming article with a title exactly like an article I had published a few years earlier, and instead of sending it to him, I republished my own piece, and scooped him.

I considered this an ethical (but perhaps morally challenging) move, since I had already published my piece once before; But it really pissed him off. Mine was better, and I gave it away for free. He’s trying to sell his, with little luck.

The guy admitted refusing to publish news about my company because of this incident, and his little blog is worse off for it, and his readers poorer. After he reads this article he will surely never print my news. Fine. Whatever. Plenty of better sites do.

As an old school journalist with my ethics fully intact, I refuse to pay for news placement, especially in a blog that so blatantly operates that way. Maybe I am too old fashioned – maybe too old, period. Maybe this is simply the way the Web operates, and journalism (the way I remember it) is dead. Maybe readers these days are just willing to swallow whatever anyone feeds them, and see it as objective. I really hope not.

Of course, I WILL pay for ads. I have no problem with that. Ads do not masquerade as objective news. I regularly pay for Google ads, and for placement of my non-objective commercial articles. No problem.

What I have a problem with (continuing to beat this dead horse) is being asked to buy ads as a condition of printing objective news about my company – and this is exactly what is going on over on that other blog, and to be honest again, many others.

The online backup industry needs a real objective blog. Not this one. Mine is not objective at all. I’m trying to sell you software and convince you I’m right and whoever I’m aiming my gun at is wrong.

But, I think I would fund and support a truly objective website that covers Online Backup and similar storage and sharing technologies. Maybe I will! Is anyone else interested? Email me.

Rob Cosgrove is the President of Remote Backup Systems, founder of the Online Backup Industry, and a vocal advocate for maintaining the highest standards in Online Backup software. His latest book, the Online Backup Guide for Service Providers: How to Start and Operate an Online Backup Service, is available online now, on Amazon.com, and at bookstores.

Remote Backup Systems provides brandable, scalable software and solutions to MSPs and VARs enabling them to offer Online Backup Services.