Coopertrue

Year of 14 January, 2006

Ignorance is strength.

The CNET Ministry of Truth aka 'Coopertrue' are at it again. In a swift one two punch, two articles were released, both written by adept Cooperite Joris Evers.

QuickTime bugs open door to attack
http://news.com.com/2100-1002_3-6025626.html
QuickTime patch hits trouble
http://news.com.com/2100-1002_3-6025626.html

The first article makes fun of Apple hysteria at Macworld, uses its headline to give the impression that Apple's bulletproof operating system is suddenly open to attack - and seasons things with the suggestive word 'bugs' to make it seem all the more hopeless.

But as a commenter points out, the 'hole' in QuickTime was already patched before the article was written. As per usual Coopertrue were pitching with spit-balls. A more fitting (and honest) headline would have been 'Apple issue QuickTime update'.

As another commenter points out, the fact that the 'hole' is already fixed is found in the article - but guess what? It's deliberately buried deep.

As a third commenter Terry Murphy points out, there's a big difference between how CNET report Microsoft vulnerabilities and how they cover anyone else's. He plucks out a choice selection of recent CNET headlines that have to do with Microsoft.

Microsoft rushes out Windows patch
Fixes in for Windows, Microsoft e-mail flaws
Microsoft: 'Patch Tuesday' updates on the way
Microsoft pushes out Windows patch ahead of time

Very promising.

Jim Rapoza of eWeek, himself an Apple user, once warned of the 'headline syndrome': 'suits' don't generally take the time to read news articles; they glance at the headlines and that's good enough.

What's worse, Coopertrue run RSS feeds where headlines such as these will flash by and implant themselves in people's - in suits' - minds.

And then several months from now a pinstripe at a board meeting will say, as has happened to Rapoza, 'oh didn't you hear how the ___ product from Apple is so vulnerable?'

That's how Coopertrue at CNET work. That's what they're counting on. You the individual user are not at risk here - the 'suits' are. But it's the 'suits' who make the big policy decisions.

There's a lot of money riding on all this. The kind of money that can back Gordon Brown into a corner, the kind of money that can get the easily bribed editorial board of Time-Life Inc to make a radical departure, the kind of money that can grease the wheels at the Royal Institute in Stockholm.

The kind of money that makes the world go around - and makes it possible for a convicted criminal to be still admitted - and honoured - in the company of royalty and other respectable people. If you thought for a second this was all coincidence or a little slip of the keyboard, think again.

You might know the score but the 'suits' around you won't. Point it out to them. Let's help each other get out from under the onerous crunch of Microsoft Corporation and the Coopertrue Ministry of Truth.