About 2 years ago I was working a job that involved a 1.5 hour commute (one-way) into a busy northern Chicago neighborhood. To pass time each day I listened to NPR in my car (no working CD player or any way to connect my phone or any other device.. it was brutal.)
During that time I heard at least two or three pieces that, as someone who is very knowledgeable about "tech" and works in that industry, were flat-out dangersouly misleading. They consistently misrepresent facts to an ignorant audience and omit key pieces of information relating to alternatives to corporate tech.
One piece that stands out in my mind is this one about passwords, in the aired bit they had a guy from Microsoft actually say writing down passwords with a pen and paper was the best solution and is what he does. What?!?!? Could not be further from the truth (and I doubt this person actually does this..)
A recent example of this really drew the line for me -- regading the so-called "death" of MP3 (here's the piece.) Not only does the linked news not at all mean MP3 is dead -- it means the exact opposite! The actual news here is that, in the USA MP3 as a technology is no longer encumbered by a corporate patent. Being patent-less only means it has fewer barriers to its usage... not that it cannot or should not be used!
I believe it was Josh Reeves who once said while on THC (paraphrasing): not only is propaganda usually untrue, but the opposite is often the truth! In this case and almost any other "tech" piece I see NPR, I throw up a bit when I read such false nonsense.
I wonder their motivation. Sounds as if they want to corral people into only using the profitable, patent technologies out there. Once the patent is gone, its much less restricted on its production and usage.
naphtha wrote: I wonder their motivation. Sounds as if they want to corral people into only using the profitable, patent technologies out there. Once the patent is gone, its much less restricted on its production and usage.
At least part of the motivation seems to be keeping folks ignorant of Free or Open Source software alternatives - or at least make them think it's all too hard for them slash it's only for hackers.
Closed, proprietary, walled-garden systems like modern windows and mac os make it easy to control what people see (and thus what they think.) In a world where people think Bill Gates is generally seen as a "good guy" it's no shocker most people think computers are magic boxes with wizards to do things for them...
But I think NPR's main role here is to delegitimize FOSS in favor of corporate software.
