Note to Media: Microsoft did not launch Wallop
There is an epidemic of bad reporting going around the mainstream media today. Check out this headline on MSNBC, which I have seen variations of elsewhere:
No, Microsoft is not launching Wallop. Fortunately the ensuing articles gets this part right:
SEATTLE – Wallop, a startup spun out of Microsoft Corp.’s research lab…
The headline makes it out like Microsoft is launching a MySpace competitor in the form of Wallop. Yes, that makes for more exciting headlines, but it’s factually inaccurate.
tags: wallop
3 Comments
The comments at SlashDot are typical of the crowd there. First off they don’t look deep enough to see that it is not a Microsoft operation and attack it as if it were. They also ignore comments that point out that it is not a Microsoft operation. Anything that gets in the way of a chance to wallop on Microsoft is ignored. Minds made up – don’t confuse them with the facts.
Yeah, put the word “Microsoft” in a bit of news, and everyone just runs with it.
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