Posted by: Anonymous Coward
on June 28, 2005 04:19 AM
Well, actually, it should be fairly obvious why editorial and sales staffs should operate independently. It is to avoid the very thing taking place with the false studies commissioned by Microsoft to be reprinted in "Get the Facts." An article, like a study, should not be influenced at all by advertisers for the publication in which it takes place.
Of course, however, this separation of editorial and advertising staff does not excuse the advertising staff from culpability for running dishonest ads, and that is the real problem here. If the Microsoft ads weren't false advertising, there would be nothing wrong with them being run alongside of Linux articles under the idealistic arrangement of keeping editorial and advertising content separate, but they are false advertising, so they should not be run at all by anyone, but particularly not by people who ought to know how deceptive they are.
Another point is that, although advertising and editorial content would ideally not relate to each other at all, in the real world they often do. In the real world, advertisers sometimes pull their ads, or threaten to pull them, in the face of a negative review. In the real world Windows oriented publications don't run Linux ads, so why should Linux oriented publications run Windows ads?
Learn about Linux
Download Linux
Get Linux help
Re:Oh, the Irony...
Posted by: Anonymous Coward on June 28, 2005 04:19 AMOf course, however, this separation of editorial and advertising staff does not excuse the advertising staff from culpability for running dishonest ads, and that is the real problem here. If the Microsoft ads weren't false advertising, there would be nothing wrong with them being run alongside of Linux articles under the idealistic arrangement of keeping editorial and advertising content separate, but they are false advertising, so they should not be run at all by anyone, but particularly not by people who ought to know how deceptive they are.
Another point is that, although advertising and editorial content would ideally not relate to each other at all, in the real world they often do. In the real world, advertisers sometimes pull their ads, or threaten to pull them, in the face of a negative review. In the real world Windows oriented publications don't run Linux ads, so why should Linux oriented publications run Windows ads?
#