wfaulk: Is it any surprise that this shows up on a (MS)NBC program?

All of the affiliated news outlets in Seattle (ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox) are pretty gentle in their coverage of Microsoft, but it is particularly interesting to watch the choice of words of the NBC affiliate during events like this year's ("several hours"!) prolonged outage of microsoft.com. Bob help me, I still watch NBC -- Huntley/Brinkley still exert their grip on me.

This progressive interlocking of the MS-NBCs, AOL Time Warner, Sony, et al, really does make me nervous. The cross-placement and promotion in the AOL-CNN sphere is particularly blatent. When I bought a video camera this year I deliberately decided to forsake Sony products, but, past a certain point, I feel like there won't be a way to use any of this stuff without feeding the MS-AOL-Sony beasts. It's enough to make one join an anti-WTO protest or something! (As Jim sits here and rips Youssou N'Dour's JOKO on Sony Columbia!)

(Back in the late 70s, several friends made car-purchasing decisions based on strict political criteria, and they wound up driving Fiats. I expect they are probably pedalling to work now. Sigh).