As many of you know, I was unceremoniously fired from PC Magazine on Sept. 20th, 2018 after over 30 years of service. I just figured it was the new people coming in and I was an unneeded throwback to the old regime.
This sort of thing happens a lot. Then one of the No Agenda producers noticed a recent column of mine was pulled from the magazine and redirected to someone else’s column about the same subject. It also went missing from the index of Dvorak columns. If you did a google search for the column it showed up but clicking on the Google link resulted in a re-direction to the other column.
The difference was my column was interpreted as critical of 5G. The replacement (and an additional column that came later), was more of a cheer-leading column.
In fact, my column was more reporting than opinion as I was reflecting on all the bad press 5G was getting from every corner. My conclusion was that, unless this stopped, 5G would never get off the ground.
I never once considered that expunging my column then firing me would be part of this process. I’ve asked the editors about this and got no replies.
This is a cautionary tale. Anyone writing for any publisher in today’s commercial market, where the managed advertorial and native ad seems to be the only way to make money, needs to be cautious.
More importantly today’s readers need to be a little more than cautious when believing anything. Native advertising is a most insidious concept and should be rejected by every publisher. Instead it is welcomed by the broadcasting networks and most of the major newspapers including the New York Times. Are the writers saying nice things or are they paid to say nice things?
Whatever the case, the independent voice cannot exist in this corrupt milieu and be truly independent. This is why I was happy to help develop the value-for-value model employed at the No Agenda podcast where I’ve been working with Adam Curry for over a decade. There are no advertisers, period.
I do not want to brag about being a visionary and say that I saw this coming 10 years ago, but I did. Independent opinions and viewpoints as well as unhindered research can only be done with a direct payment method from the customer (the reader).
Advertising, advertisers, corporate sponsors cannot abide by “opinions” mucking up their strategies.
Keep that in mind when you choose your information sources. — jcd
Addendum — the original 5G column is still up in India! Click here.