Facebook Paid PR Firm To Smear Google

Facebook Admits Planting Media Stories

Surely by now we’re all aware the people behind facebook are scum, and that all global corporations are essentially the same. But in case you exist within the naive media bubble of ignorance, here’s just one recent minor incident that amply displays how big business operate. And of course, it has none of your interests at heart.

Facebook recently unveiled plans to introduce email to their network, so planting these stories to look as if they come from independent sources is clearly part of their marketing strategy.

For the past few days, a mystery has been unfolding in Silicon Valley. Somebody, it seems, hired Burson-Marsteller, a top public-relations firm, to pitch anti-Google stories to newspapers, urging them to investigate claims that Google was invading people’s privacy. Burson even offered to help an influential blogger write a Google-bashing op-ed, which it promised it could place in outlets like The Washington Post, Politico, and The Huffington Post.

The plot backfired when the blogger turned down Burson’s offer and posted the emails that Burson had sent him. It got worse when USA Today broke a story accusing Burson of spreading a “whisper campaign” about Google “on behalf of an unnamed client.”

But who was the mysterious unnamed client? While fingers pointed at Apple and Microsoft, The Daily Beast discovered that it’s a company nobody suspected – Facebook.

Confronted with evidence, a Facebook spokesman last night confirmed that Facebook hired Burson.
Facebook Busted in Clumsy Smear on Google by Dan Lyons

See also…
Facebook paid PR firm to smear Google Guardian
Facebook admits hiring PR firm to smear Google engadget
Facebook confesses to Google smear bid Telegraph
Facebook in PR plot against Google Financial Times
…to name just a few!

I dedicate this post to each and every idiot I meet who dare look past my abundant jolly optimism and instead accuse me of being depressingly cynical in nature. Though given the choice, I think I should rather be accused of cynicism, than exist as a half-witted drone spoon-fed by mainstream media.

Not convinced? Then stick around children, because I have numerous similar quantifiable examples yet to print. ;p

P.S.
Silence Gives Way To Consent.
I was about to publish, when coincidentally I received the following advice.

A friend actually suggested, if I disapprove of said news, I should close my facebook account!
What a helpful, uplifting and progressive world view to have.
What utter naivety.
If in doubt, blurt out the first superficial response your brain can scramble. Ignore complexity; the finer detail; the sub-text.
Normally one has to read the tabloids to experience such reactionary over-simplification.

Evolution, why have you forsaken us so?