Why Analysts Can Never Become Journalists

Because their own “peddling ethics” override any pretensions of authenticity and objectivity…Phil Leigh, who I’ve earlier chided here earlier for making lame press quotes about the digital music scene, has done one better…his site Inside Digital Media is sponsored by RealNetworks, among others, which is fair enough, but then so is his “news” coverage of the multimedia company. In a report on, who else, RealNetworks, this is what he writes: “RealNetworks, Inc. is paying Inside Digital Media, Inc. a monthly fee of $3,000 for each month that Inside Digital Media, Inc. provides coverage of RealNetworks and for the creation and dissemination of the research report and related updates, in addition to sponsoring audio interviews appearing on the site
http://www.insidedigitalmedia.com.”;

Wow…seriously, if I were at RealNetworks, I would just be wincing in pain right now for trying to “buy” analyst coverage….(Disclaimer: I’ve tried to convince RealNetworks to advertise/sponsor, legitimately, on my site, but they never even acknowledge, despite the proven fact that their audience is reading my site as an objective source of digital media news…well, so be it, guys.)

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