Posted on 12/13/2023 5:55:29 AM PST by MtnClimber
Microsoft—one of the world’s most successful and widely-used tech companies—is risking its reputation with its news aggregator, MSN (short for Microsoft Network), in a way that could send it into a woke descent similar to corporations like Bud Light, Disney, and Target.
While news aggregators are supposed to focus on journalism rather than ideological activism, MSN seems to have assembled a news operation comprised of editors and AI software that practices the opposite of journalism, which is preventing readers from accessing the vast array of political, social, and cultural views embedded within American culture.
Although many media outlets have experienced significant levels of pushback in recent years over their blatant liberal bias, news aggregation platforms like Pocket, Yahoo! News and MSN have generally received less attention. But as more and more Americans rely on these curators as their primary sources of information, it is becoming increasingly clear that supposedly neutral aggregation sites—some of which use artificial intelligence to aggregate stories from across the web—are nothing more than another channel for Big Tech and media companies to impose their far-left values on the American people.
Microsoft’s MSN is increasingly falling into this category. MSN’s aggregation service is built into many Windows computers, as well as Microsoft’s search engine, Bing, and its web browser, Edge.
According to its website, MSN provides “personalized content that informs and inspires,” sorted by algorithms that “comb through hundreds of thousands of pieces of content.” The platform also relies on “human oversight” to “ensure that the content we show aligns with our values.” Boasting more than half a billion monthly readers, MSN strives to be “a critical part of our social fabric” that “gives people access to trustworthy content.”
The platform, however, has a notable tendency to promote transparently left-wing narratives that call its supposed trustworthiness into question.
After several weeks of monitoring, AMAC Newsline has noticed the MSN website promoting a Vox piece insisting America has a “gun problem,” an Atlantic essay claiming that Donald Trump’s presidential campaign could cause a “war” on blue-leaning states, and an article from The Hill suggesting that Donald Trump is “duping” voters by touting his increasing political support from African Americans.
MSN has also aggressively boosted the left-wing media’s new favorite narrative that a second Trump term would spiral America into a dictatorship. Within the span of just a few days, the platform has promoted a story from USA Today asserting Trump is “an unprecedented danger to democracy,” MSNBC coverage stating that Trump poses a “threat” of “authoritarian government,” a Washington Post analysis warning of “a looming Trump dictatorship,” a Mediaite article puffing up Mitt Romney’s claim that a second Trump term is a “dangerous course to go down,” and a State of the Union piece validating Liz Cheney’s statement that the Republican Party is on track for an “existential crisis” in 2024. The list goes on.
Meanwhile, the platform has also promoted content lamenting the “gender gap” in STEM fields, a piece plugging a “Latinx geologist” who is “disrupting stereotypes of who can be a scientist,” and a guide detailing COVID-19 masking and vaccine protocols.
Though MSN might claim that it has maintained some semblance of political balance (it sometimes curates content from platforms Fox News and Newsweek), its peddling of left-wing content and narratives far outweighs any credence it may give to right-of-center views—calling into question the platform’s commitment to providing “trustworthy content.”
Of course, MSN is far from the only online news curator known for pumping up left-wing content. Pocket, a news aggregator managed by Mozilla, which makes the popular Firefox web browser, boasts more than 10 million active users and circulates only the most culturally and politically charged left-wing hit pieces.
As this left-wing bias becomes more obvious, news aggregation sites like MSN may soon find themselves facing the same collapse in trust now befalling traditional media outlets such as CNN, as well as corporations that have toed the line of left-wing extremism.
This year, several American companies have already seen what can happen when they embrace the creeds of wokeism with the expectation that consumers won’t notice. Bud Light, Target, Disney, and several other major companies have all suffered massive blows to their public image and revenue after they openly promoted far-left social politics.
Though many liberal corporate actors often go out of their way to ignore it, the fact remains that Americans are paying attention—and when their values are under assault, they will fight back and ensure that woke companies pay the price.
If Microsoft wants to avoid such backlash, perhaps it should think about something truly revolutionary: hiring conservative editors and other staff who might have a different view of the world and would present a far broader scope of content to MSN users—especially by promoting articles from hard-hitting and respected conservative publications like The Federalist, The Daily Caller, The Daily Wire, Washington Examiner, or Breitbart.
But that would mean making at least a few of MSN’s current parochially minded editors uncomfortable with their own narrow mindset and impoverished understanding of what journalism is all about in the first place.
Oh no... bud light is ok,now because they issued a NON apology, and joe rogan and other celebs are endorsing it again /s (spit on bud light!)
The difference is choice. The public can choose not to buy beer and entertainment, but MS can choose to shut down your OS and cloud accounts if you don’t play by their rules.
*******
Meaningful alternatives are lacking. That’s why Microsoft, Google, and U-Tube should be banned from political discrimination. Just as we would not allow the water and power monopolies to deny service for political reasons.
In what universe was that ever the case? See Tagline.
Isn’t MSN the source that is being pushed so hard here at FR by some posters?
Rather than posting the actual source they want freepers to pass through MSN to get to the articles.
When I found out that Microsoft was working with the CCP on AI I cancelled my account of M10.
Fixing MSN will be easier said than done. Not only do fewer conservatives go into journalism, resulting in a smaller supply of conservative articles for even the most balanced news site to choose from, but left wing users will click on leftist stories to validate their viewpoints while some right wing users will also click on leftist stories to get their daily dose of outrage. The reverse seems to happen less often. An algorithm that depends on user input can only be as good as that input. GIGO
You're better off using LibreOffice anyway.Lord only knows how much spying microsoft is doing through their apps.
Yeah. $money$ talks.
LibreOffice is useless for me. It has neither the math nor the graphing capability of MS office. Today I’m working on an excel spreadsheet with a half million rows and a dozen columns, and it’s a short one. I even uncovered a bug in Excel365 using it.
#17 I had that happen with Adobe Acrobat.
I ended up buying a one time purchase of Foxit PDF Editor 11 which is far easier to use.
I also bought Office 2021 Professional Plus for $35 last Dec. thru the PC World website.
You can search and find a newer copy like I did.
Get Microsoft Office Pro Plus 2021 for just $35 / Looks to be $49.99 now. Keep searching for Christmas deals.
https://www.pcworld.com/article/1957287/get-microsoft-office-pro-plus-2021-for-just-40.html
I had to get newer versions of software like Firefox and other web browsers as they no longer will update in Windows 7 or earlier.
I also bought a one time purchase of CorelDRAW 2021 as my 2006 X3 version was old...
Software companies are trying the Adobe way of renting you software.
Rumor is that Microsoft Windows 12 will be subscription base.
I use RealOffice and I'm pleased. It is free; the only problem I've had was it crashes once in a while when I am too fast a do too mant things at once. But I've never lost anything - it backs up everything and recoups everything so I don't lose anything.
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