14 DAY TRIAL // There’s a new tech site on the horizon and it comes from Verizon. As you can expect given the source of the money funding the site, you won’t exactly be getting the whole truth and nothing but the truth out of SugarString.
The Daily Dot reports that while the site hopes to enter the battle ring with the biggest tech names out there, the whole freedom of the press and freedom of speech thing is overrated in the newsroom. That’s because they aren’t exactly allowed to touch several hot topics, such as NSA’s mass surveillance or net neutrality.
Unsurprisingly, Verizon’s name shows up in both scandals and it’s pretty hard to go around it. Verizon, for instance, was part of the first revelations based on Edward Snowden’s leaked documents. The company was marked as handing over customers’ phone records to the NSA. Of course, later on, it was revealed that basically all telcos do the same, although that doesn’t make Verizon’s actions any better or more excusable.
Verizon is also a big part of the net neutrality debate. This is the company that sued the FCC, saying that the commission has no legal power to enforce open net rules and the reason why the FCC is now struggling to come up with a guideline that will actually work. The entire debate in the last half year has been born because of Verizon’s desire to do whatever it pleases, to create fast lanes and to charge companies with deep enough pockets some extra money.
SugarString reporters, however, seem not to be wearing the same gag when writing about spying practices abroad the United States. Basically, it’s just what’s going to upset US citizens that are going to be censored out of the site, the very same people that Edward Snowden risked his life to make realize what’s happening around them. They’re allowed, however, to write about Chinese surveillance, for instance.
They tried to recruit the wrong people
This fresh slice of censorship reached the light of day after SugarString’s new editor in chief sent out recruiting emails to reporters. The email and others that followed included the premise and rules behind the site as they tried to lure in new editors and two things were certain, they couldn’t write about surveillance in the United States and they couldn’t write about net neutrality.
All newsrooms that are under the financial thumb of bigger corporations have their own editorial rules, whether that regards not writing about one individual or another or using a particular approach. Most often than not, however, they’re not really serious issues. In this case, however, reporters are being asked to close their eyes in front of two major topics with a very big impact on American readers, the very same they’re trying to get to read the publication.