<story><title>Net Neutrality Op-Ed in the Wall Street Journal Was Written by Comcast Attorney</title><url>https://theintercept.com/2017/12/14/that-net-neutrality-op-ed-in-the-wall-street-journal-was-written-by-a-comcast-attorney/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>Afforess</author><text>I am always impressed by the number of motte and bailey commentors here. The WSJ cravenly lets the most hated corporations write featured Op-eds and that&amp;#x27;s normal? Ho-hum? Business as usual!?&lt;p&gt;We need to seriously reconsider what we want out of journalism. I don&amp;#x27;t want to live anywhere where this sort of media is okay. I&amp;#x27;m not sure why anyone else is suddenly okay with this either. The &amp;quot;Free Market&amp;quot; was supposed to be a tool to more efficiently organize labor and capital, not &lt;i&gt;enslave us&lt;/i&gt;. It is supposed to work &lt;i&gt;for us&lt;/i&gt;, it is &lt;i&gt;our tool&lt;/i&gt;. But if &lt;i&gt;readers&lt;/i&gt; are now _okay_ with &lt;i&gt;literal&lt;/i&gt; shilling in media, then that&amp;#x27;s it. We&amp;#x27;ve been captured by our own tools, slaves to our own machines.&lt;p&gt;I keep questioning my decision to have a Washington Post subscription, but I&amp;#x27;ll sleep better tonight knowing it goes towards something that at least _tries_ to be journalism.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>ams6110</author><text>&amp;gt; I keep questioning my decision to have a Washington Post subscription, but I&amp;#x27;ll sleep better tonight knowing it goes towards something that at least _tries_ to be journalism.&lt;p&gt;I think you need to seriously consider whether &amp;quot;tries to be journalism&amp;quot; means &amp;quot;is more in line with my opinions.&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;Furthermore, this was an op-ed piece. Agree with it or not, it isn&amp;#x27;t, in fact it is &lt;i&gt;expicitly not&lt;/i&gt;, objective journalism.</text></comment>
<story><title>Net Neutrality Op-Ed in the Wall Street Journal Was Written by Comcast Attorney</title><url>https://theintercept.com/2017/12/14/that-net-neutrality-op-ed-in-the-wall-street-journal-was-written-by-a-comcast-attorney/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>Afforess</author><text>I am always impressed by the number of motte and bailey commentors here. The WSJ cravenly lets the most hated corporations write featured Op-eds and that&amp;#x27;s normal? Ho-hum? Business as usual!?&lt;p&gt;We need to seriously reconsider what we want out of journalism. I don&amp;#x27;t want to live anywhere where this sort of media is okay. I&amp;#x27;m not sure why anyone else is suddenly okay with this either. The &amp;quot;Free Market&amp;quot; was supposed to be a tool to more efficiently organize labor and capital, not &lt;i&gt;enslave us&lt;/i&gt;. It is supposed to work &lt;i&gt;for us&lt;/i&gt;, it is &lt;i&gt;our tool&lt;/i&gt;. But if &lt;i&gt;readers&lt;/i&gt; are now _okay_ with &lt;i&gt;literal&lt;/i&gt; shilling in media, then that&amp;#x27;s it. We&amp;#x27;ve been captured by our own tools, slaves to our own machines.&lt;p&gt;I keep questioning my decision to have a Washington Post subscription, but I&amp;#x27;ll sleep better tonight knowing it goes towards something that at least _tries_ to be journalism.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>bogomipz</author><text>I&amp;#x27;m not defending this person or the complete absurdity of his statements but an Op-Ed can be written by anyone, the only stipulation being that the not be affiliated with the newspapers editorial board and ethics dictate there should be a disclaimer if needed. The disclaimer here was certainly disingenuous at best though.&lt;p&gt;A more disturbing trend is that these same Ed-Op pieces are then referenced and used by shills and politicians as &amp;quot;proof&amp;quot; that this is something that the average citizen wants. See the following:&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.mediamatters.org&amp;#x2F;blog&amp;#x2F;2017&amp;#x2F;12&amp;#x2F;13&amp;#x2F;procter-gamble-placed-nearly-identical-op-eds-pushing-corporate-tax-cuts-different-authors-numerous&amp;#x2F;218832&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.mediamatters.org&amp;#x2F;blog&amp;#x2F;2017&amp;#x2F;12&amp;#x2F;13&amp;#x2F;procter-gamble-...&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>