23
March
2005
|
19:35 PM
America/Los_Angeles

Forrester analyst group launches new tech mag, names Henry Ford evil, Ford Motors pulls "hundreds of thousands" in business

...Forrester also upsets Computer Associates with evil tag....pre-war IBM a better choice


by Tom Foremski for SiliconValleyWatcher


The Forrester IT analyst group yesterday said that Ford Motor Co. had pulled several hundred thousand dollars of business because of this week's launch of Forrester Magazine, a tech print magazine designed to reach C-level executives and win new business.


Ford complained that the cover feature on evil companies drew attention to founder Henry Ford and his anti-semitic views. The automaker complained that the article disregarded Ford company's many charitable activities.


Forrester refused to change the article citing it a point of journalistic integrity and said that the incident demonstrated editorial independence. It told Ford that information on Henry Ford's anti-semiticism was well-known and publicly available and it would not remove it from the magazine. Ford then cut its business relationship valued at "several hundred thousand dollars" a senior executive of Forrester said.


Forrester Magazine has to prove credibility because of close money links with vendors


The issue of independence and the demonstration of unbiased reporting is key to Forrester Magazine's credibility. The IT analyst community has long been under fire for its cozy relationship with computer industry vendors which pay to be included in market research papers and gain influence on corporate IT buying decisions.

Calls for greater transparency within established media raises the bar for Forrester Magazine to firmly establish its independence, or reveal client relationships, history and payments. Established media has nothing to hide compared with IT analyst groups who receive very large amounts of money from clients.


I hate to break it to Forrester, but, losing Ford does not demonstrate strong journalistic integrity, and independence of views. It demonstrates a poor editorial decision.


Also, executives at pre-war IBM would have been a better choice of evil because the company sold and installed punch card systems to the Hitler led German government. The novel application was for logistics in train routing and IBM set up subsidiary companies to shield its direct involvement. The punch card system worked wonderfully, and it made sure that the trains could deliver children, women, men, Jewish, Polish, Russian, Gypsy to the gas chambers on time.


Helping to speed up the holocaust is evil. More evil than Henry Ford. IBM is a tech company, I wonder if IBM is a larger customer than Ford? I bet it is.


Why use Henry Ford when a far more evil example was available? Losing millions of dollars from IBM would make for a far better statement of independence.