to co-opt – neutralize or win over dissenting opinions or nominally independent observer through assimilation into the established group.
For example, Larry Seltzer of eWeek has been co-opted by Microsoft as more and more of his columns appear to be apologies for Redmonds continuing stream of security shortcomings. Compare, for example, Larrys remarks about the June 12th Microsoft patch day versus those by his colleague at eWeek, Matt Hines. Also look at the difference again with Ryan Naraines report on Malaware. Larry fails to put the June 12th security patch in perspective – how many patches, how long they take to install, what is the pattern on these problems – any recurrence (yes, we find out in Mat Hines story, it is ActiveX malfunctioning once again in Internet Explorer). We need the big picture – and instead we are getting the Viewpoint (c) Microsoft.
Here is another example of almost kneejerk, straight from the Redmond PR horses-mouth repeating of the Microsoft company line – and othe the very controversial issues of fixing up its own security problems – Microsoft profits mightily again. Who watches the watchers ? Larry should be very careful in the analysis – and instead … well you be the judge.
Now I know things are tight at eWeek. One can see it in the dwindling size of the magazine. So eWeek could save a lot of money by just getting a direct RSS feed from Microsoft PR – unless, of course, eWeek might be opening up themselves to some Microsoft security risks by doing that. But eWeek, dont ask Larry. He has been co-opted and will only tell you that with Microsofts new, finally, we-really-mean-business security, there is ultimately nothing to worry about.
(c)JBsurveyer 2006 updated June 22, 2006