[no subject]

#: 210631 S10/Views:Zachmann [E]
06-Jul-92 05:28:53
Sb: #210352-#Independence Declaration
Fm: William F. Zachmann 72241,43
To: Eric G. Harrison 74270,3457 (X)

Eric,

PC Week, in effect, required that I narrow my focus to Windows and
related issues last fall -- *not* to OS/2. You recollection of
what I said over on IBMOS2 is incorrect. It was made clear to me that
unless I agreed to do that, my column would have been dropped at the
end of last year. I agreed to do so with the understanding that OS/2
was a related issue and that I could continue to write about both (and
Unix as well).

When I did so, however, I began to have problems. On April 23 PC Week
Editor in Chief Sam Whitmore said I was "losing my credibility" because
of my "lack of objectivity" in what I was writing about Windows and
OS/2. He made it clear that he did not want me to continue writing the
sort of stuff I'd been writing about Windows and OS/2. He several
times mentioned Carole Patton's column and its fate with the clear
implication (clear to me, at least) that my column would suffer a
similar fate if I did not shape up.

It was upon returning from that meeting with Sam that I received the
phone call from the individual at Microsoft who told me about how
they'd recently heard that I was going to be taking a more favorable
view of Microsoft and of Windows in my column. In response to Sam's
pressure, I wrote the May 4, 1992 column where I pointed out some
problems and limitations with OS/2. I had no problem getting that
column printed.

Two weeks later, I intentionally and deliberately wrote a column for
the May 18, 1992 issue in which I discussed a very similar set of
problems with Windows 3.1. I received a phone call from PC Week
Editor Eric Lundquist saying the column "didn't work" for him and
asking me to write another on another topic. I had a lengthy
discussion with him in which I refused to do so and argued that my
column should run as submitted. He finally agreed to mark it up
with his problems/objections. While a virtually idential column
about OS/2 had gone through without difficulty two weeks before,
Eric was all over this one like ants at a picnic questioning my
statements. I stood my ground and the column was eventually, but
quite obviously reluctantly, printed.

That's a little bit more of the background about why I feel it is
necessary to leave.

Will

Now you know why OS2 doesn't receive much more publicity than it does
now...The fact is that if the boss doesn't like the job that a reporter is
doing, (And if he is getting paid by some other firm or company to write
articles praising their products no matter how shitty they are) they just
either reject it or modify it... Maybe all of this explains why so many
articles & bad reviews about OS2.. :-( But OS2 will continue on! What do you
all think of this? Opinnions? Anyone?
--
| Francisco J. Diaz Rivera | Freenet: as789 -at- cleveland -dot- freenet -dot- edu |
| University of Puerto Rico | Internet: 841901723 -at- cutb -dot- upr -dot- clu -dot- edu |
| Hey Waitress! There's a pubic hair in my soup! |
| "Don't give up, don't ever give up" - Jim Valvano |


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