Verizon is getting into the news business. What could go wrong?
There is one catch: in exchange for Verizon's corporate backing, reporters at SugarString are forbidden from written about surveillence or net neutrality around the world, which are the two biggest issues in tech and politics today. Verizon is deeply tangled up in both controversies.
Cole Stryker is the editor-in-chief of SugarString. SugarString is now hiring reporters for its technology news site. Cole Stryker sent recuriting e-mails to reporters offering them jobs at SugarString.com with a recuriting pitch and condition that there can be no articles about surveillence or net neutrality. These subjects were completely off the table.
In addition to not seeing stories on surveillence or net neutrality, there will be no stories about Verizon. Verizon is not only backing SugarString.com but also sets the agenda that it covers. The justification for this thanks to Eric Snowden leaked documents revealed that Verizon has turned over the phone records of millions of their customers to the American government without their consent. Verizon is hardly neutral on the issue of net neutrality. Verizon has successfully sued to keep F.C.C. from blocking efforts to charge for a fast lane for data traffic.
The idea that a technology news site could order its reporters to avoid issues has resulted in outpouring amount of criticism. In an interview with The New York Times reporter Leslie Kaufman, Verizon Company commented, " the editor who sent the recruiting e-mails was mistaken, and SugarString is open to all topics that fits its mission and elevate the conversation around technology." This resulted in the technology news site SugarString.com being shutdown.