Larry, are you getting ironic on me? I've used the "I like to check stuff out" line myself. There's an element of irony in the name "Independent Institute" all by itself, for a conservative think tank. Another one of these things where agreeable opinions are "objective", and disagreeable opinions are "biased". Or, as James Watt put it, "There are no liberals and conservatives, only environmental extremists and Americans".
Not that Microsoft should have much trouble rounding up favorable opinions from conservative think tanks. The "Chicago School" "Economics and law" legal offshoot is obviously their strongest line of defense on the antitrust front. Unlike the revisionist history / "Microsoft must be free to intimidate, er imitate, um integrate, I mean innovate" lines, it actually has some legal standing. I guess the theory is too complicated for the PR guys, though.
I'll admit Foley's column is not a case to go to court with. Most opinion columns aren't. But the saying is, "follow the money", and without doing the legwork I'll go beyond skepticism to paranoia, in the spirit of Andy Grove. I'd guess the Independent Institute is about as independent as the usual suspects Bill rounded up in New York before the current case was filed.
Cheers, Dan. |
