Click to read at abcnews.com
South Korean cellphone manufacturer Samsung has been censured and fined for organising a campaign to denigrate one of its competitors by paying for derogatory comments to be posted on the internet.
According to a finding by Taiwan’s Fair Trade Commission Samsung paid contractors to pose as cellphone users and post comments which attacked rival HTC’s products and boosted its own. The consumer protection body found that Samsung had deliberately acted to undermine its rival’s reputation and fined Samsung US$340,000.
Pretty scummy and unethical behaviour by Samsung. That’s not normal business practice, is it?
In a related zone, it’s been intriguing to hear how others have reacted to attack dog Cameron Slater expressing his deeply cynical views of politics, in discussion about his online campaign to discredit Auckland Mayor Len Brown:
Well, Auckland politics is the same as where any politics is, in that it’s a dirty, disgusting, despicable game. And it involves dirty, disgusting, despicable people at all levels.
Yeah, well, not surprising. I’ve commented before how the wonky tribalism that Cameron Slater and his ilk are imbued with seeks to justify their own team’s nasty attack politics and dodgy tactics by chanting (like japa beads) and reciting all the ‘dirty tricks’ they imagine their rivals have played on them.
Trust me, these types really do sit around saying ‘The [fill-in-the-gap] Party is sooo dirty!’ … and hatching schemes to use dirty tricks against them. Clearly, this bitter, hallucination-driven ‘activism’ (retch) is not confined to any ‘side’ of politics.
But something about Cameron’s attention-seeking loutishness and his apparent willingness to stoop lower and engage in ugly, protracted character assassination gives him a profile — which he’s entitled to. He’s earned it. Some I know working in the media regard Cameron Slater as a sycophant or a performing seal. Some just despise him.
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