A CNET writer has made a stand against censorship at the expense of his job. Greg Sandoval, who has been writing for the technology review site for a long time, has decided to give up writing for the site in protest of CBS’ refusal to allow CNET to review the new DISH Hopper DVR.
The issue stems from CBS lawsuit against DISH, which alleges that the Hopper DVR violates copyright laws due to its ability to allow the viewer to skip commercials. CBS is CNET’s parent company, which lead them to deny the website the right to review the product or to make it eligible for any of their technology awards, according to CNN. CNET had put the new Hopper up for the Best of CES award, but that won’t be happening now. And not surprisingly, some people aren’t happy.
Sandoval announced his decision to leave CNET on Twitter stating, “I no longer believe CBS is committed to editorial independence.” There doesn’t seem to be much of an argument with that statement. Since CBS isn’t happy with DISH’s technology, the company won’t allow reviews of the product on the site at all, which is only slightly better than forcing reviewers to give it a negative review. There aren’t a lot of people out there willing to make this kind of stand, and Sandoval’s decision to drop his CNET gig makes CBS look even worse for banning the review – if that’s at all possible.
CNET’s announcement stated that the company will not be posting reviews of any product from company’s they are involved in litigation with. That leaves readers of the site’s reviews with some serious questions as to how objective their reviews might actually be. Certainly Sandoval’s departure makes it clear he has those questions, as well.
