TiVo

Tech site CNET was forced to remove the Dish Hopper with Sling from its “Best of CES” awards due to ongoing litigation between parent company CBS and Dish.  The Hopper was going to be awarded “Best in Show” award.  As most people know CNET owned by CBS was in charge of giving out the CES (Consumer Electronics Show) awards. The two companies are in a legal battle over the Hopper’s ad-skipping technology the same way TiVo got in trouble for their skip button and was forced to remove.  What a lot of people don’t know is you can still enable the button by using an unlock technique which can be found here http://www.weaknees.com/30 Because of a legal battle CBS laid down a ban that CNet won’t be allowed to even review Dish products, much less give them awards.  CNET will no longer be reviewing Dish products until the litigation is settled. The site, however, said the ban “only applies to product reviews, not news about the companies.” Leo Laporte who was in Vegas giving out the Podcast awards along with attending CES made it a point to talk about this travesty on TWIT and The Tech Guy podcast and was out raged over the lack of journalistic integrity on both CNET and CBS’s part. As more blogs and podcasts are acquisitioned by larger corporations there is a concern that the legal or financial interests of those parent companies might cloud the news coverage of the outlets they own.  We have starting seeing this not only with CNET but by AOL buying Engadget and Techcrunch. While CNET insisted that its news coverage will remain unbiased, the blackout on reviews is troubling to many, as they are largely reviewed by most tech sites as part of the objective, reporting process