Steve Rubel: Scoble is taking heat for not posting about the Vista delays for sometime.
I sort of feel sad for Robert Scoble these days, mainly because he’s a man who can’t admit the truth. Sure, maybe corporate lapdog is a bit harsh (I’ve just spent 20 minutes reading Gawker Media blogs….forgive me) but this whole “I’m not controlled by Microsoft” thing is a gigantic crock. Whether he likes it or not, he is self censoring. He writes that he doesn’t know enough about it so he’s reserving comment, but I ask this simple question: it’s never stopped him in the past, has it?
Robert, if you actually want to continue to maintain credibility in the blogosphere and the greater community, admit that your roll at Microsoft means that you have to limit what you say. Let’s be honest about it. Jason Calacanis has been now he’s at AOL and managed to tread very well around this issue whilst being upfront about it. The longer you maintain that you are free to speak as you please and quite obviously don’t, the worse things will become for you. I’ll be upfront and honest on the subject as well: one of the reasons I sold The Blog Herald was that my role in b5media quite honestly meant that I couldn’t be myself on certain things, because it damaged the company (anyone for a 9rules flame war??). I’m now not exploring those areas that come into conflict with my role at b5media here at duncanriley.com. I’m not being censored by Jeremy, Darren, Shai or anyone else for that matter, but I’ve learnt, accepted and even disclosed that being a responsible corporate citizen/ owner/ participant requires the occasional piece of self restraint, or even self censorship. You are no different Scoble, you just don’t like admitting to it.
