And they used to have Fuad of Fudzilla a paid AMD employee (accusations run both ways).

INQ is news for hire, they always have been, Intel just beat AMD at its own game.

Fuad made INQ a bigger laughing stock than it already was. Even if the rumors turn out true (I highly doubt it) it wouldn't be that surprising considering the quality, or lack thereof, of the INQ. My personal opinion is that INQ will write whatever they can to be controversial to keep up independent URL hits on their ads.

You're missing the bigger point. We've suspected all along that Intel "works" the media. If Intel actually has a paid employee working at the Inquirer, it would tell you how important they believe their "viral" marketing campaign is.

Would it be a stretch then, that they'd have paid bashers on the AMD message board?

Plus

My personal opinion with that is that Intel doesn't have to pay anybody to work the message boards. There are more than enough fanbois on both sides to do it for them.

The INQ classifies as a tabloid (it even calls itself one) and is a spinoff of the register (when the register tried to get a bit more respectable, the disenting element left to form the INQ) and in true British tabloid fashion if they don't have any news they make some up.

Right now with Intel leading it makes sense readership wise to tout intel. Just like it made sense during AMD's days.

There is of course the possiblity that due to INQ totally not caring about their sources that they ended up getting items writen by Intel employees, and those articles may or may not have been a corporate idea. The likelyhood of that however I think is rather small, instead I think INQ fed Bloomberg that tip to increase their exposure (any news is free advertizing right?) which isn't anything new in the tabloid world.

I don't understand the whole not checking their sources thing. Ok, it's written in a fairly juvenile way but they always link to their sources, which always seem reliable. This does actually concern me and if you could give examples I'd be very interested to see them.

Well for sure MS do not pay for it. Frankly I do not remember any company that do not get "abused" by INQ. Its just a entertainment site with a very heavy tech and anti-establishment slant.

Dude, if you had listened to them and bought Intel stock instead of AMD you would be counting your gains instead of worrying about the injustices of who is getting paid to do what. Get a grip.

Funny, I have been reading the Inquirer for about 7 years now. It is not always right but it bash everyone given the chance.

Amd is lacking right now, it lost it's edge and has failed more than once to leverage what it has. On top of that it did not keep it's promises about the socket 939. That is the problem and has nothing to do with a tech news site.

I get so very tired of fools, children and the desperately uninformed spewing such drivel. The Inquirer or www.theinquirer.net has been in existence since 2001. Mike McGee formed the webzine after being forced out of The Register, another techie news site in which McGee was a participant. The site and its various reporters have, over the years, been accused of being biased for and/or against Intel, AMD, ATi, and nVidia. Most of that comes from who is considered "Top Dog" in technology or market share at the time. Their site has an archive, so look it up if you have any doubts. I have followed their site for years and though they often deal in rumor and tips in an almost tabloid demeanor the are often accurate and I have been able to see the trends in this industry that gave me a leg up when I ran a computer repair business and still at least keep me informed now that I am working as an ADPE repair tech for an army contractor in Middle East.

Just so you know that I am not hiding behind my pseudonym...
I am Brian "Red" Williamson of somewhere in LA, USA.
I am 41 years old and have worked in the IT industry for 10 years and have preferred AMD processors from the first Athlon but now recommend Core2Duo's. That may well change if Barcelona lives up to its billing.

Oh, and never use Wikipedia and its fiasco vis-a-vie the "Everywhere Girl" as any type of proof. She became an event after The Inq, (or a reader thereof... I forget), noticed that the same picture of a stock model was being used by both Dell and Gateway for advertising concurrently. What followed was reports of her photos being used by many companies for many advertising campaigns. Thus a "star" was born. The articles were light and amusing, but not very serious.