Ok, who let the real reporter into the room?
From Tim Grieve at Salon.com:
But here's the part that doesn't make sense. If Microsoft wanted to "focus" its "energy" on a "limited number of issues" in the current legislative session, it could have just left matters as they were. [Microsoft spokesperson] Begasse told us that, while Microsoft sent out a letter last year in support of the bill, it had never lobbied actively on its behalf. So why not leave it at that? Microsoft didn't have to do anything more, and it would have been free to "focus" its energy on other legislation. But by changing its position on the anti-discrimination bill from "support" to "neutral," Microsoft did focus on the issue -- it had to inform the sponsor of the legislation, it had to meet with gay and lesbian employees, and now it's had to take a lot of criticism for the late-game switch. If Microsoft really wanted to preserve its resources to "focus" on issues closer to the core of its business, wouldn't it have been better to remain in support of the bill and leave it at that?
We asked Begasse that question as many ways as we could, and the answer was always the same. "We did move to a neutral position on the bill, but it was in order to focus our energies on legislative issues that are directly related to our business," Begasse said. "It wasn't influenced by external factors."
Got it?
