Microsoft on PR Plan

“Microsoft Plans Stealth Media Blitz” (April 10) gives an inaccurate account of our efforts to counter the anti-Microsoft campaign underway by a coalition of competitor companies.

At Microsoft, we are standing up for the freedom of every company to innovate and constantly improve its products for consumers. Our competitors, meanwhile, are waging a sophisticated PR and lobbying campaign for dangerous and unprecedented government regulation of America’s most dynamic and competitive industry. Microsoft is committed to open, ethical and effective public relations as a part of our overall business efforts. The regional public relations efforts that were mischaracterized in your article were actually a proposal forwarded to Microsoft by one of our external public relations consultants, not a program underway at Microsoft. It is worth noting, however, that many elements of the proposal are commonplace activities practiced by many firms across America.

Finally, it is hardly surprising that our spokesman refused to confirm the existence of the document when first asked. We get many questions about phony e-mail and altered documents that have supposedly come from Microsoft, so we always establish the legitimacy of each item before commenting on it. In this case, that process took less than 15 minutes, after which our spokesperson was both prompt and forthcoming.

MICH MATHEWS

General Manager

Corporate Public Relations

Redmond, Wash.