I've read plenty of criticisms of Microsoft's employee review system, but this one caught my eye:

Microsoft employees are growing more and more disillusioned with stagnating salaries and an increasingly contentious review system that they say is unfair, according to a recent report in WashTech News. That's led to more defections by senior engineers and growing dissatisfaction among rank-and-file workers, the report said.

Until I got to the next paragraph:

The publication is affiliated with the Washington Alliance of Technology Workers, a labor union affiliated with the AFL-CIO that has tried to organize Microsoft workers in the past. At issue is the company's performance review system, according to the report. Microsoft employs some 38,000 workers in the U.S. alone.

Now, never mind what you think of Microsoft, or this union, or unions in general. Just consider the concept of a "news story" that uses a source that was unsuccessful in its attempt to deal with the subject of the story. Nah, there wouldn't be a conflict of interest there, hmm?

Maybe CNN should just cut out the middleman and host press releases from advocates - employers, unions, political parties. That way I wouldn't have to go all the way to the second paragraph in order to evaluate the usefulness of a story.