Network World is owned by International Data Corp (aka IDC, IDG) and this[1] blog author seems to think that they are the puppet of Microsoft. While I certainly cannot make an argument one way or another, this raises the question of how valid this report is.
I couldn't believe when I read this article that in related content, the top item was "IE9 tops Chrome, Firefox in HTML5 Compatibility"[2]. That's what made me research if there was any connection between Network World and Microsoft.
[1] http://techrights.org/2010/06/11/idc-idg-and-propaganda/