Scoble talks about Channel 9, and describes it as disintermediated marketing. Interesting. I'll go one step further though. Not only is Channel 9 a marketing site, but so is http://blogs.msdn.com (in a way). The PDC is also a huge marketing event. Just because something has technical content, that doesn't mean it isn't marketing. Outside of PSS articles, some isolated material from the knowledge base, and certain technical articles on MSDN or TechNet, most of the public information from MS is marketing in some way shape or form. It may range in technical depth, and it may have more or less to do with selling new products ( and some of it may have no positive effect at all), but all of this stuff is about marketing our platform. Just because it is marketing doesn't mean that it doesn't have value.
Every other vendor in this industry is trying to do the same thing. I don't see that as a bad thing. I don't know why sales and marketing are bad words in our industry- they shouldn't be. That is how we grow our industry, help our customers, and educate people about what is possible through technology.