Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, iPhone
iBacklash: Are ZDNet blogs naysaying the iPhone?
Over at 2 A Day, they certainly think something's gotten into the water at ZDnet. The quick meta-analysis shows that 11 ZDnet blogs have posted more than 50 negative items about the iPhone in the last 10 days or so. Is this excessive pre-release carping, or simply prudent, slightly contrarian analysis? Don't forget, ZDnet is home to some of the most well-regarded voices in the Mac blogosphere... and certainly mainstream media outlets like the Wall Street Journal (analysis courtesy Daring Fireball) are not being coy on the topic of iPhone's appropriateness for the corporate market.I know I'd be frustrated if someone was peeking over our shoulders at TUAW and second-guessing our individual editorial choices, seeking for a hidden bias and specific agenda. 'Course, the thing is, around here we wear our agenda on our collective sleeve: we're Apple fans, and we wouldn't be here if we weren't. While we may cast the occasional gimlet eye at the choices and products made at One Infinite Loop, the fact is that we're all excited about the iPhone, and I don't see that there's any point in pretending otherwise. If there is an iPhone backlash brewing, I hope we'll be among the first to point out the line of people jumping off the bandwagon -- and, as we've said repeatedly, let's try to reserve formal thumbs-up or -down on the device until it ships.
Update: Larry Dignan has posted a post-by-post response to the 2 A Day item over on the Between The Lines blog at ZDnet. Summary: Larry says nobody's hatin' on the iPhone.
[via Fake Steve]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Bruno said 10:29AM on 6-20-2007
The negative backlash content of any one article or group of articles in current periodicals are calculated.
There's been a lot of positive press and googoo'ing over the iPhone. If you wrote a story today praising the product it would be lost in an expansive sea.
Writing an objective piece wouldn't cater to the polar opinions the populace seem to have nor would it bring people onto your site or to buy your magazine.
We're left with only one avenue. Negativity. The product isn't out yet, but when these "editors" speak in such certain terms they hope they'll blind their readership who will either be right behind them cheering for the iPhone's head on a spike, or so seething with hatred and spite - enough to stick around on the site leaving comments and enough to return later to see if there's a retraction and what everyone else has commented.
Primal. And obvious.
A positive piece with the same level of misinformation and general BS would largely be ignored with far more people saying "the product isn't out yet! How can you say that?"
Now, regaring specifically a couple of the offending sources, ZDNet and CNET, could anyone expect any less? These two publications have a history of shoddy reporting by self-proclaimed "know-it-alls" who are no less clueless than their target audience. If these joints claim they're at the heartbeat of technology I have news for them. The heart is at the other end of the animal friends.
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Jenny said 10:40AM on 6-20-2007
Is anybody in Nashville interested in/hating on the iPhone, and would like to talk about it to a reporter for The Tennessean? If so, please contact me at jsong@tennessean.com or (615) 259-8076. Thanks! Jenny.
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MacBookOwner said 11:14AM on 6-20-2007
Nice to see the Tennessean taking an objective stance there, Jenny :p
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Larry Dignan said 11:22AM on 6-20-2007
I'd argue we're not nearly as negative as portrayed. My response point by point.
http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=5437
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Michael Rose said 11:39AM on 6-20-2007
Thanks, Larry -- link added to the main post.
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MacBookOwner said 11:50AM on 6-20-2007
Larry, nice rebuttal. But it doesn't disprove the reality that you guys had FIFTY negative stories, from just about every blogger on your payroll, some who have no business posting about Apple.
ZDNet is all about the advertising clicks, and Apple is a great click magnet. And going negative? That is clicking GOLD.
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Tom said 9:22PM on 6-20-2007
The minute they redefined "negative" to "perspective", you knew the rest was just a cover.
ZDNet, you would have been better to just keep quiet. Insulting the intelligence of your readers by implying we're not smart enough to know reasoned perspective from negative press was not the way to go here. I know the difference, thank you very much.
Of course, this is the same ZDNet that told us Leopard looked like Vista, and then when that storm broke proceeded to tell us all we just misunderstood the article. Insulting their readership appears to be their new defense.
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Charles said 1:49AM on 6-21-2007
ZDNet is a primary part of the Windows propaganda machine. ZDNet is largely owned by Vulcan Ventures, which is the personal venture capital firm for Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen.
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