Looks like I hit a sore spot here. Look at it from my point of view. I'm all comfy in my White House bed. I see a story about Apple, on a Apple website. And to actually see it, I have to get one of my secret service guys to bring me a PC. Make sense to you?
Make it a little easier on me next time. This is my holiday, you know.
I thought you'd be watching it on a playbook.
Flash support was one of the main factors in it's highly successful marketing campaign.
When is Micheal Moore going to get the real story....
Face it, you all could stand in that factory for entire week and just observe and you all will come out with a total different perspective from one another and could not agree whether it was a good thing or bad.
I would say the same thing about going into a US factory, Mill or Mine and you all could not agree whether the people in those places were actually better off or whether the company or government was taking advantage of of them.
Anyone who works for a company has to realize you are all being taken advantage of, companies make lots of money off the backs of the people who work for them.
It's about time you realize that Apple has connections with every popular media outlet in the US. You should also realize that Steve Jobs, who has since passed away, was the Disney shareholder, not Apple.
Your slip'n Solipsism.
There is a big difference between 'connections with' and 'owning'.
Also, Steve Jobs is synonymous with the Apple brand. Apple protects it's brand at any cost.
Your intelligent enough to know that ABC is nothing more then a MSM propaganda machine for the weak minded - to encourage consumerism. The only reason they exist is to sell advertising, not awaken humanity to some grand enlightenment.
The only reason for an intellectual to watch this program, is out of of morbid curiosity - as to how many ad's Apple will run during it's airing.
ABC airs a non damning documentary on Foxconn: conflict of interest and lies
NBC airs a non damning documentary on Foxconn: lies
BBC airs a non damning documentary on Foxconn: foreign lies
CBC airs a non damning documentary on Foxconn: communist lies
Some loud mouthed hyperbole laden dude with a microphone and a Sony camcorder airs a scathing report on his blog about the slave sweatshops run by the Illuminati managed Foxconn, secretly owned by Apple: the absolute and unquestionable truth
There is a big difference between 'connections with' and 'owning'.
Hence, my point.
Quote:
Also, Steve Jobs is synonymous with the Apple brand.
So you think Apple is synonymous with Jobs who is synonymous with Disney which is synonymous with ABC which is synonymous with Nightline? That's a lot of synonymy to link Apple with Nightline. If you are going to draw a line connecting them draw that line between Apple inviting Nightline to do a story on their involvement at the Foxxcon.
If I were in charge of things, I'd think about tightening up security with all of the leaks taking place. It's getting to be a joke. Ban all cameras and phones from the factories. Make them all work naked like drug cartels do. As long as the leaks are stopped, then everything is fine. And the punishment for stealing or leaking any info should be extremely severe.
I agree. Did you notice that those were iPad 3s those workers were assembling. I thought, "OMG! those are iPad 3s, doesn't anyone care that they are photographing unreleased Apple products?"
It's about time you realize that Apple has connections with every popular media outlet in the US. You should also realize that Steve Jobs, who has since passed away, was the Disney shareholder, not Apple.
And also Steve Job's trust owns a significant portion of shares outstanding for Apple Inc of which you fail to mention hence completing the link between ABC and Apple.
So you think Apple is synonymous with Jobs who is synonymous with Disney which is synonymous with ABC which is synonymous with Nightline? That's a lot of synonymy to link Apple with Nightline.
No, I don't think that at all.
I think Jobs is synonymous with Apple. That's it.
Ask anyone on the street the first thing they think of when they hear Steve Jobs's name and you won't find a single person who even knows about his affiliation with Disney or even Pixar; It's Apple and only Apple. It's a different story in our little bubble here.
What ABC's program will/won't say is not important as we already know what the formula will be as it's nothing more then a PR stunt older then the hills;
- admit a few vulnerabilities to establish trust and the appearance of transparency (vulnerabilities that have already been exposed).
- then drive the message that 'company x' is a good corporate citizen trying its best against some protagonist...
Apple's PR team has already started 'seeding' this message - this helps establish affirmation of the desired message by making the viewer believe they have come to the conclusion themselves.
It's PR 101
Once Apple's PR team (ABC) makes you believe that (1)Yes, there are some problems, but (2)they are trying, and (3)it's better that Apple be there then not be there then (4)you can buy said product without guilt because (5)the poor need you to consume.
How the public reacts to this - that's where the juice is.
I imagine most will be indifferent - but feel a little better about their purchases. (the intended message).
But the diamond - the golden nugget will be how investors react knowing full well that Apple is full of shit and that they set up in China for 1 reason and 1 reason only... exploitation in the name of obscene profits.
So you think Apple is synonymous with Jobs who is synonymous with Disney which is synonymous with ABC which is synonymous with Nightline? That's a lot of synonymy to link Apple with Nightline. If you are going to draw a line connecting them draw that line between Apple inviting Nightline to do a story on their involvement at the Foxxcon.
All this controversy would not have arisen had Apple invited the other news network to produce a story like this.
NBC's Dateline and CBS's 60 minutes are well respected and quite frankly more prestigious programs for investigative journalism than ABC's Nightline.
ABC is owned by Disney corporation which Steve Job's trust owns a significant portion through his interest in Pixar Animations. Also, Steve Job's owns a sizable interest in Apple.
I'm sure before his death, many executive orders were handed out to try to flush out any bad PR, if and when the networks try to pry the conditions at Foxconn: one of those being to invite its indirectly affiliated company on a tour (a prior notice tour no less).
You have to stop and look at the big picture here:
Question
1) Who is to benefit from this?
2) Why are they doing this?
Answer
1) Apple most likely and Foxconn and HOPEFULLY the workers at the Foxconn plants. Also, dont forget about ABC and its increase in its ratings during the airing of this show.
2) To get over the increased scrutiny being imposed by labor groups/protestors and advocates around the world.
I know it sucks to be on the receiving end of this increased scrutiny especially for the fans. But with increased success story comes increased scrutiny especially considering the profit margins and market capitalization of historical proportions that the fans like to always quote of Apple. Its hard to be at the top and its even harder to maintain that position.
It's good to know the delectable actor in the tight shirt who is paid by ABC, Disney, and the Jobs estate (not necessarily in that order) is finally going to tell us what's really going down in China. My trembling anticipation of the Whole Truth is as palpable as the urge to bite the side of said actor's chest, just below his waxed, scented armpit, adjacent to his tastefully-ripped but not-tackily-Schwarzeneggered biceps.
Lord Northcliffe famously said "News is what somebody somewhere wants to suppress; all the rest is advertising." Sadly, like everyone from Jesus to the authors of the US Constitution to the actor with the nice pecs in the $1,400 t-shirt from Barney's, Lord N. can't be blamed for failing to anticipate that corporate apotheosis, global media technology, and a profoundly ignorant populace would guarantee that advertising is the only form of communication possible. Who knew?
We, however, can know that it's 2012 and there are no facts ? only an open invitation to sit on our iThingies and spin.
The same tech which is being used to erase any possibility of truth could more easily and less expensively be used to eliminate the middle-men who makes it impossible to know anything at all. If Apple wanted anyone to understand the reality of their factory conditions, they could simply give each of their employees an iPad and uncensored net access. Anyone similarly equipped person on earth could then find out exactly what's being done to whom, and perhaps even why. At which point some entrepreneur would find a way to market some ephemeral soupçon of social justice as just one more product du jour.
As is, 21st century journalism is indistinguishable from "reality TV," following as it does the same script for the same reasons. Similar to the way in which spiritual development has the potential to render all thoughts prayers, corporatism - having turned every object, idea, feeling, impulse, notion, and fantasy into a product - guarantees that every thought is an ad. Consider, right now, that any desire you may harbor to see Chinese workers treated as human beings rather than fleshbots has been converted into a product so that Nightline (and AppleInsider) can sell it back to you.
WTF. How many frigging abc local news apps are there in the UK App Store? I don't think we have the "regular" one though. Really gotta HTML5 this shit, abc, maybe sort out your channel/station whatever that all is apps too?
2) To get over the increased scrutiny being imposed by labor groups/protestors and advocates around the world.
If you going to ask who benefits then you have to ask what is in it for the Labor Groups bring this all to light.
As much as you would like to believe these groups having only pure motives, it is not the case. These groups have their own agendas and it not always about helping the worker. If that was the case they would be making every attempt to get access to the other Foxconn facilities which are not making Apple products where most of the real problems exist. Beside Foxconn making products for any name brand companies they make lots more products for no name brands you all buy every day at far lower prices than what apple pays Foxconn to make its products. These are the people everyone hears about, the terrible work condition and such. But you do not see these groups tell us not to buy those no name product or trying to gain access to those products factories.
Even on Foxconn worse day at an apple product factory its far better than those factories out in the middle of no where producing no name electronics and gadgets you all buy.
So these groups who are claiming to help are only looking for ways to get their name in the press so they can somehow force people to pay them money.
Now here's an unreasonable suggestion: Why don't people just watch the damn show before voicing their learned comments about its content?
That's far too important a question to be left to languish rhetorically. Here's a an attempt at an answer…
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kibitzer
Why don't people just watch the damn show before voicing their learned comments about its content?
Because the alleged content plays a barely-audible second fiddle to the nature of the show itself. Forgive the cliché, but the medium really is the message, and the medium exists to manipulate the flow of wealth. Any other results are merely side effects.
"Nightline" is an advertising vehicle created by ABC, which is owned by Disney, which is substantially dominated by the Jobs estate, which is indistinguishable from Apple itself, all of which are corporate abstractions the sole, amoral purpose of which is to turn anything and everything into money. Consequently, every word, image, thought, feeling, notion, and impulse Nightline conveys is first, foremost, and always an ad. The many-armed, multidinously-fingered, and infinitely-manicured corporate media goddess can no more analyze nail salons than a mirror can examine itself. This severely limits what we can and should expect of the "content." (Forgive the precious quotes - it's fatal to for a moment forget that the purported content of such efforts is nothing of the sort.)
All corporate-sponsored communication is advertising, and advertising is by definition anything presented to you that the presenter might profit. All advertising is manipulation, and to approach corporate manipulation without first asking who is doing what to whom and why is as irresponsible as it is naive. Such naiveté guarantees being rendered effectively unconscious before the first seductive notes of the mood music are even heard.
To consume media without examining the nature of the source is to listen to a schizophrenic without considering the nature of schizophrenia. To ever face a television without first asking what it is, why it exists, and how it is you've come to be looking at it is to become one of the zombies or vampires the screen is currently so fond of showing us. It's no more inappropriate to dismiss out of hand the notion that Nightline can tell you the truth than it is to decline to allow a lumberjack to style your hair with a chain saw.
Most of what Nightline can and can't tell us about working conditions in Apple's Chinese factories or anything else is determined first and foremost by what Nightline itself is. What it actually says is trivial by comparison, and to listen to it unprepared can only result in being misinformed.
As difficult it is to read comments that refer to "Obscene profits" and "Exploitation" when discussing Apple, I will watch the program with interest. Mostly to see how some of my favorite kit is built.
I'm always amazed at how some have managed to grow up in America and come to the conclusion that capitalism is bad.
Apple makes obscenely great products. They sell a lot of them to people who enjoy using them. Hence the 'obscene' profits.
Hate on consumerism and capitalism and progress all you want, but please stay out of the way of those who are out there creating wealth and prosperity all over the world while moving technology forward.
Nightline is an ABC program. ABC is owned by Disney. Jobs family owns a major stake in Disney. I am sure it will be an objective and well-ballanced story
Nightline is an ABC program. ABC is owned by Disney. Jobs family owns a major stake in Disney. I am sure it will be an objective and well-ballanced story
I'm a pro union lib who happens to be thrilled with everything apple, including the very complex previous CEO, whom I would never work for but own all his stuff. I don't think the reactions out there in journalism land will be quite so shallow as you portray. I could be wrong, but I'm just saying.
For people who were making $10/year in a good year, making $1.50/hr is a fortune. Things will improve.
Besides, don't bash politics around here; you might get an infraction like I did.
You absolutely cannot get an infraction on these forums if you are pro Apple, no matter how racist, offensive, or personally directed your sentiments in fact are.
I will probably get an infraction for pointing that out, however.
On the actual topic, every one of us knows the ABC report will show a picture of prosperity and equity, and the fact that WE ALREADY KNOW that ABC has prepared a PR exposition, and only a fool would imagine anything otherwise, is enough to demonstrate to even the simplest among you (and that is shockingly simple, by any approximation) that this "special" is not at all "journalism," unless by "journalism" you mean any blatant propaganda that is shot with a camera and presented to the undiscerning masses.
That the NY Times article was skewed is hard to argue against, but of course all of you are now saying that ABC, despite extremely obvious evidence to the contrary, will present nothing but the most subtle, academic, objective investigation into the realities of international business, all for the scholars of prime time television.
HA! Why don't you venture just one insignificant, independent thought, just once? I promise it won't hurt you. "Sports fans," the lot of you, and you think your "team" can do no wrong. What a childish, obstinately naive and above all TYPICAL approach to existence.
The ABC special is a joke and every single one of us knows it. That only 10-15% of these boards will admit that fact is another matter altogether.
Comments
Okay. Fair enough.
Looks like I hit a sore spot here. Look at it from my point of view. I'm all comfy in my White House bed. I see a story about Apple, on a Apple website. And to actually see it, I have to get one of my secret service guys to bring me a PC. Make sense to you?
Make it a little easier on me next time. This is my holiday, you know.
I thought you'd be watching it on a playbook.
Flash support was one of the main factors in it's highly successful marketing campaign.
Face it, you all could stand in that factory for entire week and just observe and you all will come out with a total different perspective from one another and could not agree whether it was a good thing or bad.
I would say the same thing about going into a US factory, Mill or Mine and you all could not agree whether the people in those places were actually better off or whether the company or government was taking advantage of of them.
Anyone who works for a company has to realize you are all being taken advantage of, companies make lots of money off the backs of the people who work for them.
It's about time you realize that Apple has connections with every popular media outlet in the US. You should also realize that Steve Jobs, who has since passed away, was the Disney shareholder, not Apple.
Your slip'n Solipsism.
There is a big difference between 'connections with' and 'owning'.
Also, Steve Jobs is synonymous with the Apple brand. Apple protects it's brand at any cost.
Your intelligent enough to know that ABC is nothing more then a MSM propaganda machine for the weak minded - to encourage consumerism. The only reason they exist is to sell advertising, not awaken humanity to some grand enlightenment.
The only reason for an intellectual to watch this program, is out of of morbid curiosity - as to how many ad's Apple will run during it's airing.
ABC airs a non damning documentary on Foxconn: conflict of interest and lies
NBC airs a non damning documentary on Foxconn: lies
BBC airs a non damning documentary on Foxconn: foreign lies
CBC airs a non damning documentary on Foxconn: communist lies
Some loud mouthed hyperbole laden dude with a microphone and a Sony camcorder airs a scathing report on his blog about the slave sweatshops run by the Illuminati managed Foxconn, secretly owned by Apple: the absolute and unquestionable truth
lol but so right.
There is a big difference between 'connections with' and 'owning'.
Hence, my point.
Also, Steve Jobs is synonymous with the Apple brand.
So you think Apple is synonymous with Jobs who is synonymous with Disney which is synonymous with ABC which is synonymous with Nightline? That's a lot of synonymy to link Apple with Nightline. If you are going to draw a line connecting them draw that line between Apple inviting Nightline to do a story on their involvement at the Foxxcon.
If I were in charge of things, I'd think about tightening up security with all of the leaks taking place. It's getting to be a joke. Ban all cameras and phones from the factories. Make them all work naked like drug cartels do. As long as the leaks are stopped, then everything is fine. And the punishment for stealing or leaking any info should be extremely severe.
I agree. Did you notice that those were iPad 3s those workers were assembling. I thought, "OMG! those are iPad 3s, doesn't anyone care that they are photographing unreleased Apple products?"
It's about time you realize that Apple has connections with every popular media outlet in the US. You should also realize that Steve Jobs, who has since passed away, was the Disney shareholder, not Apple.
And also Steve Job's trust owns a significant portion of shares outstanding for Apple Inc of which you fail to mention hence completing the link between ABC and Apple.
LOL!
I'm sure there are many on here and elsewhere who would believe O'Keefe as long as he spewed hate and disgust towards Apple.
I just want to see him affect an embarassingly stereotypical chinese accent and try to infiltrate foxconn as an emproyee.
Hence, my point.
So you think Apple is synonymous with Jobs who is synonymous with Disney which is synonymous with ABC which is synonymous with Nightline? That's a lot of synonymy to link Apple with Nightline.
No, I don't think that at all.
I think Jobs is synonymous with Apple. That's it.
Ask anyone on the street the first thing they think of when they hear Steve Jobs's name and you won't find a single person who even knows about his affiliation with Disney or even Pixar; It's Apple and only Apple. It's a different story in our little bubble here.
What ABC's program will/won't say is not important as we already know what the formula will be as it's nothing more then a PR stunt older then the hills;
- admit a few vulnerabilities to establish trust and the appearance of transparency (vulnerabilities that have already been exposed).
- then drive the message that 'company x' is a good corporate citizen trying its best against some protagonist...
Apple's PR team has already started 'seeding' this message - this helps establish affirmation of the desired message by making the viewer believe they have come to the conclusion themselves.
It's PR 101
Once Apple's PR team (ABC) makes you believe that (1)Yes, there are some problems, but (2)they are trying, and (3)it's better that Apple be there then not be there then (4)you can buy said product without guilt because (5)the poor need you to consume.
How the public reacts to this - that's where the juice is.
I imagine most will be indifferent - but feel a little better about their purchases. (the intended message).
But the diamond - the golden nugget will be how investors react knowing full well that Apple is full of shit and that they set up in China for 1 reason and 1 reason only... exploitation in the name of obscene profits.
I look forward to reading people's reactions.
Hence, my point.
So you think Apple is synonymous with Jobs who is synonymous with Disney which is synonymous with ABC which is synonymous with Nightline? That's a lot of synonymy to link Apple with Nightline. If you are going to draw a line connecting them draw that line between Apple inviting Nightline to do a story on their involvement at the Foxxcon.
All this controversy would not have arisen had Apple invited the other news network to produce a story like this.
NBC's Dateline and CBS's 60 minutes are well respected and quite frankly more prestigious programs for investigative journalism than ABC's Nightline.
ABC is owned by Disney corporation which Steve Job's trust owns a significant portion through his interest in Pixar Animations. Also, Steve Job's owns a sizable interest in Apple.
I'm sure before his death, many executive orders were handed out to try to flush out any bad PR, if and when the networks try to pry the conditions at Foxconn: one of those being to invite its indirectly affiliated company on a tour (a prior notice tour no less).
You have to stop and look at the big picture here:
Question
1) Who is to benefit from this?
2) Why are they doing this?
Answer
1) Apple most likely and Foxconn and HOPEFULLY the workers at the Foxconn plants. Also, dont forget about ABC and its increase in its ratings during the airing of this show.
2) To get over the increased scrutiny being imposed by labor groups/protestors and advocates around the world.
I know it sucks to be on the receiving end of this increased scrutiny especially for the fans. But with increased success story comes increased scrutiny especially considering the profit margins and market capitalization of historical proportions that the fans like to always quote of Apple. Its hard to be at the top and its even harder to maintain that position.
Lord Northcliffe famously said "News is what somebody somewhere wants to suppress; all the rest is advertising." Sadly, like everyone from Jesus to the authors of the US Constitution to the actor with the nice pecs in the $1,400 t-shirt from Barney's, Lord N. can't be blamed for failing to anticipate that corporate apotheosis, global media technology, and a profoundly ignorant populace would guarantee that advertising is the only form of communication possible. Who knew?
We, however, can know that it's 2012 and there are no facts ? only an open invitation to sit on our iThingies and spin.
The same tech which is being used to erase any possibility of truth could more easily and less expensively be used to eliminate the middle-men who makes it impossible to know anything at all. If Apple wanted anyone to understand the reality of their factory conditions, they could simply give each of their employees an iPad and uncensored net access. Anyone similarly equipped person on earth could then find out exactly what's being done to whom, and perhaps even why. At which point some entrepreneur would find a way to market some ephemeral soupçon of social justice as just one more product du jour.
As is, 21st century journalism is indistinguishable from "reality TV," following as it does the same script for the same reasons. Similar to the way in which spiritual development has the potential to render all thoughts prayers, corporatism - having turned every object, idea, feeling, impulse, notion, and fantasy into a product - guarantees that every thought is an ad. Consider, right now, that any desire you may harbor to see Chinese workers treated as human beings rather than fleshbots has been converted into a product so that Nightline (and AppleInsider) can sell it back to you.
Foxconn is doomed. Apple will follow.
Dell, others, remain unaffected.
2) To get over the increased scrutiny being imposed by labor groups/protestors and advocates around the world.
If you going to ask who benefits then you have to ask what is in it for the Labor Groups bring this all to light.
As much as you would like to believe these groups having only pure motives, it is not the case. These groups have their own agendas and it not always about helping the worker. If that was the case they would be making every attempt to get access to the other Foxconn facilities which are not making Apple products where most of the real problems exist. Beside Foxconn making products for any name brand companies they make lots more products for no name brands you all buy every day at far lower prices than what apple pays Foxconn to make its products. These are the people everyone hears about, the terrible work condition and such. But you do not see these groups tell us not to buy those no name product or trying to gain access to those products factories.
Even on Foxconn worse day at an apple product factory its far better than those factories out in the middle of no where producing no name electronics and gadgets you all buy.
So these groups who are claiming to help are only looking for ways to get their name in the press so they can somehow force people to pay them money.
Now here's an unreasonable suggestion: Why don't people just watch the damn show before voicing their learned comments about its content?
That's far too important a question to be left to languish rhetorically. Here's a an attempt at an answer…
Why don't people just watch the damn show before voicing their learned comments about its content?
Because the alleged content plays a barely-audible second fiddle to the nature of the show itself. Forgive the cliché, but the medium really is the message, and the medium exists to manipulate the flow of wealth. Any other results are merely side effects.
"Nightline" is an advertising vehicle created by ABC, which is owned by Disney, which is substantially dominated by the Jobs estate, which is indistinguishable from Apple itself, all of which are corporate abstractions the sole, amoral purpose of which is to turn anything and everything into money. Consequently, every word, image, thought, feeling, notion, and impulse Nightline conveys is first, foremost, and always an ad. The many-armed, multidinously-fingered, and infinitely-manicured corporate media goddess can no more analyze nail salons than a mirror can examine itself. This severely limits what we can and should expect of the "content." (Forgive the precious quotes - it's fatal to for a moment forget that the purported content of such efforts is nothing of the sort.)
All corporate-sponsored communication is advertising, and advertising is by definition anything presented to you that the presenter might profit. All advertising is manipulation, and to approach corporate manipulation without first asking who is doing what to whom and why is as irresponsible as it is naive. Such naiveté guarantees being rendered effectively unconscious before the first seductive notes of the mood music are even heard.
To consume media without examining the nature of the source is to listen to a schizophrenic without considering the nature of schizophrenia. To ever face a television without first asking what it is, why it exists, and how it is you've come to be looking at it is to become one of the zombies or vampires the screen is currently so fond of showing us. It's no more inappropriate to dismiss out of hand the notion that Nightline can tell you the truth than it is to decline to allow a lumberjack to style your hair with a chain saw.
Most of what Nightline can and can't tell us about working conditions in Apple's Chinese factories or anything else is determined first and foremost by what Nightline itself is. What it actually says is trivial by comparison, and to listen to it unprepared can only result in being misinformed.
I'm always amazed at how some have managed to grow up in America and come to the conclusion that capitalism is bad.
Apple makes obscenely great products. They sell a lot of them to people who enjoy using them. Hence the 'obscene' profits.
Hate on consumerism and capitalism and progress all you want, but please stay out of the way of those who are out there creating wealth and prosperity all over the world while moving technology forward.
Nightline is an ABC program. ABC is owned by Disney. Jobs family owns a major stake in Disney. I am sure it will be an objective and well-ballanced story
I think it will be as well.
I'm a pro union lib who happens to be thrilled with everything apple, including the very complex previous CEO, whom I would never work for but own all his stuff. I don't think the reactions out there in journalism land will be quite so shallow as you portray. I could be wrong, but I'm just saying.
For people who were making $10/year in a good year, making $1.50/hr is a fortune. Things will improve.
Besides, don't bash politics around here; you might get an infraction like I did.
You absolutely cannot get an infraction on these forums if you are pro Apple, no matter how racist, offensive, or personally directed your sentiments in fact are.
I will probably get an infraction for pointing that out, however.
On the actual topic, every one of us knows the ABC report will show a picture of prosperity and equity, and the fact that WE ALREADY KNOW that ABC has prepared a PR exposition, and only a fool would imagine anything otherwise, is enough to demonstrate to even the simplest among you (and that is shockingly simple, by any approximation) that this "special" is not at all "journalism," unless by "journalism" you mean any blatant propaganda that is shot with a camera and presented to the undiscerning masses.
That the NY Times article was skewed is hard to argue against, but of course all of you are now saying that ABC, despite extremely obvious evidence to the contrary, will present nothing but the most subtle, academic, objective investigation into the realities of international business, all for the scholars of prime time television.
HA! Why don't you venture just one insignificant, independent thought, just once? I promise it won't hurt you. "Sports fans," the lot of you, and you think your "team" can do no wrong. What a childish, obstinately naive and above all TYPICAL approach to existence.
The ABC special is a joke and every single one of us knows it. That only 10-15% of these boards will admit that fact is another matter altogether.