Apple attempted to silence newspaper profile of Steve Jobs
Apple reportedly attempted to block the publication of a profile on company co-founder Steve Jobs, a piece that called the company's chief executive a visionary and also compared him to that of a ruthless dictator.
Referring to the technological revolutionary as "Silicon Che Guevara," author Bryan Appleyard in the British Sunday Times profiled the well-known history of Jobs at Apple, including his departure from and return to the company, as well as his health problems. The profile pulls no punches, portraying the man as both an American icon and a person to be feared, calling him "Good Steve" and "Bad Steve." The article even quoted the late Jef Raskin, co-creator of the Macintosh, on Jobs: "He would have made an excellent king of France."
The article also mentioned that Apple didn't want the Times to print the story. Appleyard noted that fact as he detailed the secrecy that surrounds Apple, and how it is the company's "core marketing tool."
"Apple hates personality stuff and press intrusion," Appleyard wrote. "'We want to discourage profiles,' an Apple PR tells me stiffly, apparently unaware she is waving a sackful of red rags at a herd of bulls. Another PR rings the editor of this magazine to try to halt publication of this piece."
In one of the article's more telling parts, it described a job interview that Jobs conducted. Reportedly, the Apple co-founder became bored with the candidate and began asking him questions about when he lost his virginity and how many times he's taken LSD. Finally, the multi-billionaire allegedly began gobbling like a turkey at the candidate before the job-seeker acknowledged he was not the right person for the position.
Calling "Bad Steve" the man who was driven out of Apple, Appleyard referred to "Good Steve" as the businessman who has obtained "rock-god" status. It said that "abused employees" who survive Jobs often find themselves praised by the company executive.
The lengthy piece quoted numerous people who worked with Jobs, or who have covered him in the press. It questioned how the company would proceed without its co-founder at the helm, suggesting a Jobs-less Apple would seek a merger with Google.
"The loss of Jobs's genius for products would mean Google's innovation and Apple’s design and market sense would be a very good fit," he wrote, "although antitrust regulators might disagree."
Recently, Jobs has has numerous surgeries following his diagnosis with pancreatic cancer. He returned to work this summer after he had a liver transplant. Last month, a very thin Jobs was photographed leaving Apple's Cupertino, Calif., headquarters.
Referring to the technological revolutionary as "Silicon Che Guevara," author Bryan Appleyard in the British Sunday Times profiled the well-known history of Jobs at Apple, including his departure from and return to the company, as well as his health problems. The profile pulls no punches, portraying the man as both an American icon and a person to be feared, calling him "Good Steve" and "Bad Steve." The article even quoted the late Jef Raskin, co-creator of the Macintosh, on Jobs: "He would have made an excellent king of France."
The article also mentioned that Apple didn't want the Times to print the story. Appleyard noted that fact as he detailed the secrecy that surrounds Apple, and how it is the company's "core marketing tool."
"Apple hates personality stuff and press intrusion," Appleyard wrote. "'We want to discourage profiles,' an Apple PR tells me stiffly, apparently unaware she is waving a sackful of red rags at a herd of bulls. Another PR rings the editor of this magazine to try to halt publication of this piece."
In one of the article's more telling parts, it described a job interview that Jobs conducted. Reportedly, the Apple co-founder became bored with the candidate and began asking him questions about when he lost his virginity and how many times he's taken LSD. Finally, the multi-billionaire allegedly began gobbling like a turkey at the candidate before the job-seeker acknowledged he was not the right person for the position.
Calling "Bad Steve" the man who was driven out of Apple, Appleyard referred to "Good Steve" as the businessman who has obtained "rock-god" status. It said that "abused employees" who survive Jobs often find themselves praised by the company executive.
The lengthy piece quoted numerous people who worked with Jobs, or who have covered him in the press. It questioned how the company would proceed without its co-founder at the helm, suggesting a Jobs-less Apple would seek a merger with Google.
"The loss of Jobs's genius for products would mean Google's innovation and Apple’s design and market sense would be a very good fit," he wrote, "although antitrust regulators might disagree."
Recently, Jobs has has numerous surgeries following his diagnosis with pancreatic cancer. He returned to work this summer after he had a liver transplant. Last month, a very thin Jobs was photographed leaving Apple's Cupertino, Calif., headquarters.
Comments
Of course, most of our current day news can't even handle day to day events in an ethical way, so I guess its just a pipe dream.
I'm sure if true interviews with honest questions and honest research with no bullying or bias, would reveal some very interesting (bad and good) parts of the people we have come to love and hate. I'd love to see more on Steve Jobs; I'm sure there's stuff that we don't know that would make us look at him very differently.
In one of the article's more telling parts, it described a job interview that Jobs conducted. Reportedly, the Apple co-founder became bored with the candidate and began asking him questions about when he lost his virginity and how many times he's taken LSD. Finally, the multi-billionaire allegedly began gobbling like a turkey at the candidate before the job-seeker acknowledged he was not the right person for the position.
I've interviewed a few lame candidates, and I must admit that if I were a multi-billionaire who didn't need to give a crap about what other people thought, I'd probably gobble like a turkey if that fit the situation. Sure, it's not politically correct, but I've noticed that these multi-billionaire types didn't get where they are by cowtowing to everyone else's extreme oversensitivity to everything.
The bottom line (human interest anectodes or none) should be: Does the person do what they need to do to move the company forward? Steve does.
Without being down on Google's technical skills at all, I see little evidence that, as a company, they are more innovative than their competitors, or even wholly more technically adept.
They certainly are in places (their fundamental search algorithms, and their early use of advanced Ajax techniques with Maps) but to be honest a lot of their products are Me Too developments - not to mention that in using WebKit and LLVM they are building on Apple's innovations.
It's also pretty standard "yellow journalism" tactics to include in your article, heavily dramatised descriptions of the subjects, reacting to you doing the article. In this case a simple statement from Apple PR is made out to be some kind of implied threat, and a standard phone call to a newspaper letting them know that you don't like the character assassination turns into them "trying to stop" our intrepid reporter, who of course comes out like a hero.
This kind of crap reporting was already old in the 1940's.
I love the idea that journalists still see Google as 'innovative' and Apple as 'design and style'.
Without being down on Google's technical skills at all, I see little evidence that, as a company, they are more innovative than their competitors, or even wholly more technically adept.
They certainly are in places (their fundamental search algorithms, and their early use of advanced Ajax techniques with Maps) but to be honest a lot of their products are Me Too developments - not to mention that in using WebKit and LLVM they are building on Apple's innovations.
+1 I was going to say that!
Apple reportedly attempted to block the publication
Kind of nit-picky, but I'm not sure I would call a couple of PR reps asking the newspaper to not run that story qualifies as attempting to "block" the story. That implies Apple tried to actively interfere with their ability to publish the story (cease-and-desist letters, threats of legal action, etc).
Let's try not to make Apple out to be any more evil than they actually are.
The lengthy piece quoted numerous people who worked with Jobs, or who have covered him in the press. It questioned how the company would proceed without its co-founder at the helm, suggesting a Jobs-less Apple would seek a merger with Google.
"The loss of Jobs's genius for products would mean Google's innovation and Apple?s design and market sense would be a very good fit," he wrote, "although antitrust regulators might disagree."
That is absolutely ridiculous and highly unlikely. The writer is clearly pulling these opinions out of his ass.
Another example of Apple paranoia and heavy handed tatics.
Apple (absurdly enough) called the editor of the magazine to ask them not to run the story. That's it--that's the entire extent of this article's "example."
If you think THAT is a heavy-handed tactic, you are clearly unfamiliar with the operations of any large corporation and its PR division
(Meanwhile, AI's misleading "attempted to silence" headline fits nicely with the myth that's so popular these days: Apple is evil, unlike "normal" corporations who ignore profit and shareholders. If you were responding to the headline without reading the article, I'm sure you're not alone.)
Apple (absurdly enough) called the editor of the magazine to ask them not to run the story. That's it--that's the entire extent of this article's "example."
Yeah, I didn't see a whole lot mentioned about it, almost devoid of degree that would merit those adjectives. If there was a veiled threat of litigation, or if there's advertising money at stake, then maybe that's heavy handed. There's only so much that can be done, I imagine that Apple would send their legal team up for bat if they thought that would do good, though I would also imagine that has considerable risk of blowback too, if for some odd reason they don't know what the Streisand Effect is, they'll learn pretty quickly.
You prefer the likes of Bush (father or son, take your pick) over someone who really did something for the poor of this world??
I am *this* close to boycotting your publication, which I have had on RSS for years, for insensitive racist descriptions such as this.
I have literally just finished watching Pirates of Silican Valley on YouTube
That "Virgin" scene was very random!!
I do wish they make a sequel - I very enjoyed the film very much
Kind regards,
Mo.
p.s. 1st post!
I remind you, Appleinsider, that your public is not only 1st world stuck-up techies. Ernesto "Che" Guevara is regarded worldwide as a revolutionary and ideological leader.
You prefer the likes of Bush (father or son, take your pick) over someone who really did something for the poor of this world??
I am *this* close to boycotting your publication, which I have had on RSS for years, for insensitive racist descriptions such as this.
Wait a minute, can you clarify the racist accusation? I didn't notice anything that stood out.