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Why Does This Man Hate 60-million iPod Users?
They inflame with senseless articles, we react. Their web sites get more hits. And run more ads. It’s the circle of life circa 2006 and I don’t see it changing for the better. Somehow the give and take capability of the internet brings out the worst in journalists. Instead of simply reporting the news as a series of facts, they become embroiled in the news. Take Dr. Emilio Bombay. Please. He’s a self-proclaimed techno journalist, and senior resident expert for the Fort-Worth Star-Telegram. Two of Dr. Bombay’s recent articles blasted away at the 60-million or so iPod users throughout the world. Why? Good question. Judging from the diatribe in both columns, Dr. Bombay hates you if you’re an iPod user. Why? That’s a good question, too. I can only assume he and his so-called newspaper suffer from ”Blast Mac Users Syndrome.” Write something nasty and get lots of web site hits. What other reason could there be? Plenty, but that’s a start. Could this be considered public terrorist threatening (a crime in many states)?
“If I see you walking down the street, earbuds shoved halfway into your cerebral cortex, oblivious to everything around you but your own crappy taste in music, I may very well rip the device from your person, hurl it to the ground in a startling fit of rage and attempt to grind it into its component molecules with the golf shoes I wear for just such an eventuality. I may, depending on my particular chemical balance at that instant, then attempt to rub your face into the residue until it is no more than a bloody pulp. I may or may not pose your corpse in an embarrassing position. We’ll just have to see.”
Instead of reporting the news, journalists have become the news, they make the news, they are the news. What got Dr. Bombay off his meds and into the rant ward was nothing more insidious than a Sharper Image catalog. Somehow, “It was the toilet-paper dispenser that got to me.” It’s the season of catalog, Doctor. Deal with it. Take an overdose of lithium and call us when you get to Macworld 2007. Mistaking the tens of millions of law-abiding, intelligent, pro-choice (iPods) American iPod owners as lemmings who blindly will buy any accessory for their iPods, Dr. Bombay went ballistic:
“Americans are so wedded to their precious little iPods that they can be without them nowhere, even when performing bodily functions best left undiscussed in a family-oriented forum. Oh, what the hell. Never mind that.You can now take an iPoop. The toilet-paper dispenser has an iPod dock and attached speakers. Maybe you can use it to cover up other sounds likely to emanate from the bathroom. I don’t really know, and I don’t really care. I have simply had enough.”
Most journalists these days sprinkle their opinionistic diatribes with facts that make them appear balanced. Dr. Bombay says the iPod was a success but that is changing. He doesn’t say how.
“Real competition from other manufacturers is on the way, promising players with better features at lower prices. Sure, the iPod market share is still in the high 80s, down from the mid-90s a few years ago, but maybe Apple won’t sit on its laurels like it has in the past.”
No mention of the real competition, or those players with more features or lower prices. His comment about iPod market share is just plain wrong. So much for fact checking at the Star-Telegram. Ranting has become a sport among journalists and writers these days. Pick a subject. Spit and piss all over it. Sit back and watch the response (and web site hits go up, up, up). Rinse. Repeat.
“Well, I’m tired of all of this, and frankly I don’t care how it’s all going to play out. I seldom listen to music, and when I do, I’d rather share it with someone than exclude them from it. And as for the video-equipped units, no thanks. If I want to watch a movie on a trip, I’ll carry along a portable DVD player with a screen big enough that squinting is not required.”
Dr. Bombay, I’m tired of it, too. I’m tired of mainstream media JournoJerks jerking my chain with technobabble they don’t understand, and commentary designed to inflame, not inform. Welcome to the first Mac360 Dumbass of the Week award for November 2006. Based on iPod Rant #1 and Rant #2, you earned it. The folks at Mac360 have a few domains for sale. If you've ever dreamed of setting up and running your own site about Apple, the Mac, iPods or the iPhone, this is a great way to get started. Click Here, iPhoneKillerTips, or ChatterMac for a more complete list, which also includes Mac360.com. • Article by Jeffrey Mincey • Published on Friday, November 3, 2006
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