“In the fall of 2004, Walt Mossberg, the Wall Street Journal’s influential tech columnist, reviewed Apple’s latest desktop computer, the iMac G5. He absolutely loved the thing… Mossberg’s column ran for about 900 words; just 70 of them, or 8 percent, by my count, suggested anything even approaching negative criticism. Apple loved the review so much that it excerpted it in advertisements. Apple CEO Steve Jobs quoted it in his speeches. But Mossberg says that his mailbox told a different story. Several Apple fans felt slighted. What did he have against Apple? they wanted to know,” Farhad Manjoo writes for Salon’s Machinist column.
“There are many tribes in the tech world: TiVo lovers, Blackberry addicts, Palm Treo fanatics, and people who exhibit unhealthy affection for their Roomba robotic vacuum cleaners. But there is no bigger tribe, and none more zealous, than fans of Apple, who are infamous for their sensitivity to slams, real or imagined, against the beloved company,” Manjoo writes. “‘It’s funny — even if I write a generally positive piece about Apple, I still get more complaints from Apple partisans’ than from opponents, Mossberg says. He has even coined a term for the effect. ‘I call it the Doctrine of Insufficient Adulation.'”
Manjoo writes, “In my years as a tech reporter, I’ve dealt first-hand with Mossberg’s doctrine — as well as its opposite, the PC fans who see a pro-Apple press bias in my work (a few years ago, Salon’s customer service department informed me that a reader called to cancel a subscription in response to my piece, ‘Hallelujah, the Mac Is Back.’)”
Manjoo writes, “Last year, I praised the iPhone in something of the way Romeo once praised Juliet… but because I’d concluded that the phone was, at the time, too expensive to keep (this was before Apple cut the price), several readers alleged that I was an Apple hater. For instance: ‘Does Salon actually pay you or are you being paid under the table by rival companies?'”
“David Pogue, the New York Times’ tech critic, gets much the same response[ from Apple fans]. In 2005, he wrote a quite positive review of Apple’s iPod Nano. His only problem with the music player was that, per gigabyte of music-storage space, the Nano was more expensive than the iPod Mini it replaced. Also, at the time, it wasn’t available in multiple colors. These small slights prompted Apple fans to ask Pogue, among other things, whether he was happy ‘licking Bill Gates’ balls,'” Manjoo writes.
Manjoo writes, “Why are Mac fans so quick to see bias everywhere? To understand the phenomenon, consider a study that Robert Vallone, Lee Ross and Mark Lepper, psychologists at Stanford University, conducted in the aftermath of another issue that provokes many accusations of press bias, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.”
According to Manjoo, Apple fans “care little for honest opinion. They want to pick up the paper and see in it a reflection of their own nearly religious zeal for the thing they love. They don’t want a review. They want a hagiography.”
Full article here.
There are extremists in every group and those who make up that small-yet-vociferous group seem to be the focus of Manjoo’s article.
As for us and, as we’ve found over the years, the vast majority of our readers, all we care about is honest opinion. It’s the dishonest FUD masquerading as “opinion” that’s often accompanied with some measure of “damning with faint praise” that draws our ire.
We know the subject we cover intimately and we can clearly see when certain pundits, analysts, and tech writers are trying to pull the wool over their readers’ eyes. When we see this, we call out the wool-pullers and we will continue to do so. And if you think certain tech analysts/writers/reporters or whatever you want to call them don’t receive receive hidden payments to talk up certain tech products and companies and/or talk down others, then you don’t read the news.
About the only accountability these sleazy FUDmeisters have are those who recognize what they’re trying to do and point it out by shining as bright a spotlight on their lies as possible.
We love good, honest, ethical tech reporters, analysts, and pundits and they should be thanking, not criticizing, those Apple fans who try to hold the compromised tech FUDsters to some degree of accountability.
We only hate STUPID tech reporters.
(I won’t name names.)
@ Mr. Reeee:
Precisely.
..and tech gossipers…..
Don’t feed the beast. Don’t click through to the article.
It’s just another “I need to pay my rent” articles. What better way to generate page hits than by dissing Mac users?
I suppose it beats sitting on the sidewalk with a tin cup, a blind dog and a misspelled sign.
Yes, there are zealots and people who go overboard in their love of all things Apple, but there is also importance in keeping Tech Writers honest and on their toes. If they cite inaccurate ‘facts’, or mention statistics that are not based on truth, but rather pulled out of the air or based on anecdotal evidence, then yes, they should be taken to task for it. If a writer doesn’t do their homework, and continues to propagate myths that have long since been debunked, then they should be made aware of it. It should never be in the guise of threats, insults or rude comments (licking Bill Gates balls!? WTF?). However, though maybe 99% of Apple’s fan base abides by the rules of civil discourse, there are those 1% who will not. We can’t control them. But *they* do not represent the majority of Apple users. Painting all Apple fans with such a broad brush, as Mr. Manjoo does in this article, is going a little too far. Criticism is part of the consequences of your job as writers, Mr. Manjoo, Mr. Pogue, and Mr. Mossberg. One or two rotten apples do (should) not spoil the whole bunch, right?
Unfortunately this article is generally right.
Many (not just a few, MDN) Mac fans suffer from this type of paranoia and it’s done nothing but get Apple a bad name and, I believe, deter some from switching.
It’s wholly counter-productive.
P.S. MDN itself is infamous for this shortcoming.
I think MDN harbors a lot of Mac zealots, ironically.
“Hate” is a strong word.
Maybe it’s because we expect “tech writers” to be more knowledgeable than the average person who carries many misconceptions about Apple or the Mac.
As usual, MDN is right.
Without sites like MDN, the tech “reporters” who are taking payola would simply continue without resistance, just getting richer and richer by spreading their lies.
Anyone who criticizes MDN, just doesn’t get it.
Ok, Mossberg etc are not dissing Mac users. The technical writers featured in this article are generally pro-Apple for all the right reasons, becauses its products are never perfect but put the competition to shame.
If these writers routinely get slammed for not being pro-Apple enough then a lot of Mac fans are going overboard. What percentage? I have no idea, it would take a good study to know. But you idiots probably know who you are.
It wouldn’t hurt MDN to suggest that its own readers keep things in perspective. One reason many of us love Apple is that they get it right amazingly often *despite* being real people who have to try things, *sometimes getting it wrong temporarily*.
Apple products almost all have tradeoffs. Apple’s success is because they realize this more than most companies and sell products that do not include the kitchen sink. Its only common sense to grasp the short comings of Apple products before purchasing them. It doesn’t mean they are not stellar.
Besides even Apple has had the occasional lemon. Kudos to Apple for pulling or revamping the occasional product instead of letting it limp along like many companies do.
Kudos to reviewers who are unafraid to give Apple a rare luke warm review when its deserved and for pointing out shortcomings in even stellar products. If you love Apple then support even handed reviews.
No, just the ones that make dumb assumptions based on info about Apple that is a decade old.
There is pro-Apple FUD and there is anti-Apple FUD.
If reading an article about Mossberg, a very pro-Apple guy, experiencing pro-Apple FUD only prompts you to defend Apple lovers and bash anti-Apple FUD you might be one of those people that are incapable of wrapping your mind around the balanced view that all FUD is lame and harmful. If you post that one sided you view you are one of those pro-Apple FUD people.
Take a stand against all FUD.
No. Apple fans despise, loathe, dislike, detest, maybe feel disgust toward tech reporters. But never hate. LOL
Mossberg does a pretty good job of both pointing out when something is good, AND what it could do better.
Manjoo is just a putz. seriously, i read that article on the iPhone. he makes it sound like it will end 95% of the worlds problems, BUT it costs too much to keep.
first of all, if it is that great, too much to keep is about 4 billion dollars. second, it costs less than many phones that do less once you look at the complete cost of the phone.
third, it hasn’t been out long enough to say for sure, but i bet like my Macs and iPods, rather than getting thrown out in a year or two it gets passed on as people upgrade. in a throw away society, that fact alone makes it too valuable to not own.
are there legitimate complaints about the iPhone? hell yes. price? are you stupid?
that is like saying that you love everything about your hybrid car EXCEPT the mileage. total cost of ownership matters. learn to think about holistic systems FTW……
the man is a moron.
Nevermark66 is right on the money.
While they at least they didn’t use their pseudo-trademarked “Think Before You Click” advice for the full article, MDN seemed overly defensive.
Along with MacUser, MacNN and Appleinsider (all of which have their own strengths) I find MDN generally a great place to keep up-to-date. That said, too often their editorializing stakes out an extreme position (like their politics) which seem to enforce the Mac zealot stereotype. This site’s vitriol towards Microsoft and other Apple rivals would seem to back this up.
Tech reporters by definition are supposed to be objective; otherwise they’re lobbyists. If a reporter offers an honest personal opinion which is critical of an Apple decision, (such as Pogue’s take on iMovie ’08) MDN’s take is always defensive.
Nevermark66 is dead on..Apple’s tradeoffs on their products are not always perfect; depending on an individual’s needs, they can be extremely frustrating. Likewise, pointing out positive things about the competition could be handled more thoughtfully. Some features of MS Office run circles around the more simple iWork. Offering an honest opinion about that doesn’t make anyone a playa-hater. It would be nice if MDN would recognize that from time to time.
Man- replace “mac/Apple fans” with the word ‘liberals” and you get the same effect –
“Why are Mac fans so quick to see bias everywhere? “
Apple fans “care little for honest opinion. They want to pick up the paper and see in it a reflection of their own nearly religious zeal for the thing they love. They don’t want a review. They want a hagiography.”
Not all tech writers are created equally. Some do receive consideration from certain entities for favorable opinions.
Let’s face it, anyone talking up Vista has to have a financial stake in the outcome.
We all know there are Paid Microsoft Bloggers® working hard for their masters everywhere there are pro and con discussions on Microsoft’s products or Microsoft’s oppositions’ products.
It’s not too much of a stretch to see these Paid Microsoft Bloggers® acting like rabid, over the top Mac Fanatics just to help dull the attack of legitimate Mac fans pointing out obvious mistakes in a reviewer’s conclusions or obvious FUD statements.
From now on, when a Mac fan loses it and acts like an ass in a blogged comment, we must all say that it is probably just Paid Microsoft Bloggers® trying to make Mac users look bad.
I don’t think of myself as an Apple extremist. However, my eyelids narrow and I get very irritated every time I read the phrase “Macs are LESS PRONE to viruses than Windows…” Why do they always say that when it is patently untrue? Macs are not prone to viruses at all, but journalists think they have to say that to cover their asses, and so the general public believes that Macs get viruses just like Windows, only fewer of them.
Then there’s Enderle. And Ina Fried. Not to mention Dvorak who throws out a whopper of a lie every now and then just to piss us off. Some of these “journalists” deserve every bit of hate mail they get. But I do wish the more zealous amongst us would lay off our allies like Mossberg and Pogue. We know they are not the true MS shills, even if they say something we don’t 100% agree with.
Those Roomba people are freaks.
IT’S JUST A VACUUM CLEANER. SHEESH!!!
This story is dead on! I love my MacBook Pro, and I’m very interested in all things Apple, but when I read the Mac Daily News take on these articles and read the comments that follow, I find myself thinking that some of the Mac faithful are off their medication! ;D
“As for us and, as we’ve found over the years, the vast majority of our readers, all we care about is honest opinion. It’s the dishonest FUD masquerading as “opinion” that’s often accompanied with some measure of “damning with faint praise” that draws our ire.”
WOW! That’s rich….I hate to break it to you MDN but you’re part of the zealots group. You have no interest in an “honest opinion” as you put it and that is evidenced by your mostly inaccurate slams against anything Microsoft and preening adulation of anything Apple.
I think Macs are pretty cool but they’re just a computer and Macs have their fair share of flaws. I often advocate them over PCs to many who are looking for a new computer.
Mossberg, however, nails it right on the head with his assessment.
It is quite amusing the innocent face that so-called “tech pundits” present to the mainstream media all the while not giving a tinker’s damn about the rampant stupidity and aggressive partisanship practiced by their colleagues, or even themselves. Any Apple fan worth his weight in G4s knows full well the level of ignorance, lies and bias that Mac users and Apple supporters have been subjected to for 25 years. It has never let up and in the face of Apple’s resurgence, it has in fact gotten worse. I am sorry that guys like Pogue have taken their lumps from the rabid end of Apple fans, but the simple fact of the matter is that Apple fans have developed a siege mentality and it is not without reason. One only has to look at the insipid complaints made against the iPhone 6 *months* before the “tech press” even so much as *touched* an iPhone. Many also ignore the fact that Apple fans do not hesitate to take Apple itself to task for it’s missteps.
The majority of Apple fans and Mac users are not flipping out at every single perceived slight. What they are angry about is the level of ignorance and the shoddy journalism practiced by those who bet the farm on Microsoft and dismiss Apple out of hand, yet still expect to be taken seriously as tech pundits.
To get all fired up about a guy like Enderle or Dvorak just plays into their hands. If you don’t realize by now that they’re baiting you into a frenzy then you need to take a closer look at their writing styles.
I think the bad mail that Uncle Walt gets might be a lot of people saying to themselves “You’re such a smart Mac guy, why the hell don’t you understand this little detail?” or some such justification. I mean, the guy has a job to do, and since Apple isn’t paying him (that we know of) to do it he has to be objective.
@ His Shadow
SO true.
It’s not just tech writers, the same goes for most of the mainstream media as well. They’re more concerned with expressing their opinions and pushing their own agenda than they are with getting the facts correct in their stories.
ChrissyOne
Let us all know when you’re perfect and get every detail regarding every job you do absolutely right!
That’s the problem with Macheads – they expect perfection from others when they can’t even achieve that level of perfection themselves though they may be believe they somehow operate at a higher level (that wouldn’t be true). Macs are flawed just like PC’s. They may be better than PC’s but the difference between a great product and a good one are often slihght.
And just so you know – to be human is to be subjective. Everyone has an opinion and a perspective so 100% objectivity is simply not realistic. There are good journalists and there’s bad ones and some just write for effect, even if they’re good.
‘According to Manjoo, Apple fans “care little for honest opinion.’
Ya gotta love them generalizations eh?
@C1….I got a ROOMBA (brother gave it as an Xmas present). I rarely use it other than to impress the hell out of people. Makes me feel like George Jetson.
@ toonie
What? I think you need to read more carefully. And lighten up.
@ Buster
We bought my mother-in-law one years ago, and she was crazy about it. I thought it was a great way to terrorize your cats, but I have hardwood floors so I didn’t buy one. It’s much more fun to chase them around with RC cars anyway.
‘That’s the problem with Macheads – they expect perfection from others when they can’t even achieve that level of perfection themselves though they may be believe they somehow operate at a higher level ‘
Geez another generalization. C’mon people, stop painting us all with the same brush. I have feelings you know…sniff
@c1…I have hardwood floors and a yappy Bichon frise and a Portuguese water dog. Flick on the Roomba, crack open a cold Sleeman and let the games begin!
Why doesn’t Salon ask why so many tech reporters/analysts, like John Devorak (who seems to have a change of heart recently), James McQuivey, Rob Enderle, Mike Elgan, etc. hate Apple and Apple fans so much?
@ Buster
“…a Portuguese water dog…”
Why am I picturing a lhasa apso floating in the sea with a trail of terrifying poisonous tantacles?
Sorry Chrissyone
I misread your comment though it applies to a many of the other comments on this page.
And if you think certain tech analysts/writers/reporters or whatever you want to call them don’t receive receive hidden payments to talk up certain tech products and companies and/or talk down others, then you don’t read the news.
MDN: and who butters your bread?
I think Walt Mossberg is OK.
@c1…nope…they are like a floating bundle of energy
http://www.bluegrace.com/pwdfaq.html
People don’t get the point.
The whole point is, people want to kill off MSFT. That is job #1. Anything that delays that (less than stellar reporting about Apple) is very annoying.
Once MSFT is dead, we welcome another innovative company (or two, or three) to compete with Apple and truly bring good sporting competition into the tech market.
So let’s keep our laser focus people!!!
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”grin” style=”border:0;” />
To Buster: “Portuguese Water Dog”
For $1,400, you could get a loaded Mac mini and throw a black shag rug over it.
“a lhasa apso floating in the sea with a trail of terrifying poisonous tantacles”
You need to stop watching re-runs of Futurama right before bed.
If we are looking for accuracy in reporting lets take the statement that the emails have come from Apple Fans and the statement ,”Several Apple fans felt slighted”. What evidence does the writer have for this? – I suggest little or none.
Did Magoo research his comment, follow up on the emails, interview the senders, see their array of Macs? Or did he just shortsightedly make an assumption? How many is several? Not many, surely less than ten, maybe just three or four. Was one of them toonie?
Really this is another example of shoddy reporting, set up a false premise and exploit it, apparently to the detriment of Apple.
Doctrine of Insufficient Adulation, surely that’s a woman’s disease, very widespread too
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”grin” style=”border:0;” />
@ toonie, MDN: and who butters your bread? Have you not noticed the adverts? Observation not your strong suit?
@ toonie
S’aright. It happens.
@ Buster
That’s pretty frickin’ cute.
The only tech “journalist” I can honestly say I hate is Mary Jo Foley.
I have never seen anyone so poorly researched or more clearly biased and yet still claim to be a journalist. Her assertions are almost always patently incorrect. Her bias always shines through her writing, and yet she states everything so plainly that one would almost think she believes her own BS.
The fact that she can remain gainfully employed is a testament to equal opportunity for the mentally handicapped.
@ Gandalf
“Doctrine of Insufficient Adulation, surely that’s a woman’s disease, very widespread too”
Are you saying I’m fat? Come on. You can tell me. I won’t be mad.
Part of this is the natural reaction of the person who has fought the ‘good fight’ for years against the mainstream and doomsayers. Recall that Apple is only a couple of years divorced from being tagged ‘beleaguered’ by the press.
A person’s level of frustration tends to grow after fighting the considerable number of obstinate and ignorant Windows users who were not content to laud their own choice of computer, but felt compelled to deride my own. Nonetheless, Mac users who succumb to the temptation of becoming radically and aggressively supportive of Macs are actually doing harm.
Manjoo has a point; I often wince at the rabid reactions of fellow Mac users to criticisms of Apple products. And MDN has been guilty of unnecessarily taking Uncle Walt to task over some trivial disagreement over a feature in an Apple product in an otherwise favourable review.
However, as other posters have noted, Manjoo’s article contains a number of foolish generalisations about Mac users, and fails to mention the sloppy and biased reporting of too many of his colleagues.
Farhad Manjoo: I’m gonna make him an offer he can’t refuse.
His Shadow…
You’re SO RiGHT!
It’s the sheer ignorance of some of these “reporters” that’s so galling. If they have a reasoned argument why they don’t like such and such a feature, I respect that. If they spout off without knowing the facts, I’ll react.
Or like the PeeSea dweebs who “hate” Macs having never used one.
@ Chris
I think Mary Jo is directly employed by MS, no?
I think that, whatever “tech writers” get, by now, is nothing but the results of what they’ve sown. I love this whole reverse martyrdom that’s starting to rear its head in the platform wars. It’s the only real sign I’ve seen since the beginning that the Mac may actually be gaining actual, for-real market share.
One thing is a fact: Up until about five or six, maybe seven years ago, it was a very rare published article that could find anything positive to say about Apple, the Macintosh or its users – very rare indeed. And please spare me the, oh-gee-whiz-osx-changed-all-that, crap. OS 1-9 were each in their own right always on the cutting edge of what was possible given the respective time period they were released in. The idea that OS X somehow single handedly gave something to the end user that now made it “okay” to begin thinking about the Mac as a serious machine is pure perception and nothing more – And that’s ok, but let’s not kid ourselves about the clear bias that MS has cleverly spread via its partners and sales reps, who often and clearly state that the Macintosh is not a real business machine and that Apple as a company will probably not last too many more years. I’m not making it up folks, I’ve heard several time in my professional life and just heard those exact words again one year ago this month from a MS rep. who came to this company, and knowing the IT dept. was under pressure to incorporate Macs into its work flow made these exact comments almost verbatim.
Anyway I digress. Yes there are over the top fanatics, but why is it only the Macintosh users that get slammed, what about our own IT people who march around announcing that they “… don’t do Macs …”. That’s pretty fanatical in my book. Having tech support look me in the eye and say, “… you know, there’s lots of us who wish that Macs would just go away …”, and other similar comments from people who are looked to for objective decisions about what computers to buy – is really fanatical and clearly bias.
So even in pointing out those who have simply become fed up with just wanting to use what they want to use without retribution, it becomes nothing but pure bias because the implication is that only Mac users are fanatical, or love Steve Jobs, or whatever.
And so, instead of wanting to feel any kind of sympathy for this Manjoo person, I really just want to know if he actually thinks “tech writers” deserve any different than what they get. Really.
Farhad Manjoo = Of a hand major.
Some are on this one. Those few go as far as to be fanatical in their support, bordering on obsesive in their assesments of everything Apple,
@ Mr. Peabody
I seem to remember die-hard Mac users hating OS X more than anyone. They hated the candy-colors and the whiz-bang effects. They said that Apple ruined the OS and they’d never use it. I think is any one product changed the public’s mind about Apple, it was the iPod, and it took about 4 years to really take hold.
I’m in agreement with ChrissyOne and His Shadow. Even well before Apple had it’s near-death experience in the mid-90’s, most IT people I dealt with would propagate such lies and bigotry about Apple & its products that one couldn’t help but feel there was a conspiracy out there. Even now it’s still easy to identify an MS troll when the mention of “drinking the Kool-Aid” mantra comes up. OK, I get it. Steve Jobs is an unconventional leader. Why are Mac enthusiasts “zealots” “drinking the Kool-Aid” when we call Steve Ballmer on his lunacies, or Windows {whatever version} on its ills?
The fact of the matter is, I’m a Mac enthusiast became my favorite platform (anybody remember the Amiga?) never really caught hold even though it had many advanced features over both Mac and Windows at the time. From what I can tell, both Apple & Microsoft play exclusionary games to guard their presence in the marketplace. To me, its just that Microsoft (as a whole) is so much better at that than in producing quality products. That’s why I prefer Apple. That’s also why I hope Apple never achieves dominance in marketshare. Power corrupts, but competition breeds innovation.
As for the original article, I like fair and balanced reporting. I applaud anyone who fairly criticizes Apple or supports Microsoft from a position of truth and honesty. But I can’t help getting steamed up when people in positions of power & authority abuse those positions by justifying bad decisions on the basis of lies and prejudice, and demonstrably wrong FUD. Even now, IT in the company where I work is still in the “Apple? We don’t use proprietary toy computers here, only *real* computers for *real* computer professionals” mode. And yes, it’s still irritating as all getout.
As many here have indicated, so called “Mac Fans,” do not hate tech reporters. We hate tech reporters that are inaccurate, and in particular we despise them when they are inaccurate about the Macintosh. This sensitivity comes from years of tainted coverage concerning Apple, and the Macintosh.
I have observed over the years that tech reporting is often very bad. Having worked in the industry for over 20 years with every title from “Computer Scientist” to “Director of Information Technologies,” the one thing I can judge in the media is accuracy when reporting on computer related issues. I’m sorry to say that the reporting is often very inaccurate.
What worries me about this is that I can spot an inaccurate computer story. In particular I can spot an inaccurate story relating to the Macintosh. I can tell when a reporter is gushing, cough {Mossberg} cough. I can tell when a reporter is absolutely 100% totally clueless, cough {Thurrott} cough. I am not however an expert on refrigerators, automobiles, house paint, or the quality of beef for example. I have no way to judge what I’m being told on the vast majority of subjects on which I am clueless. So if I assume that the media coverage of those subjects is no better than average tech reporting, I must assume that I have been generally lied to and given disinformation on everything from Afghanistan to Zoos.
Tech reporters at least know *something* about the subjects they report on. The average reporter knows NOTHING about the subject they are reporting on. For alerting me to this, I am very grateful to tech reporters. If I read a news article in the Los Angeles or New York Times or watch CNN, PBS, or listen to NPR, I’m extremely wary. I know that probably about 30-40% of what I’m absorbing is opinion.
Tech reporters are generally not practitioners. They are pundits who’ve latched on to technology as a niche. They don’t actually know what a bit is, but they will criticize a device that only has 8 billion of them rather than 16 billion or 32 billion, because they know the latter numbers are bigger. Nothing else.
They are one step above the stock market analysts that actually listen to what they have to say.
Like their cousins reporting in the general media, they seem to seldom do research. They just echo one another. Once a few people put out an opinion, the other jump on the bandwagon and echo it. The current lovefest between the media and Apple is an example, and ironically, the bashing the the media has given Windows VISTA is another.
I wish I could bet money on how many people that bash VISTA got their opinions from the tech media without ever having tried the product. I use it on a daily basis with few problems. I like it much better than Windows XP and I feel that it is a grown up, pinstripe classier version of the Macintosh OSX GUI. I still prefer OS X without a doubt, but the beating that VISTA has taken in the press is at least unwarranted.
That being said, the pure, unadulterated zealotry practiced by many of the people who frequent MDN only serves to give us “Mac Fans” a bad name. We are seen as irrational freaks. Cultish. I’ve even used MDN to demonstrate it to people I will post something I don’t like about the iPhone instance. Then I wait a few minutes. Then I open the story back up and it never fails, there will be messages in which the content borders on hate because I think the iPhone is lacking in numerous common smartphone features.
For you (sorry if you tired of the analogy) dehydrated kool-aid snorters that write those messages, I urge you to start using your brains. It’s one thing to bash me and others here on MDN, but going on the rampage and flooding reporter desks with insulting and juvenile messages seldom begets an apology or retraction. If anything it makes the reporter think you’re a bunch of nut cases, and that he has greater reach than he actually does.
Even the best reviews make a mistake or two, and I’m not surprised that Apple fans point them out. Is it wrong? No, of course not.
That said, you all be nice to Uncle Walt. Calling an ally that him names isn’t constructive, and it lowers you to the level of those scum-sucking baby eaters from the 9th plane of hell – Windows Enthusiasts.
With their gross generalizations. GOD I hate them all.
“ally LIKE him”
carry on.
To theloniousMac:
Nice rant but you left out, “Suck on that, MAC dorks.” (j/k)
To C1:
“With their gross generalizations. GOD I hate them all.”
NICE ! !
“There are extremists in every group and those who make up that small-yet-vociferous group seem to be the focus of Majoo’s article.”
Ha Ha. MDN can’t see that people like them and their readers ARE the target of the article.
@ChrissyOne,
Yeah, I had a couple too many for lunch too.
I think your all nuts!!!!
Apparently Manjoo has never read any of the comments on the Windows sites. Just go look when an eWeek blogger (no, I don’t consider them journalists, either) disses Vista – the rabid Windows fanbois match any mouth-foaming a rabid Mac fan can do.
But Manjoo needed hits and was short of copy; he knows a cheap shot generates traffic. Fortunately, I grew out of my old ways when I lived past my fifth birthday, so I’ll hold off on email-bombing him. For now. 8^)
Funny when dumbass Mactards talk about “honest opinion” with their head up in Jobs’ ass.
I have to agree with Griffin,
we hate tech writers who we expect to know a little more about tech than the basic misconceptions about Apple and Mac.
(Sorry Griffin I basically just stole exactly what you said =( )
montex
I don’t think of myself as an Apple extremist. However, my eyelids narrow and I get very irritated every time I read the phrase “Macs are LESS PRONE to viruses than Windows…”
A blogger whose name I forget put it like this…
Let’s say you go to the local medicenter and get tested for STDs. Upon receipt of a completely clean bill of health, you are asked by a reporter about your herpes status. You reply that you do not have herpes and a test for herpes came back negative.
The next day there is a headline in your local paper…
“MONTEX: MOSTLY HERPES FREE”.
This is the situation we find ourselves in. The average Stockholm Syndromed Windows users cannot comprehend the fact that viruses, trojans and spyware are a *Microsoft Windows* problem, and not a personal computer problem. They daily hassle of protecting yourself and your information while using a Windows PC is assumed to be the norm.
In depth analysis of this question, here:
http://ripragged.blogspot.com/2008/03/do-mac-lovers-hate-tech-analysts.html
Dumbass Mactards talk about “honest opinion”. Oh the irony!
I’d punch Manjoo lights out if I could (poetic license) … Howz’ that for “religious zeal”
I admit to be being a staunch Apple Mac apologist … a die hard defender of the FUD aimed at Apple and Mac’s. I enjoy metaphorically kicking the deceitful mother f#cking mongrels in the balls – hard, harder and harder still.
Mr Farhad Manjoo’s article fails to mention the freaks … sorry, the loverly people from the PC camp, who exist in far greater numbers – a cursory glance at any of the relevant boards will demonstrate this simple fact.
– “care little for honest opinion. They want to pick up the paper and see in it a reflection of their own nearly religious zeal for the thing they love. They don’t want a review. They want a hagiography.”
Not hagiography Mr Manjoo, we only want to pick up the paper that has in it, a honest manifestation of the truth and a simple representation of accuracy.
Mr Manjoo I hope you are reading this (it is likely that you are as MDN is home of the Mac “zealot”)
Does the line “white film on the hair and on their lips.” ring any bells.
or this – by your own pen –
“It is distressing to have to spare so much space in a review of an interesting book to disentangle what’s plainly true in it from what’s less plainly so. Readers of Slater’s book who are familiar with the controversy will feel a similar distress as they make it through her prose, wondering, from second to second, whether this or that bit of detail is fact or, instead, the author’s carelessness at work. The distress might even be enough to prompt some of them to set the book aside: Why read a nonfiction work of popular psychology if you’re not sure you’re actually learning the truth?
The above quote by Mr Manjoo from this article posted by him, May 21, 2004. The expression “psychology” can very easily be swapped out with “Computer Technology”
We all accept that Apple is not perfect … it just happens that most Apple Mac users believe, (and correctly so in I my opinion) that Apple are habitually less evil than the obvious alternative – as well-documented historical evidence proves. Given that Apple offers an OS that is universally regarded as superior and that that very OS is tethered symbiotically to hardware that is substantially discrete to produce an environment that is practicable, productive and safe, yet Apple constantly gets demonized by countless Windows orientated publications, for the slightest and most puerile affairs. Apple incurs an inordinate amount of oppressive and willful traducement, inspired by X amount of certain persons – we all know who they are – and then countless others who just re-post the invidious pap without any form of scrutiny, they seem to shirk and shy away from the concepts of objectivity, value-free, open-minded and equitable reporting.
(Sad to say, this style of reporting is to be found through out the fast-tracked media.)
No wonder some Apple aficionados get hot under the collar – It’s the crap reporting that boils the blood in some of us.
Lies to created to justify a blinkered perspective are easy to spot, but lies founded upon financial gain are especially repugnant.
Why shouldn’t we call out the liars? why shouldn’t we protest at their underhand dishonesty, their fraud and artifice?
Kick em’ in the nuts hard, harder and harder still …
scrub the “to” in … Lies to created … bit.
Suck on that you MAC dorks!
Case in point
Roger L Kay you complete n’ utter rapscallion … why I ought’a kick you in the “preverbals” hardest of all.
I think this is just blaming the victim. For years Mac users have been subjected to abuse from biased, ill-informed and some times down right slanderous reporting. So you’ll have to excuse a few of us who have developed battered-os-syndrome.
I think that Mac fans don’t automatically hate tech writers (or ones who write honestly on what they review from Apple). I think Mac zealots (and this site is loaded with them) have a general pavlovian response to the slightest non-euphoric description of anything Apple. It is this segment of the Apple population that pretty much makes it difficult to take seriously anything Apple.
This does not mean that there aren’t some bad tech writers who seem to have that same pavlovian response in the other direction. Enderle, et al, come to mind.