You know, I doubt there's literally a minute that goes by that someone in the mainstream press doesn't publish something that's completely, totally, bizarrely off-base about Apple or the Macintosh. And while none of it is even close to excusable, it's to some extent understandable. Many mainstream tech journalists, who cover the Mac only occasionally, are still relying on third-hand misinformation rather than actually trying to find out anything for themselves. And although it makes me think that they must be living a bomb shelter to be so isolated from tech reality, they appear to have no idea that the Mac's amazing resurgence over the past five years has even happened.
But some so-called journalists seem to feel the need to take things a step further, and resort to writing such worthless drivel intentionally. And because so much of the general public is still just now waking up to the new reality of the Mac as the only relevant computing platform going forward, these sleazy journalists can usually get away with writing just about anything they want about the Mac, accurate or not. The only people who are going to cry foul are Mac users themselves, and they'll just be written off as deranged loyalist fanatics (who must be delusional for using a Mac in the first place). It's an all-too-easy way to draw a whole lot of attention to yourself and your publication, while only pissing off a handful of your readers.
And while it nearly makes me physically ill to come across such garbage day after day as I attempt to stay current on what's being written about the Mac, it's almost a given that you're going to find it in every mainstream tech publication at least occasionally. But every once in awhile, someone takes things way too far. And I'm not talking about silly one-agenda, one-man armies such as Mr. Thurrott, whom by now we all know to simply make fun of and then move on. I'm talking about a whole publication losing its mind and deciding that its entire future lies with slandering the Mac as often as humanly possible. This past month, eWeek has stepped up to take on that role. They've gone so far beyond bad taste, that there's just no reason for anyone to ever trust anything they hear from eWeek again. And that's why I'm calling on them to simply shut their doors.
Harsh? I don't think so. Allow me to string together eWeek's pattern of behavior so far this month:
May 13th: I've never subscribed to eWeek's weekly "News and Views" mass-mailing, but I have a Mac-using friend who has a PC-using friend who does, and thus the May 13th edition ended up in my inbox. The very first news entry? See for yourself:
"Mac Trojan Set Loose - More to Come?
The first malicious Trojan for Mac OS X has been found in
the wild, leading some to claim the platform may be on the
verge of increased attention from virus writers."
Let's be absolutely clear about this: the so-called "Trojan" involved was nothing more than a case of someone writing a five-line script that moves files to the trash can and empties them, pasting a "Microsoft Office 2004" icon onto the script, and uploading it to LimeWire in the hopes that someone would download it. It's absolutely nothing, other than the source of a good punchline about getting what you deserve when you try to use a pirate network to steal software, and pay no attention whatsoever to the size or file type of the file that you're downloading. It's not a virus. It's not a trojan. It's not even newsworthy. It's a joke. How dare eWeek try to spin it around and claim that it means that the Mac is "on the verge of increased attention from virus writers"? How dare they?
And yet, eWeek was far from the only publication to attempt to spin the non-event in big, scary fashion. Seemingly, fully half of the online technology publications (and a sad number of Mac-only publications, for that matter) have good reason to hang their heads in shame, for trying to report the whole silliness as anything even remotely virus-related. As I said, nearly every publication seems compelled to engage in such behavior now and then. And pretending that there's evidence that the appearance of Mac viruses is right around the corner? Hey, what better way to bring an unusually large number of people to your site? But I'm not condemning eWeek for a mere one inexcusable indiscretion here. Read on and see what else eWeek has been up to this month, regarding the Mac.
May 24th: Same email "News and Views" bulletin, different week. Once again, the Mac claims the top "news" spot, this time for an obscure security issue that should have been located somewhere around Page 33:
"Apple has released an 'extremely critical' update to patch a
serious hole in Mac OS X. The flaw could let malicious users
run Unix commands and even erase the home directory. Find
out how to protect your Mac now!"
Sure, on its own, such a warning to readers could be seen as harmless, even helpful. But couple it with the one above from May 13th, and you get the idea here. Each week, eWeek takes another stab at scaring the bejeezus out of Mac users, and convincing Windows users that we Mac users are living in the same total-lack-of-security nightmare that they are...all in the hopes that members of both groups will click the link and head to the eWeek.com site.
Well, let's see, in the same amount of time that one obscure ("extremely critical" my foot) security issue arises on the Mac, many more such issues will invariably show up on Windows. So let's scan down eWeek's other News and Views items, to see if perhaps they've given Windows users something to worry about as well. Well, okay, here's something about Microsoft down here at number seven on the list, let's see what it's about...
"The sold-out conference is destination Number One for
enterprise software architects and managers. For
up-to-the-minute news on the goodies Microsoft will be
unveiling, read on."
Uh huh. A blatant ad-like plug for a conference at which Microsoft will be unveiling new stuff. Hmm...nothing about the fifty or sixty gazillion Windows-related security issues that have likely popped up this week? Nope, not a word. Are you starting to catch my drift here about eWeek and its motives?
May 7th: Two misleading, thinly-veiled cheap shots at the Mac in consecutive editions of the same newsletter wouldn't have caused me to burst my top all by themselves. But a reader was kind enough to send me a slightly-dated link to an actual feature story on eWeek.com, whose title was nothing short of "Apple: get out of desktops." And just as my mind was beginning to race at the notion of some idiot suggesting that Apple ditch all its desktop Mac models (which currently make up about half of all Mac sales) and reduce itself to just laptops, I clicked through to the article to find something far, far, more asinine. This Beavis was suggesting that Apple stop making Macs altogether. Desktops, laptops, operating systems, software, all of it. Just make the Mac disappear altogether. According to him, Apple should round up all of its Macintosh-related intellectual property, pile it in the center of the room, set fire to it, and tell its Mac-using customers to go buy a PC.
Dude. go. play. in. traffic. I mean, come on. Of all the truly horrid debacles I've ever read regarding the Mac, I truly believe that this one might be the worst yet. This stooge thinks he's going to earn street cred right off the bat by starting off with a story about how his dad brought home a Mac when he was a kid in 1984. Because, you see, the most effective slam against the Mac obviously needs to come from someone who's had some previous dealings with one. After making the old, tired refrain that Apple's time in the personal computing arena has come and gone (I can think of 25 million current users, and millions more who will Switch to the Mac within the next few years, who would beg to differ with his assessment, but anyway...), he then jumps to the other old, tired refrain about how Macs serve no purpose other than for video editing. And according to the author, even that niche is gone because video editing can be done just as well with -- and I give him credit for at least being original while making this one up -- Linux.
The article just gets worse and worse. By the end of the first page, he's embarrassing himself with slobber such as "When it comes to operating systems and software, Apple surely puts out a good product. But unlike in years past, it's not much better than Windows." And somewhere around the third page, he unveils some of the markets that Apple should move into once it's nuked its entire Mac lineup. After fuming and cringing throughout the entire article, I actually cracked a smile when I saw that this crackhead was actually suggesting that Apple would be better off ditching computers and selling (drumroll, please): televisions. All this time, and it turns out that this guy is a comedy writer. So you see, if eWeek closes its doors, he can probably get a job writing for a sitcom or something.
I could go on and on about how the whole article was unfit for print (it was) or how the author needs rehab for that crack problem of his (he does). But the point here is that this particular article, combined with the fact that the idiot's editors either chose to publish the article or encouraged him to write it in the first place, is merely another case of eWeek being completely out of control when it comes to the Macintosh. When an author goes AWOL with the wistful notion that Apple should get rid of the Mac, it's usually a case of a self-doubting Windows user who can't bring himself to switch to the Mac, and would much rather that all evidence of the fact that he's using an inferior platform simply disappear. If only the Mac would cease to exist, he could feel better about his own platform choice, knowing that Windows was his only option anyway. (Read the full article here if you really want to, but I'll warn you not to do so right after eating.) What can you say? Sometimes individual journalists just go postal.
But a whole publication losing its mind in such a manner? I don't think so. Publications exist to make money, like it or not, and judging by the desperate nature of its new strategy, eWeek is apparently having some trouble making money. The solution? Come after the Mac in a consistent, baiting, error-laden, and confusion-inducing manner. Keep firing off more shots until you're finally recognized, by all users, as the place to look for consistent anti-Mac attacks. Mac users will show up to throw a fit, Windows users who don't know much about (or despise) the Mac will show up just so that they can feel better in their own platform choice, and Windows users curious about the Mac will show up just to see what all the fuss is about.
It's not a brilliant strategy, but I suppose it's one that can be used to fire up your bottom line for awhile. Problem is, it's not journalism. It's just crap. And if eWeek is willing to consistently shoot its credibility in the head when it comes to Mac-related issues, then it's likely that the publication will be just as willing to find a new target if the Mac-bashing well runs dry. What if something happens to crush whatever impetus is currently causing eWeek to publish blatant ads for Microsoft-related conferences? Will eWeek then begin publishing non-stop negative nonsense about Microsoft as well? I mean, at this point, is there any topic that eWeek can be trusted to report on?
I say no, there isn't. I think they've done enough so much damage to their credibility this month, from spreading false Mac virus rumors, to overdramatizing Mac security issues, to insisting that Apple shut down the division responsible for about eighty percent of all of its revenues, that I don't intend to ever read anything eWeek publishes again. Simple as that.
But they won't miss me. And they won't even really miss us 25 million Mac users, even if every last one of us chooses never to visit the site again. It's got to be bigger than that. Now's the time to let your Windows-using friends know that eWeek.com is so full of crap that they shouldn't waste their time with it, either. What should you tell them when they ask why? Well, the answer is easy enough: if a publication has intentionally destroyed its own credibility when it comes to reporting on one computing platform, then why on earth should anyone trust that publication to report on any other platforms?
When it comes to eWeek, the equation is simple: just don't go there.
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