iCrock

Why is the Times so agog about Apple? As the Columbia Journalism Review noted this month, the Times have featured stories about iPods no less than four times this year. So when Apple puts out shit disguised with individualistic rhetoric--like selling the inability to order your songs on the new iPod shuffle by cashing in on Americans' delusion that they are less conformist than other nationals ("Life is random. Meet the iPod shuffle. The unpredictable new member of the iPod family.")--the Times falls over and dies of pleasure. Why gratify Steve Jobs and his well-crafted product release ceremonies? Why reprint an AP article that reads like a press release, "smaller than a pack of gum" schtick and all?

So one problem is the slavish press coverage of Apple products. Another problem is that these new products are not novel at all, but they are being promoted as if they were Segways. Another problem is that this whole "affordable" meme is so fake. Pay $500 for a computer with no peripherals and then fork out another few hundred clams for your monitor, mouse, keyboard, speakers, and printer! Man, I'm going into advertising. People love to spend their money on truly useless chyme.


The New York Times > Opinion > Editorial: Apple Tries to Break Out