If it weren’t for the tech media to stir up the hype, the launch of the Palm Pre would probably go unnoticed. Of maybe more truthfully, even with the hype it’s going unnoticed. Sad.
UPDATE: Just when it was safe to ignore the little device, the nicest tech-journalist, Leo Laport, unplugged the ongoing “Gilmore Gang” podcast that he was hosting, when Tech Crunch founder, Mike Arrington, insinuated that Leo got his demo Pre because he was expected to give a positive review. Arrington said that his question was meant to be in the spirit of full disclosure, but in his follow-up Tech Crunch post, he hinted that he was “investigating” who was getting preview units when Tech Crunch didn’t get their promised demo Pre because Tech Crunch hadn’t been favorable to Palm in previous reviews. Wow. Roll video:
sources:
- “Photo: iPhone Launch Versus Palm Pre” posted by Keander Kahney on Cult of Mac blog (http://cultofmac.com/photo-iphone-launch-versus-palm-pre/11437) retrieved 06-06-2009
- image by Peter Yan (peteryan.net)
- Thanks to iJustine for the heads-up on the Cult-of-Mac article via twitter (http://twitter.com/ijustine)
- Thanks to Bwana (http://twitter.com/bwana) for the youtube link & leo statement, http://bwana.posterous.com/leo-laporte-responds-via-arringtons-statement retrieved 6/6/2009
- Arrington follow-up comment: http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/06/06/ouch/ retrieved 6/6/2009
I agree with Mike. The whole idea is pretty simple- want to get visitors to your blog or podcast, then give a favorable review or else the company in question and other going forward won’t be sending you an early version of anything.
In short, self serving. Walt Mossberg at the WSJ plays the same game. They all do.
This might be true for you or I, but Laporte doesn’t need anyone’s favor or as the kid’s say, the LOLs. After over thirty-years in the tech journalist business he knows that all he has is his integrity, so playing the flat-out favor game with the PR folks is death. I’ve watched him going back to the ZD-TV days and the worse that I can accuse him of is the occasional soft-ball question or sometimes being too nice to his guests, but that’s almost always because he’s trying to have a conversation with tech folks who are engineers and designers and not used to this thing called dialogue. I much prefer this approach versus the all to too typical AM talk-radio blow-hards who confuse irritation and their opinion with “getting the truth,” and don’t give a shit about their audience or their guests. That Laporte would blow up, after all the years I’ve watched him, only points to how much Arrington didn’t ask the question for “truth’s sake,” but because Arrington already believed that anyone who had a pre-release Pre was a PR shill, because, of course, he didn’t get a pre-release unit. That’s immature. That’s LOL-baiting. But, for some folks, that’s just business. So, I don’t agree with you that they all do it, but enough play the favor game or the link/LOL bait game, this I listen all the more to journalists, like Laporte, who doesn’t. jbb