In a post from Wednesday, Associated Press praises Apple iPod nano, takes swipe at Microsoft WMA-based also-ran music services, we quoted AP’s Matthew Fordahl:
“Like all iPods, the Nano only works with Apple’s free iTunes software for either Windows and Mac OS X computers. That locks you into the iTunes Music Store, which remains the most impressive site for buying music online. The Nano supports a variety of music formats, but not Microsoft Corp.’s Windows Media. (Look elsewhere if, for some reason, you would rather pay monthly subscription fees for music that’s rendered unplayable if you miss a payment).”
Within the MacDailyNews Take, we suggested, “Let’s have a contest to see which, if any, media outlets edit those lines in their reprints.”
Well, we called it and sharp-eyed MacDailyNews reader, “mike” wins the “contest,” as he has just forwarded us the link to CNN’s version of the syndicated AP article. CNN has seen fit to drop Fordahl’s parenthetical comment. CNN’s revised article reads:
Like all iPods, the Nano only works with Apple’s free iTunes software for either Windows and Mac OS X computers. That locks you into the iTunes Music Store, which remains the most impressive site for buying music online. The Nano supports a variety of music formats, but not Microsoft Corp.’s Windows Media.
Now why would CNN drop the “(Look elsewhere if, for some reason, you would rather pay monthly subscription fees for music that’s rendered unplayable if you miss a payment)” portion of Fordahl’s original article? That bit seems to be the only thing CNN has cut. A quick Google search shows over 100 outlets have the same syndicated article and the 20 or so that we checked all kept Fordahl’s original article intact.
CNN is a Time Warner Company. Today’s Wall Street Journal is reporting that “Microsoft is in talks with Time Warner about taking a stake in the media giant’s America Online unit, as part of a broader discussion about the two companies working together.” (subscription required for full article)
It’s interesting how the media works sometimes, isn’t it?
CNN’s article here.
Related MacDailyNews articles:
Associated Press praises Apple iPod nano, takes swipe at Microsoft WMA-based also-ran music services – September 14, 2005