USA Today columnist Andrew Kantor writes via his blog at Kantor.com, “I mean, the Mac users. Depserate [sic], as always, to find fault with anything that isn’t unabashedly pro-Mac, the folks at Mac Daily News [sic] have complained about my USAToday piece that dares — dares! — to say the iPod has competition. And like good little lemmings, MDN readers start sending me nasty notes based on the comments they read.”
Kantor writes, “Never mind that the column is inarguably pro-iPod; it simply wasn’t pro-iPod enough. This is why so many of the tech writers I’ve talked with say they just don’t want to write about the Mac. Who needs a cult banging on your Inbox?”
At the end of the note above, Kantor links to the following:
“What is wrong with Mac users and Apple fans? I mean that — I’ve never seen the like. Calling them ‘blind lemmings’ doesn’t always seem strong enough. Get this: I write an incredibly positive commentary about the iPod nano, calling it ‘a beautiful piece of hardware’ and ‘better looking than its competition.’ I had nothing but praise for it.”
“And yet, the Mac lovers find fault. Why? Because I dared to suggest that the iPod is getting some decent competition,” Kantor writes. “In a note entitled ‘Andrew, what competition?’ one writer took me to task (!) because, he said, the iPod’s buttons are well layed out and has a great interface. The fact that I pretty much said this escaped him. Problem: I suggested that other companies were — Jobs forbid! — also starting to make decent products. ‘So far you’re in the minority with your opinion,’ he wrote. My opinion was that the iPod is a terrific piece of hardware. That’s the minority?”
Kantor explains, “The creed of Mac lovers: If you don’t A) praise anything by Apple unconditionally, B) praise it at length, and C) put down anything by a competitor, you’re an idiot. Amazing. Another genius wrote, ‘Whether you like the iPod nano is not the issue; what is evident is that you are unqualified to to write a critical review of music players. Simple as that.’ This because… why? Answer: Because I didn’t heap enough praise on an Apple product.”
Kantor writes, “I got this nonsense from Mac lovers before, when — I kid you not — I failed to play up Apple’s role in the Virginia Tech supercomputer. The curse-filled notes I got came to my Inbox because, again, I simply didn’t heap enough praise. (The writers also thought, incorrectly, as it turned out, that I had some minor factual errors. They were wrong, as it turns out, but why should facts get in the way of a good cult-like rant?) So here we go again. And now I understand why so many of the tech writers I’ve met say they hate to write about anything Apple does. Because the lemmings come calling.”
Full article with the ability to respond here.
MacDailyNews Take: Of course, it’s not that Kantor’s article isn’t “pro-iPod enough.” It’s that Kantor looks at iPod only from the hardware perspective, ignoring the iPod’s internal software, the iTunes music jukebox software, and the iTunes Music Store; all three of which are integral to iPod’s success. In addition, Kantor made some statements in his “incredibly positive commentary about the iPod nano” that he fails to backup with examples, namely:
• “At least until recently — the iPod’s controls felt better that [sic] the competition’s.”
• “The competition has caught up, and there are some just-as-slick players out there.”
• “Get a Creative Labs MuVo or Zen, or a Sony Network Walkman and you can do the same things.”
Let’s try a brief example of Kantor’s style of writing as a way of explaining why we critiqued his original article in the way we did. We’ve taken the parts of Kantor’s original article and simply replaced Apple with Audi, iPod with A8, Creative with Ford and so on. For the full effect, you’ll have to imagine that Audi is the only maker of fine automobiles in the world, has 80% market share and is being pursued by Ford, Chevy and a raft of generic also-ran car makers:
The 2006 Audi A8 “is a beautiful piece of automotive engineering — and a beautiful piece of automotive engineering that also function[s] really well,” MacDailyNews reports. “The Audi A8’s quality is about form, not just features. For starters, it is better looking than its competition. We wouldn’t call it ‘art,’ but it is certainly something you could spend time admiring as you drive it. The competition has caught up, and there are some just-as-slick automobiles out there. But they came after the A8 had become synonymous with good looks, and they now have a steep hill to climb to catch up to Audi.”
“Get a Ford Taurus or Fusion, or a Chevy Impala and you can do the same things — drive, turn, back up, park, etc. Some even include floor mats and tinted windows,” MacDailyNews writes. “And yet Audi has that huge market share. Some of it may be due to good marketing, but much of it is due to the quality of the A8… The A8 has doors and wheels; so does every car. But — at least until recently — the A8’s handling felt better that the competition’s. There was a quality behind the A8 that other cars lacked… If we had an Audi A8, we would probably stop now and then to admire it.”
Wouldn’t Audi, imagined as the world’s only maker of fine automobiles with 80% market share, and the responsible automotive press wonder what exactly we meant by such unqualified statements such as:
• At least until recently — the A8’s handling felt better that the competition’s.
• The competition has caught up, and there are some just-as-slick automobiles out there.
• Get a Ford Taurus or Fusion, or a Chevy Impala and you can do the same things.
Of course they’d wonder. And rightfully so. Kantor’s ham-handed attempts at damning Apple with faint praise are laughable.
Related MacDailyNews articles:
USA Today: Apple’s iPod nano ‘a beautiful piece of hardware’ – but ‘the competition has caught up’ – September 16, 2005
USA Today columnist blasts Mac users and MacDailyNews in blog – December 06, 2004
USA Today writer unhappy with MacDailyNews and some Mac users’ emails – October 18, 2004
USA Today writer attempts to downplay Apple’s role in Virginia Tech supercomputer – September 03, 2004
Cpt. Obvious,
The mere fact that MDN reported the Apple bugs in iTunes 5 for Windows proves that they do not shy away from posting unflattering info about Apple when such information exists.
Kantor is a tool.
Cults are cool……
And this one seems to be growing every day Mr. Kantor…
Andy H. says:
MacDailyNews simply critiques Kantor’s illogical statements from the original article and they do so with great effect.
Kantor is just upset that MDN saw through his transparent “damning with faint praise” B.S. and called him on it.
Bravo, MDN!
Although I must agree with the general complaint by Andrew Kantor about Mac cultist lemmings, his cheese has slipped of his cracker and into the fondeau pot withi this guote:
“Another genius wrote, “Whether you like the iPod nano is not the issue; what is evident is that you are unqualified to to write a critical review of music players. Simple as that.”
This because… why? Answer: Because I didn’t heap enough praise on an Apple product.”
Well, what if the person quoted by Kantor was actually interested in how the other players had caught up and was looking for some detail – because he DID NOT like an iPod? Why the assumption that not enough praise was heaped on the iPod?
I frankly was interested in how the other players stacked up, too.
It is one thing to comment on a opinion, it is another thing to encourage your readers to respond through massive e-mails, this confirms Apple’s negative perception of it’s users (the cult members). This is a plain form of a lack of wisdom. It is in Apple’s interest to get rid of it’s negative cult status, which harms the company very much and I hope that MDN will take her responsability as well.
Dak Roland,
MDN wrote, “He loves email from Mac users, as you can see from the following examples, but he tends to cherrypick the flames, so level-headed expressions pointing out issues would be best, unless you want to be published on kantor.com.”
http://macdailynews.com/index.php/weblog/comments/6928/
Fred Mertz: I didn’t see that at first. So MDN did direct their readers to be level headed from the start. That absolved MDN from any blame for the actions of the zealots among us.
Andrew Kantor is obviously a member of a cult himself, even if he doesn’t want to admit it. A very uncool and gradually shrinking cult, but a cult nevertheless. The cult known as Windows Fanboy Apologists…
Where’s the punch!
Cpt. Obvious – my, how quickly you are to join the very fray with poo, which you at first, um, quite obviously, eschewed.
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I’ve been checking out this site for quite a few years now, making my own contributions, on both ends of the spectrum between logic and decorum and downright buffoonery, and it seems to me that it really depends on the nature of the original story, the time of day and on which day of the week the really fun exchanges tend to occur. This seems to be one of those glorious times of convergence!
Back ON topic, the original MDN take to Mr. Kantor’s article, and followup here, actually both make a valid request – by pointing out the clear lack of support for Kantor’s assertions concerning the iPod and asking for a clarification. Kantor is the one who has put forth himself as a tech writer, and as such should not be so instantly defensive. Like some others have already pointed out above – if Kantor can’t handle the heat, or respond in a way to help reduce the heat he’s getting by actually addressing the valid concerns voiced by MDN, and instead cry on and on about getting flamed by some poorly inelegant “lemmings”, he should get the hell out of the kitchen.
Good Job
You well named poster
Yes you are absolutely right
We have:
Bill’s name and address
Jobs name and address
Kantor’s name and address
BUT
who the f#@k is MDN
a bunch of pussies that’s who. They hide behind a site with no one to own up and no editorial responsibility
Pathetic and with no credibility
forsure.
What this writer is pissed about is that he actually has readers who care about his facts and message.
It’s hard to be the journalistic god I guess he sees himself as if you have all these gnats calling your writing into question.
I’m seriously tired of seeing some of the ridiculous posts from some of my fellow readers here. Please, when you decide to post to a forum, that you think out your posts. Look at the MS “gadgets” site. This looks like a group of sixth graders stopped by an spray painted graffiti all over the message board. It was painfully obvious that these guys are truly taking on the widget/gadget concept and taking ownership in a completely unabashed way that should be intelligently called out. Even my wife chuckled when I showed her it, and she could care less. It’s like if a car company came along now and said that they had been incubating this super cool concept of mounting stereos in the dash and their really excited about this ground-breaking work they’ve been doing. It’s a blatant attempt to claim ownership of a long established concept. true to form for them, but none the less, we should tell intelligently. Turn on your spell checker in Safari and stop cussing and name calling. This makes us all look like idiots.
As for reviews like Kantor spewed out. DakRoland handled that topic for me earlier. Come on guys, lets get together and form an intelligent community, or keep quiet and let the folks who can do this lead the way, and read their posts in quiet agreement.
As much as I hate to admit it, being a mac fan myself, I can’t help but notice that the apple/mac community is a cult! MDN is an interesting read, but they are defenitely guilty of some of the “lemming” effects Kantor suggests. Don’t get me wrong, I love my ibook and want to get an ipod nano, but I refuse to act like apple is the be all/end all. No company is perfect, apple is not exeption, and MDN seem to have a bit too much hot air for thier own good sometimes…
Marcie88 – pot calling the kettle black, are we?
mac user 47 – couldn’t have put it better, or more succinctly. Thank you.
Maybe people should post their comments here instead of sending writers nasty emails. Nice emails with praise with the occasional gentle correction are much more welcome.
MW: put yourself in his inbox
Though I’m not really into this Cult of Mac thing, I have to say that the Cult of Windows is much larger, much more oppressive, and reaches up into high levels of business and government.
It has never mattered how well Apple has done, or how loud Mac zealots shouted, the organized — and almost religious — Windows cultist response is indifference and dismissal.
For Mac fans, it’s really a case of “damned if you do, damned if you don’t”. There is so much misinformation out there about the Macintosh and Apple, and it gets repeated over and over and over. You can’t just let it slide. They only way to get through the thick skulls of these lazy writers is to smack them down hard, again and again, each time they repeat their bulls##t, in the hopes that they’ll eventually get the message.
What’s that you say? Fans should write calm, reasoned, well-worded responses instead of juvenile flames? Well OF COURSE! There’s just one problem: very few people are capable of writing that way. Just browse the Internet for proof of that.
The sad fact is that 300 screaming flames are going to make an impression, whereas 10 well-worded responses are going to be ignored. Mind you it’s a bad impression, but it’s still better than none at all.
Damned if you do, damned if you don’t.
If the difference is about these journalists writing errors or opinions as fact, vs. not writing anything at all, I’ll take nothing at all. And that’s horseshi* too. That won’t happen because they HAVE to write about Apple with the incredible mindshare that surrounds the company.
So it forces them to go over their Apple articles with a fine tooth comb and supportable references. Better for us all.
MDN shalt continue.
As usual, Dak Roland is the clear voice of reason here. Thank you, Dak, for your posts. They are one of the reasons I read MDN.
I kid you not – the majority of you that post here remind me of extreme Left Wing liberals, the kind that run the site crooksandliars.com and the folks that post there. You are in serious need of psychiatric attention.
Actually, the zealots here remind me of extreme Right Wing Christian conservatives, but hey, why split hairs?
Lets send both the extreme left wing liberal bleeding hearts and the extreme right wing conservative wingnuts to their respective padded cells with those lovely jackets with the long long sleeves, along with some nice powerful anti-psychotic meds.
I for one have yet to join a health club, let alone a cult!
MW = special
as in, Isn’t THAT special!
Some Mac users want to inform Windows users and welcome them to a great computing experience.
Some, apparently, want to yell across the school yard that ‘my machine is better than your machine’.
I know someone considering getting a Mac right now and, although I use this site to keep up with Mac news, I would never refer him to it because it is so insulting and disrespectful of non Mac users. I know it would put my friend off and sway him away from a Mac rather than toward one.
Could any you spewing such nasty crap about Windows be won over to anything that was presented to you in such a disrespectful fashion?
Do you actually want to win people over, or just rave about your superiority?
I do want to inform people and win them over to what I think is a better experience. Much of the venting that I read here is anything but helpful. Not to the people I would like to influence, and not to Apple either.
We can do better.
why are people splitting hairs over the opinion and phrasing of some reporter? get priorities.
From: Chris’s alter ego:
“acatually, the zealots here remind me of extreme Right Wing Christian conservatives, but hey, why split hairs?”
haha so true.. so sad… jerry falwell ring a bell?
This guy is a troll who baits Mac users. I think he does this for the hits and maybe because he gets some sort of sadistic/masochistic pleasure out of it. (Sadist as he takes pleasure in infuriating Mac users with his purposefully snide comments, masochistic as he enjoys reading all the hate mail)
He always skates the edge so he can claim “Look, this is all I said and THIS is the reaction I get!” He even usually claims to not expect the type of reaction he gets when he has done the same thing time and time again. What a piece of work.
T R O L L