“As big and as important as Microsoft is, the coverage of the company is quite mediocre. This is particularly true in the mainstream press. The reason for this is that today’s newspaper and magazine tech writers know little about computers and are all Mac users. It’s a fact,” John C. Dvorak writes for PC Magazine.
Dvorak writes, “This is why when Microsoft actually does have a good idea, people look to trash it out of hand. With 90 percent of the mainstream writers being Mac users, what would you expect? The top columnists in the news and business magazines fit this model too. The technology writers fit this model. The tech writers and tech columnists for the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, and Fortune are all Mac users. I could list them by name, but I’d hate to leave one out. Maybe I’ll blog them by name. I could list 50. Readers should thus not be surprised by the overcoverage of Apple Computer. Every time Steve Jobs sneezes there is a collective chorus of ‘Gesundheit’ from tech writers pounding away on their Macs.”
“What’s bad for Microsoft is that the bias against it is subtle—kind of like any sort of media bias, whether religious or political. As one critic once said regarding the supposed left-wing slant of the daily news media, “It’s not what they write, it’s what they write ABOUT that matters.” Story selection. Microsoft can roll out a dozen cool products, and the media goes ga-ga over the video iPod—a rather late-to-market Apple product. They all swoon over the prospect of paying $2 to download an otherwise free TV show so they can have the privilege of watching it on a 2-inch screen… The newsroom editors are generally so out of touch that they can’t see this bias. Besides, they use Macs too. There are entire newsrooms, such as the one at Forbes, that consist entirely of Macintoshes. Apparently nobody but me finds this weird,” Dvorak writes. “I often confront these guys with this assertion, and they, to a man (I’ve never confronted a female reporter about this), all say that they use a Mac ‘because it is better.'”
“Probably the smartest thing Microsoft could ever have done was copy as much of the Mac OS as it could insofar as look and feel were concerned, since in the final analysis there were customers doing AB comparisons between the Mac and the PC—which kept the PC on the desktop. The PC was cheaper and seemed about the same functionally,” Dvorak writes.
Full article here.
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Holy Vingle! Okay, so according to Dvorak there’s an anti-Microsoft bias out there because 90% of the mainstream writers use Macs? Yes, Apple gets tremendous publicity, but did John ever think that’s because Apple actually leads, innovates, and pioneers while, conversely, “the smartest thing Microsoft could ever have done was copy as much of the Mac OS as it could?”
Microsoft is mediocre. Mediocrity doesn’t inspire coverage. It inspires nothing. Well, nothing positive, at least. What’s interesting about whatever Microsoft poorly copied from Apple today? It was more interesting to write about whatever it was when Apple introduced it years before. Hence, for one example, X amount of coverage of Microsoft Vista’s upcoming someday “Gadgets” compared to 10X coverage of Apple’s already available and in use Dashboard Widgets. Thomas Edison invented the light bulb. Ronnie Schmuckowitz of Parsippany, NJ claimed he “invented” it a week later. Edison got all the coverage. Damn biased media!
And, if Dvorak doesn’t see and hear the constant drone of subtle and not-so-subtle bias against Macintosh and Apple woven throughout the mainstream and tech media, he’s blind and deaf. The problem with Dvorak’s whole backwards little theory is that the truth gets in the way: the Mac platform actually is generally agreed upon to be much better than Windows and Apple is the innovator and while Microsoft is the follower.
For Dvorak’s crazy theory to actually work, Microsoft Windows XP would have to be better than Mac OS X Tiger and Apple would have to have a reputation for copying everything Microsoft has innovated or popularized over decades. See how crazy that sounds?
What’s the big deal? Perhaps MDN and fellow Mac zealots are so biased FOR Apple, that every little nit feels like a rock bouncing off its forehead when somebody doesn’t conform to the cult of Mac? Maybe Dvorak is right? He does work in the press industry and has for a long time. MDN does not (seriously, list the articles published by MDN writers – if any can be properly named – that have appeared oustide of this website).
And Dvorak did complement Apple in a major way by indicating that MS was smart to copy Apple. What are you complaining about?
Dvorak…
so full o’ shit his eyes are brown…
MW: “game” as in…
“Apple got game, Microsoft lame.”
i am in argentina, my north american downloaded the new lost episodes and a group of us watched them, on ta tv plugged into her ibook, it was great and no need for us to wait god knows how many months for it to air here.
no video ipod needed to do this, quality acceptable, he like so many misses the point of this service: YOU DONT HAVE TO WATCH IT ON A FECKING 2.4 INCH SCREEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!
“This is why when Microsoft actually does have a good idea, people look to trash it out of hand. With 90 percent of the mainstream writers being Mac users, what would you expect?”
Ok.
“As one critic once said regarding the supposed left-wing slant of the daily news media, “
Wait a minute, last time I heard about 90% of the mainstream media voted democrat, so why is that slant “supposed” but the Mac one is absolutely beyond question?
Be consistent Johnny-boy
“And, if Dvorak doesn’t see and hear the constant drone of subtle and not-so-subtle bias against Macintosh and Apple woven throughout the mainstream and tech media, he’s blind and deaf.”
Good ol’MDN. Now there’s consistency! Outside of CNETs continual “ipod-killer” stories the only anti-Apple media I’ve come across are people simply looking to sell copies. It hardly seems endemic.
Why am I even responding to this trash? Who cares?
It’s the Liberal Media!!!! The Liberal Media I say!!!! They’re everywhere!!!!!!
dvorak used to write the last page in macuser, a LONG time ago. he is so pathetic.
“RIGHT” on spanky.
I was robbed.
If people in the tech writing industry use Macs, doesn’t that make them some of the most informed computer owners to be found? Who knows more about security, stability, power, elegance and productivity than the people who research and report about it every day of their working life? That speaks volumes for the Mac right there.
Apple doesn’t sponsor journalists (some would say quite the opposite) so shouldn’t the masses be inclined to trust their choice in platform, being that they have done their homework?
The leftist media in the US certainly sucks, but I haven’t noticed any anti-M$, pro-Apple bias. If anything they’re simply ignorant when it comes to any kind of technology coverage. But then again, the MSM is simply ignorant when it comes to any kind of news coverage for that matter.
There’s something to his thesis. No question that journalism has a pack mentality– as it did when there was so much press about the brilliant technology of Windows 95 and Gates was a hero.
But what can Microsoft point to that’s exceptional? XBox. That’s it. If Microsoft wants good press they need to do something pressworthy. Right now it’s like GM, the world’s largest collection of hacks and screwups making things that don’t work very well. If anything the mediocrity of their work got a pass in the press for too long.
Windows doesn’t get viruses. Windows is the virus.
So people that use Macs are biased toward Apple and people that use Windows boxes are biased to Microsoft. I can accept that because it’s a) a consequence of their decision to use that box and b) most people like the status quo and find ways to support the idea it should be maintained.
I think one thing he’s missing here is that Appple understands what consumers want where Microsoft tries to tell you what you want. Not true in everything, but generally true. So, yeah, MS and their hardware buddies may have been there first, but that doesn’t make them better.
I also believe he’s really really missed the whole point with the TV shows. As everyone above noted, YOU DON”T HAVE TO WATCH IT ON THE iPOD!
(anyone know if the other portable media players can be hooked to TVs? I assume they can, but don’t know…then again, it would be like MS to kneel to the media providers and not have that function). Second, NO commercials. Third, yeah I can record on DVR or VCR, then go through several steps to get it to my HD (or those of use with comcast DVR boxes can use the firewire ports), but this is just straightforward. Maybe that’s the difference. He doesn’t see the massive consumer appeal of something being easy. Sure, I could get a much better definition version of Lost, but it would require me to take several steps that are worth $2 not to do. That’s something else Apple has nailed in the media download age – price point. Frankly, if all shows were offered this way and in higher definition, it would end DVRs and on-demand. The fact that Apple got anyone to go along with the TV show is nothing short of astounding.
The only thing his article proves, is that the rest of the industry is smarter than Dvorak!
“With 90 percent of the mainstream writers being Mac users…” – Dvorak
This must be a typo; I thought Macintosh only had less than 5% market share.
Fsking goofs.
Wait wait WAIT.. I thought only ARTISTS used Macs. What? You mean my kid can go to school and learn to be a WRITER too and use a Mac?
I suppose all the Windoze trolls will now exclude writers too when they speak of ‘working in the ‘real world’.
Yeah, the argument has never held water and still doesn’t.
Oh there’s one more thing…
“Microsoft can roll out a dozen cool products, and the media goes ga-ga over the video iPod…” – Dvorak
Mafia$oft has rolled out a “dozen cool products”? Please, oh please list even oneactual “cool” product of late (or otherwise) from M$FT!
Fsking idiot.
Oh my…where to start, where to start.
John, most of the media, particularly the web media, don’t use Macs. That much should be evident from the profound ignorance they show when they do write about Macs. You are correct that they know little about computers in general, and it is clear that they understand when Microsoft tells them that Windows is superior.
Microsoft rolling out “cool” products. Microsoft does roll out products occasionally. (Media Center, anyone?), but cool they aren’t. Why do people rave when Apple release one? They ARE cool. And when they aren’t, Apple fans bash them hard (ROKR, anyone?) Apple just “Gets It” a lot more than Microsoft does.
All this dribble about paying $2 for TV shows is a red herring. You’d be swooning if it were Microsoft offering $2 downloads, and the truth is this an industry concept, not an Apple concept.
Late to market? No, not late, right on time. How many products have failed because they early to market (Pippin, anyone?, Media Center, anyone?) Apple wasn’t first to market with a MP3 player, just right on time.
It’s time people came to realize that it is no longer just a matter of being first to market, last to market, or not to market, but instead being “right” to market. Apple is doing a much better job that anyone else in the industry of being right. That is what garners rave reviews, loyal consumers, and willing followers down the tech road.
After John’s passably sensible remarks as of late on the TWIT casts, I’m beginning to wonder if he is suffering from a split personality.
Damn those College Profs!!! Damn them to hell for thinking they are SOOOO SMART!!! Heathens!!! They are heathens I tell you!!! The Liberal Media control EVERYTHING!!! They think they’re soooo smart with their college degrees!!!!
Anybody know what Dvorak’s last paragraph is trying to say?
He wrote, “Microsoft should make some headway with this biased crowd once the fanciful Xbox 360 arrives. It’s got a creative GUI, is easy to use and navigate, and kind of has a Mac look to it. It also interfaces perfectly with the iPod. “Oh golly gee whiz wow!” And that feature alone will be the clincher.”
What interface to the iPod? Is this suppose to be sarcasm? A joke? What?
Sad article really.
MDN great take. Thanks. Keep up the good work.
Peace.
Microsoft can roll out a dozen cool products
Yup, and I can climb Mount Everest, but — just like MS — I probably won’t. Sorry, others have made the point but it’s just too ridiculous to resist.
As for TV show downloads, the other day I had to do several hours of tedious work on my computer. Nothing that required much brain power. How did I make it less tedious? By downloading a few episodes of “Lost” and watching them while working at the same time! For an investment of six bucks, I made a boring afternoon significantly better. Money well spent. Too bad Dvorak can’t see that. Think different, John.
His entire premise is just plain wrong. ALL the good tech writers which he would include use both Macs and PC’s…you frequently have them telling us that.
This has to go down as one of the most pathetic excuses for a multi-billion monopoly ever created.
Tough Dvorak, its a free world here and you’d better get with the wisest choice.. even if your monthly check is from Redmond..
Dvorak is Stuck On Stupid!
Good tech writers actually try out the stuff they write about, unlike a few we all know of. So it is not surprising that in their research they should discover the truth about Mac vs Windows and make the switch.
I had never touched a computer until the 1990s and when I started I immediately had to use both Mac and Windows platforms as well as some others like NEXT, which was awesome by the way, and it didn’t take me long to realize that the OS 6.x Mac was best to use. To me it is all about what works “better”. So what’s wrong with that John?
Why is it that troglodytes like Dvorak are always accusing the media of bias?
Dvorak has been very pro Apple lately. On “This Week in Tech” podcast he basically said that if Apple licensed their OS to other hardware vendors they could clean MS’s clock.
I’m not sure that would be the best business stragegy for Apple, but it is a pretty pro Apple statement.
Not exactly being a MS tool.