The New York Times is at it again, literally. We’re struck by the similarities between two separate New York Times articles regarding Apple iPod. So struck are we, in fact, that we can’t let it go without first analyzing the formula that NY Times writers seem to have concocted.
The formula:
1. Find a disaffected anti-iPod voice from the appropriate age group.
2. Quote lone anti-iPodder liberally in order to make their sentiment appear important.
3. Highlight alternatives to Apple’s iPod in-depth.
Let’s compare, shall we?
From the New York Times: October 5, 2006 by Wilson Rothman:
When Max Roosevelt wanted to rebel, he got a Dell laptop and a SanDisk Sansa MP3 player. It wasn’t a rebellion against his parents, who had been buying Dells for years. It was a rebellion against his peers, Mac-toting iPod addicts one and all.
From the New York Times: November 1, 2006 by Roy Furchgott:
Iman Hayward is an 18-year-old college student and self-confessed contrarian. She likes to mix Cyberdog T-shirts with platform boots. She prefers vintage horror movies to modern remakes. And she does not like the Apple iPod.
NYT, October 5, Rothman:
“I just didn’t want to have the same MP3 player as everybody else and felt that there had to be equivalent or better players out there,” Roosevelt, an 18-year-old from Chappaqua, N.Y., said recently in his freshman dorm room at the University of Maryland.
NYT, November 1, Furchgott:
“I was kind of anti-iPod because everybody had it,” said Ms. Hayward, who lives in the Bronx.
NYT, October 5, Rothman:
“It’s not that I don’t like it; I just don’t like the whole cult mentality toward Apple. I don’t like how everyone gravitates toward it immediately.”
NYT, November 1, Furchgott:
That is not to say she dislikes portable music players. In fact, on Nov. 14 she will wait in line, if needed, to be among the first to own Microsoft’s iPod alternative, the Zune — in the fudge-brown case, no less. “I’m going to be waving it in front of my friends’ faces,” she said. “They all have iPods.”
NYT, October 5, Rothman:
While it may seem as if Roosevelt is the only one not buying Apple, the iPod’s domestic market share in flash-memory players actually amounted to 68 percent during the first eight months of the year, according to the NPD Group, a research firm. In other words, nearly one-third of the flash-memory MP3 players sold were made by someone else. SanDisk’s products accounted for 14 percent of sales, and the remainder was shared by Creative, Samsung, iRiver and a few others.
NYT, November 1, Furchgott:
The people at Microsoft are hoping that people like Ms. Hayward will give them reason to gloat this holiday season, too. They are not the only ones. Other makers of portable media players have also introduced new products, hoping to grab a big piece of the market that the iPod dominates.
NYT, October 5, Rothman:
The iPod Nano may represent an irresistible combination of enticing design, futuristic technology and sledgehammer marketing, but does Roosevelt have a point? Are other players more advanced or more fun to use? An examination of four non-Nanos suggests there are praises to be sung outside Apple’s realm.
NYT, November 1, Furchgott:
In trying to break iPod’s dominion, manufacturers are trying out new features and revamped services to fill their devices with music and give buyers more choices than they have had in the past. The most notable addition is the Zune.
NYT, October 5, Rothman:
The four all had features not found in a Nano, such as larger screens, built-in FM receivers and microphones for dictation. Each can play videos, provided they’re converted to an appropriate format using PC software.
NYT, November 1, Furchgott:
Physically larger than the iPod, the Zune has a hard case finished in a rubbery matte coating. Its 3-inch color screen is larger than the 2½-inch screen of video iPods, but the biggest difference is the built-in Wi-Fi transceiver that lets Zune owners (Zunis?) share music, photo and video files. It also has a radio receiver, and users can choose any photo from their files to put on the color screen.
Both writers then delve into the respective devices they are covering, citing both pros and cons, while comparing and contrasting with Apple’s iPod models along the way.
NYT, October 5, Rothman’s wrap-up:
For more than a year, Roosevelt used a Rio Carbon player and listened only to MP3 files that had no copy protection. When the Carbon broke down, he learned that its manufacturer had left the business, unable to compete with Apple. Determined to steer clear of Apple, he bought his 6-gigabyte Sansa last June. “It may look a great deal like an iPod Nano, but it isn’t one, which is all that I really cared about,” he said.
NYT, November 1, Furchgott’s wrap-up:
Sadly for iPod bashers, it doesn’t look as though these products will overtake Apple this year, said Debra Russell, who heads the portable media player department for Best Buy, which is starting its own online music store with SanDisk and Rhapsody. “If we think about our go-to, it’s the Apple,” she said, adding that people still like Apple’s colors, designs and will buy more than one iPod. “With Apple,” she said, “people come back in for the latest, greatest products.”
Rothman’s article, reprinted in full by The San Diego Union-Tribune yesterday here.
Furchgott’s article via today’s New York Times here.
Hey, at least they had somewhat different endings, even if the basic conclusion is the same: people who quixotically choose inferior solutions solely to be different won’t threaten Apple’s iPod+iTunes, even if they do seem to be assured of getting quoted by The New York Times.
Think Different only works when different is better. Get a Mac.
We’d like to see The New York Times examine the origins of these so-called “Zune enthusiast” websites that have sprung up recently – magically without a shipping device about which to be enthused (Furchgott’s article even mentions that “Zune has inspired several fan Web sites” and includes their URLs without a question as to why they exist). Microsoft doing more than a little astroturfing, perhaps? But, then again, examining and possibly exposing something like that would require actual work by journalists from an organization with financial clout that’s capable of finding and breaking real news.
Related articles:
NY Times: Apple iPod also-rans run race for second place [UPDATED] – November 01, 2006
Rebelling against Apple iPod+iTunes? – October 05, 2006
“Journalism” at it’s finest. Really. Can explain why people vote Democrat when they read stuff like this.
Well.
Is this any surprise?
The NY Times is a corrupt entity where writers have made up stories, etc.
Yellow.
Odd statement Eric…since the Times is a far left-leaning rag.
As a Mac/Apple/iPod user you are getting a taste of what the NYTs does in support of liberals, and in opposition to anyone not AS liberal. They haven’t reported the news for years, instead they have become news makers.
They aren’t reporters, they’re shills.
I don’t get it. Why does the NY Times care which digital music player sells the most? Shouldn’t they just tell us, rather than spinning the story one way or the other with iPod “rebels”?
I understand political spin in journalism, because there it’s an ideological battle, but spinning tech products one way or another? Weird.
Another series of reasons why mainstream media is dying a slow, lingering death (well deserved):
They just make up crap that sounds interesting.
Long live citizen journalism.
Americans have been brainwashed into to believing that the MSM is liberal…. deception folks, at best it’s moderate, e.g., gay and abortion rights… that’s only because they don’t threaten wealth concentration like labor relations, peace, and ecological issues do. Meeting liberals in power you have to leave the USA, there aren’t any left… being Liberal in the US is a hazard to your life, ask the Wellstone family. http://www.assassinationscience.com/American_Assassination.html
It’s called payolla. MS sends money to shill and they write a slanted story. MS hopes to then create a desire for the Zune.
Ha!
My prediction: Newspapers like the “New York Slimes” will virtually cease to exist by the end of this decade. (Precipitous declines in the subscription base nationwide are already evident and making headlines elsewhere.)
Most are little more than publishing arms of the two political parties (the overwhelming majority adhering to the Liberal/Progressive doctrine) anyway, and the dwindling supply of American readership is turning elsewhere for its information.
After all, if you’re going to be propagandized, why not pick the flavor you enjoy?
“There is only one thing worse then being mentioned – Not being mentioned.”
and
“There is no such thing as bad publicity”
Wait for the fake (MS paid) “I love my Zune” articles. Then the real world “my Zune is #$%^” articles.
Meanwhile the rest of the world will move on to their next iPod, ignoring the NYT.
I’m more tied to iPod because of the dock connector (speakers, car chargers, Nike, etc) than the FairPlay DRM, just like I am tied to Nokia because of the chargers.
Sounds more like, to me, that this is a function of the Micro$oft marketing machine. Propaganda spoon fed to “journalists” who then make it seem like they thought of it themselves.
Has anyone checked out whether these people referenced in the articles actually exist? Were they paid by Micro$oft (or Micro$oft’s proxy) to say these things? As dumb as this sounds, I only mention it because Micro$oft has verifiably done this before (remember the Micro$oft sponsored Switcher “testimonials”.
Davida,
You are nuts. Rove didn’t kill Wellstone, Cheney didn’t plan 9/11, and yes the MSM is slated left. Pull yourself away from “the daily kos” and try a small dose of reality.
VRWC
The NY Slimes is scum sucking, liberal, terrorist-supporting, anti-US, rag. Down with NY Slimes!
I cut them some slack here. iPod is so successful that this contrarian angle actually adds some interest to what would otherwise be a boring (Headline: iPod Dominates Marketplace Again This Month) story.
Also, considering the advantages of the iPod devices and ecosystem, contrarianism is probably the principal reason that would drive anyone to buy another player. This is why the HP deal made some sense. Apple should get another manufacturer to sell iPods under a different brand name, and half these contrarians will probably snap it up, thinking its OK because its “not Apple” and not knowing any better.
Sorta like 15 years ago when GM made the Chevy Nova in exactly the same factory as the Toyoto Corolla. This was for the people that wanted to “buy Amercian,” not realizing they were getting exactly the same thing, made by exactly the same people in exactly the same plant in California.
Yeah davida…sure…it was bush, cheney, halliburton, and the vast right wing conspiricy that shot down wellstone’s plane.
realign your tinfoil hat, reception isn’t good.
These articles are only “newsworthy” because it so goes against the grain as to be bizarre-it’s not about any sort of “trend” in the offing.
If an article said 18-year olds are mostly buying iPods, or 95% of high school students have cell phones, who would even bother to read the obvious?
The NYT is a contrarian guttersnipe eager, as ever, to sneer at success.
It’s a shame to see such a paper fall to the lows of today, and I’m not talking about anti-Apple stories either.
OK – I love this now. The NYT is probably the most liberal newspaper in the country and they are doing everything in their power to BASH Apple and the iPod. Yet, I look at other articles, and 90% of the posters here feel that anything against Apple is a Republican conspiracy.
And yet, the liberal beacon of society, the heralded New York Times is anti-Apple, anti-iPod, and pro-Microsoft. GASP!!!
Spin your way out of this – peons!!!
Clearly ‘Danger Frog‘ is one of those highly-educated and enlightened American citizen we here so much about.
Wow, don’t you feel proud? I know I do….
Xenophobic, bigoted, narrow-minded…. oh, and dumb as a post.
If you want to be different, wouldn’t you buy something that didn’t look anything like what other people had?
it is easy to just to say “no, your wrong Davida”…. how do you know? The truth is we don’t know the truth about 9/11. If you have the cajoles read this… http://wholelifetimes.com/2006/09/griffin0609.html
I love my country’s ideals so much, I’m learning more about it’s history all the time, if I only they weren’t wearing them down. Watch for V for Vendetta for a very possible near-future.
I noticed Apple wasn’t on ABC Radio’s list that had all the companies who did not want to their ads on Air America Radio, Microcrap was though. Cool. http://mediamatters.org/items/200610310008
read this and weep, an article by an ex-military lawyer warning about another recent executive branch power grab. Lieutenant Commander Charles Swift: “Any of us can be ‘unlawful enemy combatants.’ “
http://villagevoice.com/news/0644,hentoff,74861,6.html
for crying out loud davida! you call those credible new sources? sure as hades looks like crack-pot conspiracy theorists with a stick up their…
and what, we didn’t land on the moon in 1969 either, it was all staged? and yes, japan never bombed pearl hrbor either, it was the US? oh, and the holocaust never happened, it’s a myth.
what a wanker.
For you guys who are saying the NYTimes is a liberal paper, and are not being ironic or intentionally humorous, you are so way misled. Or perhaps you’re so used to the conservative angle of most major outlets that any publication that attempts to be unbiased looks liberal to you by comparison.
NYT is neither liberal nor conservative nor has any policial point of view. They are a business, period. They print what is going on and what is news in a more unfiltered form than anyone. And do it better than others.
You may not like what you read because you are biased, or don’t want to see the facts, but NYT is basically just reporting things more openly than others. They are actually very status quo and so far from being truly liberal, you have no idea.
Are the articles cited above about the iPod in an online version, or the print version? They do sound to me like propaganda and not factual reporting, basically because the Z is not even a shipping product yet, so saying that there are Z fan websites and Z users is total fabrication and PR promotion.
The subtle, pervasive, invisible arms of M$ culture and promotion at play… it’s worrisome.
Take your political cr*p somewhere else.
I’m not sure but wasn’t there an agreement in recent months between a major newspaper and Microsoft re using proprietary Microsoft technology and publishing?
Was it in fact the NY Times teaming with MS?
http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2006/apr06/04-28TimesReaderPR.mspx
The New York Times to Enhance Online and Offline Reading Experience With Times Reader
New application uses Microsoft software to benefit readers.
SEATTLE — April 28, 2006 — Today at the American Society of Newspaper Editors convention, The New York Times and Microsoft Corp. unveiled a prototype of a new PC-based software application for news distribution called Times Reader. Available for download in the coming months, Times Reader is a New York Times application that takes advantage of Microsoft® Windows Vista™, the next generation of the Windows® client operating system, to enhance the online and offline reading experience of The New York Times…. “
Whole situation seems like MS astroturfing and/or payola re NY Times.
Typical of MS and explains a lot…
…