“I’m a PC,” Steve Johnson proudly and ignorantly proclaims for The Chicago Tribune. “Ignorantly” because in his article Johnson reports that he has zero Mac experience, but we’re supposed to value his opinion anyway, we guess.
Johnson doesn’t let total ignorance get in his way, “For a long time I was fine with that. My computers booted up like molasses on a modest incline and booted down like that same molasses 20 degrees colder and 10 degrees more horizontal. But the software kept ‘working’ from one system to the next, and I knew the rules. But then Apple started that never-ending ad campaign. It employed comic author John Hodgman and a foil to convince me that PC users are doughy glasses-wearers who look like comic author John Hodgman, while Mac users possess long hair that manages to look both clean and kempt.”
MacDailyNews Take: For two and a half years, over 50 ads have been aired by Apple in their “Get a Mac” campaign and Steve Johnson, Chicago Tribune Internet critic, hasn’t yet figured out that John Hodgman is playing the “PC.” He’s not a “PC user,” Steve. He’s the PC itself. A Windows PC, to be precise. To most people, the “Hello, I’m a Mac” and the “I’m a PC” lines delivered by the actors were dead giveaways. How are we supposed to value Johnson’s opinion when he can’t even grasp the simplest, most basic, most obvious, most central concept of the campaign?
Undeterred, Johnson stumbles on blindly, “I started to doubt my innermost self, which, after all, is only a manifestation of the technology I choose. Maybe if I spend $1,000 to get a machine that does less than my current one, but is all white, I thought, I will be able to wear a different hairstyle and stop tucking in my shirt.”
MacDailyNews Take: Yup, that’s the reason why 30 million people use Macs, Steve. Good guess, genius. Steve Johnson, who’s never used a Mac, still knows everything there is to know about Macs. After all, he is a critic.
Johnson flails onward, “But because I am fundamentally cheap, I chose to live with this doubt. It’s the kind of wishy-washy thing those of us with imperfect eyesight do. We also wear short-sleeved button-down shirts and get repeatedly verbally bested by those who own less ubiquitous computer hardware.”
MacDailyNews Take: Yes, Steve, you do. And not just verbally, but in electronic print, too. Only Apple Macs can run the world’s largest software library. Therefore, they do much, much more than any PC. Because, Steve, Macs are not only Macs, but they can slum it as Windows PCs, too. But, hey, don’t let us stop you with the facts. Please continue making a complete idiot of yourself. It amuses us.
Johnson complies, “I am a PC. And that’s OK. Maybe I don’t love it quite as much as these people, but it’s fine. Now Apple is firing back with new ads that make fun of Microsoft for spending so much money on its ads. It’s a tough point to score in what are, after all, the latest in a long line of paid advertisements.”
MacDailyNews Take: Unsurprisingly, as it’s from a guy who can’t even figure out the basic premise of Apple’s “Get a Mac” commercials, Steve gets it wrong again. Stevie, Apple is criticizing Microsoft for spending money on ads to promote Vista instead of first fixing their ill-conceived and even worse-received operating system. Microsoft must think their customers are really stupid. And, obviously, some are.
Johnson proceeds blissfully, “And Apple’s tone is beginning to sound a little haughty, its sneer to look a little more detectable. I’m not sure which people you win over by telling them they’re sheep and idiots.”
MacDailyNews Take: Stevie, until you actually try a Mac — at which time even you will experience a brilliant, forehead-smacking flash of insight — you are a sheep and an idiot. Most Mac users have been stuck with a Windows PC one time or another at school and/or work. Most PC users haven’t really tried a Mac. This is self-evident because if they had really tried a Mac they’d be Mac users like the rest of us. Mac users have made conscious technology choice and are therefore better informed.
Stevie plods on to his conclusion, “And guess what? Hodgman’s got a new book out, ‘More Information Than You Require.’ It sounded really funny when he was on ‘The Daily Show’ promoting it the other night. I looked at him and thought, He’s a PC too (at least a little bit). Cool. Or, if not ‘cool,’ then, ‘OK.'”
MacDailyNews Take: We almost can’t bring ourselves to do it. It’s almost like making fun of the retarded… Oh, okay. Please see this related article: ‘I’m a PC’ guy John Hodgman really an Apple Mac user (September 25, 2006). Because, Stevie, he tried them both and, like the rest of us, the obvious answer is to choose the Mac. Because it’s better, Stevie. Vastly better. So, next time – if there is a next time (after all, newspapers aren’t doing so well lately… wonder why) — write from experience, Stevie, not pure ignorance. That’s what real “Internet critics” do.
Full article – Think Before You Click™, you’ve seen everything of interest anyway – here.
Contact:
This guy seems a moron but like an idiot savant, so we can cut him some slack while he gets an education.
Far worse is the disgraceful sort of journalism being demonstrated here:
http://www.forbes.com/technology/2008/10/29/apple-product-flops-tech-personal-cx_ag_1030apple.html
I have posted a response, which they are blocking because I guess it hits them squarely where their journalistic integrity ought to be. I will include the post here, that was ignored by Forbes so that the world gets to see what was so terrible in my words that they did not dare publish it. I also include some of my folow up enquiries about their failure to publish my response.
__________________________________________
My posts to Forbes:
I wonder at the suicidal editorial mentality at Forbes, given its pedigree and how much it has to lose in the near future. If you want Forbes to be thought of as a credible business commentator and, by inference therefore, valued by its readers, why publish such nonsense.
This article has zero journalistic merit. Yogasingam must be perverse in his thinking to even consider that an analysis of ancient Apple products is somehow relevant to today’s Apple. He is entirely without credibility and Forbes taints itself by giving a voice to such imbecilic drivel.
Do you not realise that there is no future for any magazine or newspaper that is part of the print media industry? It is an inescapable fact. So why hasten the day of Forbes’ demise by alienating ever intelligent reader by publishing an article that makes no valis or useful point? Is your editor comatose? Is he unable to read what passes across his desk?
As a fellow Tamil, I can say that YogaSimpleton is what a fool would call a fool. And he has found a foolish publisher to broadcast his nonsense. Bravo Forbes. You only hasten your death by insulting us this way. YOu cease to be a valuable point of reference.
Consider the following facts.
It is accepted wisdom in modern business that you either innovate or you die. (If you want an example of such current extinction, watch the print publishing industry….). There are a few exceptions to this innovation rule, like MacDonkey, but it holds true otherwise.
To innovate is to accept that there will failures along the way.
This is especially true in the light of that other enduring business truism: If you do not make mistakes in business innovation, it means that you are simply not trying hard enough.
Finally, in innovative businesses with a genuine but enlightened risk appetite, there is another very important given. If you are sincere in your endeavours towards innovation, there are no mistakes, only the feedback that you get from such efforts.
Shame on you.
______________________________Follow up 1
So, Mr. Greenberg, after re-submitting my post, as you requested, you still elect to ignore it? Bravo. There’s Forbes demonstrating its editorial integrity and following through on the courage of its convictions.
And yet my comments remain valid. If you publish drivel, how do you expect to retain your value to me, or any other business reader, as a useful point of reference? I am astonished at such editorial irresponsibility. If you do not publish a retraction, Forbes truly deserves to disappear as a publisher, despite its long history.
___________________________________Follow up 2
OK you win on censoring my post. I have no control over that since you are the gatekeeper as to what you will or will not publish. Except it seems when it is patently absurd out of date slurs against Apple by a complete idiot who couldn’t innovate his way out of a paper bag.
But do tell Mr. Greenberg. Are you competing for the $15000 Microsoft offer to sell out and denigrate everything Apple in the media? Surely you have the integrity to answer this simple question?
Clearly, a dinosaur writing for a dinosaur medium (newspapers) doing an outdated job (critic). Gave up reading his comments because, quite simply, they were just too stupid.
Mr. Steve Johnson wrote me back and said “Yawn” …what an outstanding journalist
@As Usual,
“The article is making the point the the Mac ads don’t give you enough reason why you should by a Mac. And he is right.
“
Onother MS troll. Boy with unemployment up, these guys are coming out of the woodwork.
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”grin” style=”border:0;” />
I was a little shocked to read the comments about this article on its web site.
The Mac users were fairly open minded and just telling their stories. The PC pundits were always so full of it that it was obvious. Or they would just attack people not support the machine or software.
The PC people are getting scared. It shows in the way they reply.
Just a thought.
en
I think I see what’s happening. In the past, Mac users were a small and exclusive group. We didn’t mind it that the rest of the world didn’t get it. Now that Apple has gone on the offensive and is getting great reviews from most people, including PC types, it is making the PC user feel like the underdog and people like this doofus think it’s cool to be the underdog. If he can put up with using a PC, more power to him.
I emailed Steve Johnson back and said this:
“Uh, I’ve been there with Windows and I don’t want to go there again. Maybe I expect more from my computer than you. I expect it to start up and shut down quickly, be stable and virus free and be a joy to use. I’m not sure what ‘rules’ you’re referring to but I haven’t read anything like that.
Maybe you should rethink your position on computers.”
It does seems bizarre after m$s poor advertising effort to suggest Apples ‘I’m a mac ads’ wouldn’t entice anyone to buy a mac!
The real point of the ads is to show people what m$ really is. Once you ‘get that’ there is only linux and Mac offerings left!
One should never attribute to mendacity what can be adequately explained by ignorance. However…
As an employed critic in today’s tight newspaper market, I would expect Mr. Johnson to understand the difference between an anthropomorphism and a stereotype. That he feigns not to understand that the ‘character’ Mr. Hodgeman plays is ‘a PC’ not ‘PC users’ and proceeds to advance the the underlying (no pun intended) premise of Microsoft’s ‘I’m a PC’ commercials, is disturbing.
I think that it has been said before, but it sums up this article.
“The Stockholm syndrome is a bitch.”
Another shiller outed and destroyed. This guy is almost as stupid as those morons who use old, idiotic arguments like “Mac users are elitist” and “Macs are too expensive.”
Good one, MDN.
And the song continues…
Steve Johnson is a moron.
Steve Ballmer is a moron.
Billy Gates is a moron.
Eric Willard is a moron.
La la la la la la la la
MW: Single – Surely, this song must be a single by now.
ZuneTang bought a Mac?
“Apple hasn’t had a genuinely new idea in it’s advertising for over two years now, and if you leave out the ‘Get a mac’ ads, they haven’t done anything new for more like five years.”
Can’t blame Apple here. MSFT keeps giving Apple too much great ‘Get a Mac’ fodder material.
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”LOL” style=”border:0;” />
@edski
I agree wholeheartedly. And long live Jobs in these dark times!