Extortion & Jackassery

Some Background

I don’t think it is any secret that Mac news sites get under my skin.

In February of this year, I called out several sites for posting rumors that Steve Jobs had weeks to live. In that post, I wrote:

Macgasm, MacStories and others have committed to not posting stories about Jobs’ health if — and until — Apple makes an official announcement. Even then, writers should treat the news as just that — a news story. There is no room for conjecture or guessing here.TUAW, Engadget, Daring Fireball and others refrained from linking to today’s reports at all. I say we can learn from their examples.Instead of trying to beat the other guys to the Publish button, let’s all just take a breath and use some common sense. Life is about more than the latest Apple rumor or product leak out of China. Let’s focus on quality writing, thoughtful insight and reasonable opinions. Our readers deserve those things, and appreciate them.I firmly believe the antics taken by 9 to 5 Mac and others will only do them disservice in the end. Let’s do the right thing. Let’s practice good writing, firmly edit our posts, use common sense and treat people with respect.

Last week, when the tabloid TMZ posted photos of what appeared to be a very sick Steve Jobs, I bashed Cult of Mac for posting the photos. My sentiments hadn’t changed since the beginning of the year:

Writers who post such stories doesn’t seem to care if what they publish is accurate or not.
Accuracy — truth in reporting — is the foundation on which all good journalism is based. If reporters do not share the truth, they are not truthfully sharing facts with their readers.

Why I Give a Crap

Almost all of the feedback I’ve received on theses posts has been positive. However, some readers have asked me why I care about this topic. Several have asked why I don’t just ignore sites that do these sort of things.

While it is true my writing isn’t going to serve as a “Come to Jesus” moment for anyone who makes their living off of page views, I — as a member of the Apple community — can call for better behavior from the people from whom we get our news

Not to mention shitty reporting just pisses me off.

Not Everyone Loves Me

As one might expect, not everyone is a fan of my stance on these issues.

Seth Weintraub being chief among them. Weintraub has written for numerous sites, including Computerworld. Currently, he covers Google for Fortune and owns the 9to5 family of sites, including 9to5Mac and 9to5Google.

Weintraub first contacted me last November when I named his writer Mark Gurman — who is a teenager, it turns out — as “Moron of the Week” when he posted a story that Apple had opened a Twitter account. There were several signs that this simply wasn’t true. The Apple logo wasn’t correctly proportioned being the biggest. And the account was claiming that the company was giving away iPads.

Clearly — to me, at least — Gurman’s post was rushed and not thought through. However, at Weintraub’s request, I redacted my post. I figured I’d give the kid the benefit of the doubt.

But then the “Steve Jobs is getting chemo” story broke in February, and I posted my open letter. As if on cue, Weintraub emailed me, asking me why I had a “beef” with his site. I’ve posted an unedited PDF of our email thread here.

I thought that was that. Then, two weeks later, I noticed that forkbombr.com¹ was re-directing to 9to5Mac. According to the whois information, the domain was registered² by Weintraub two days after my open letter was published.

I emailed Seth, asking what was going on. In our email conversation, I agreed to make some concessions, but the issue was never resolved.

I decided to just move on, but last week, in my original post, I took a jab at 9to5Mac, saying I was surprised the site hadn’t linked to the TMZ photos, as Cult of Mac did. Weintraub emailed me, and I decided to take down the footnote. Then, our emails took a turn, once again. Here’s the kicker:

Seriously? Why are you trying to piss the guy off who owns the domain you’d like?[...]How about stop being a douche and I won’t re-up for a decade.

What Now?

I know this post won’t fix anything with 9to5Mac. I really don’t care, honestly. I fully expect a shit storm. But I won’t be bullied anymore³ by someone running around being a jackass, pretending to be doing it in the name of protecting his site.

Forkbombr is my brand and my writing is my opinion. I regret trying to meet Seth halfway by redacting comments. It won’t happen again. No .com is worth it. My dignity isn’t either.⁴

2011-08-29; 3PM CST Update: For what it is worth, as of this afternoon, forkbombr.com redirects to my open letter from February, but I have no control of that domain.

2011-08-29; 3:25 PM CST Update: Now the domain goes to a page with this message:

STEPHEN, WHY ARE YOU TAKING POTSHOTS AT ME? LIKE I SAID, STOP BEING A DOUCHEBAG AND WE’LL STOP THE ONE UPPING EACH OTHER.

Then, Seth wrote this. From those emails, I don’t think he ever offered “drop everything.”