Get your news from a source that’s not owned and controlled by oligarchs. Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily.


Let me just say at the outset that I don’t like Apple Computer. Not the products, the company. Basically, I think they’re dicks. Now, it’s their company, they run it well, they make lots of money for their shareholders, and they don’t break any laws. So if they want to act like dicks, they have every right. But I don’t have to like it. And I especially don’t like it when they try to position themselves as hip individualists while running their corporation with about the same subtlety that J. Edgar Hoover ran the FBI.1

End of rant. That said, I’m a little unsure that Apple is really doing anything all that wrong by going after Gawker in the case of the missing iPhone. They are, it’s true, being dicks. Still, paying some guy $5,000 for an iPhone prototype that was “found on a barstool”? Seriously? Gawker just accepted that story and forked over the cash? I mean, this is pretty much the same story a guy told me once who offered me a Blu-Ray player out of the backseat of his car for twenty bucks. Perhaps a little skepticism is legitimately in order here?2

1Just to give equal time, as a longtime PC user I also hate Microsoft, Symantec, and Adobe. In fact, I sometimes wonder just which one I hate the most. So really, I guess I’m just a hater.

2Note that this is in no way meant as a comment on the legal aspects of the case. I believe Gawker is unquestionably a media outlet protected by California’s shield law. Exactly how that law applies in this case, however, I really don’t know.

BEFORE YOU CLICK AWAY!

“Lying.” “Disgusting.” “Scum.” “Slime.” “Corrupt.” “Enemy of the people.” Donald Trump has always made clear what he thinks of journalists. And it’s plain now that his administration intends to do everything it can to stop journalists from reporting things they don’t like—which is most things that are true.

No one gets to tell Mother Jones what to publish or not publish, because no one owns our fiercely independent newsroom. But that also means we need to directly raise the resources it takes to keep our journalism alive. There’s only one way for that to happen, and it’s readers like you stepping up. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

payment methods

BEFORE YOU CLICK AWAY!

“Lying.” “Disgusting.” “Scum.” “Slime.” “Corrupt.” “Enemy of the people.” Donald Trump has always made clear what he thinks of journalists. And it’s plain now that his administration intends to do everything it can to stop journalists from reporting things they don’t like—which is most things that are true.

No one gets to tell Mother Jones what to publish or not publish, because no one owns our fiercely independent newsroom. But that also means we need to directly raise the resources it takes to keep our journalism alive. There’s only one way for that to happen, and it’s readers like you stepping up. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate