SlashGear has an excellent story today about the so-called “Apple bias” in the media, usually bolstered by the notion that Apple has such small market share but the tech media tend to report on their every move without fail. SlashGear’s Philip Berne literally decimates those agruments by pointing out that Apple is a company that’s just as innovative as Microsoft or any of its competition, and its culture and products are so well loved that to not report on something so newsworthy and something that people clamor to read would be a horrible idea.
He goes beyond the journalistic arguments here and targets the haters; the people who simply can’t stand to see any product they dislike in a positive light, and with a company as large but as small and secretive as Apple, there are just as many people on the side of the line that irrationally hate the company for no good reason at all (or worse, make up reasons that would be good if they were true) that not covering the company’s achievements and impact in the industry would be equivalent to caving to a vocal minority that can’t and shouldn’t direct the course of the news. This is akin to my own column a while back, What’s Wrong With Good Reviews?
Berne also points out that in some cases there is a tendency in the media to jump when Apple says anything, like when they say the white version of their phone will be delayed, or when they say that they’re planning a slightly more powerful version of a product already on the market, and he’s absolutely right – it shouldn’t be newsworthy that Apple’s delayed the mythical white iPhone again – it should be newsworthy that Apple promised it almost a year ago and still hasn’t delivered, and doesn’t plan to until very close to its normal iPhone refresh date.
The best part of the story is that Berne comes to the conclusion that there is indeed an Apple bias – but not in the way you might expect.