Jim Goldman had a tough (deservedly so) 24 hours. Watch. After essentially mocking and condescending blogger’s reports Apple’s (AAPL) Steve Jobs was sick, Goldman now has explaining to do.
CNBC’s own Dylan Ratigan takes him to task.
“Fake Steve Jobs” says he got “punked” by the Apple spin machine. The comment got Fake Steve banned from the network.
Notable Statements:
Dennis Kneale says “The dirty secret of journalism is that you have to believe most of what you are told”
There was a very interesting exchange later in which Goldman says “Until I am privy to Steve Jobs’ medical record all I am telling you is what my sources tell me who I trust and what the company tells me.”
Then Kneale pipes back in and says “Goldman reported what he was told and that’s what a good journalist does”.
Fake Steve make the best point when he says “If your just going to repeat press releases, why have the press, why not just let Apple put out press releases and why have a Bureau out in Silicon Valley?”
Here is the problem. If you had just listened to Goldman for the past 8 months you would have believed until last week everything with Jobs was fine. Had you read blogs, doubt would have crept into your mind. What you did with that information would have been up to you. The point is that you would have had more information to make a decision.
The same could be said of CNBC’s Phil LeBeau in his coverage of the automakers Ford (F), GM (GM) and Chrysler.. Both Goldman and LeBeau are careful to protect their access to those they cover by not being overtly critical of them. When they are critical is is posed as “there are those who say……” and then “how do you respond to that……”
Fake Steve was right in saying why have the press there and why not just let them put out press releases. The only purpose Goldman and LeBeau serve in their respective jobs is to publicly disclosed those release and allow those they cover to strategically leaked information they want out in the public. They are information conduit for the company’s they cover, they are not doing a public service to viewers.
LeBeau’s coverage is especially aggregious as he covers an industry that one would be hard to find has been more mismanaged for the past three decades the US automakers. Yet, if one goes back and looks at the coverage of Detroit from LeBeau, it is painfully apologetic to them and his defense of theory need for bailout funds could only have come from the PR departments of the auto makers.
Now, if that is what they are supposed to be then that is fine, but let’s not pretend we are doing something else and more importantly, lets not talk so dismissively about those who are not acting in that role and who are raising questions that ought to be answered.
If the MSM wonders why they become less relevant on a daily basis, they need only look at these examples…
for ore on the Jobs angles, please read The Ponderings of Woodrow
Disclosure (“none” means no position):None
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