When The Going Gets Tough The Press Get All Whiney

Robert Scoble points to an open letter from Jason McCabe Calacanis to Steve Jobs about Apple suing Think Secret.  It comes across to me as the epitome of childishness.  The key to it all comes down to this point:

If you want to sue someone sue your employees who send us the leaks, or your partners who tip us off. They are the ones who sign agreements with you not to talk—not us!

Which of course is precisely what Apple is trying to do.  Think Secret however won’t tell Apple who gave them the information and as such Apple is suing them in an attempt to find out those names and to prevent them publishing trade secrets (the press has no right to publish trade secrets).

If you want free press then the press has to act in good faith.  Knowingly publishing trade secrets and information that was illegally disclosed to them is not good faith.  Think Secret knew that their informant was breaching an NDA in revealing the information to them, they knew that the information was a trade secret and they knew that publishing that information was not in the interests of the greater good (the information about Apple releasing a sub-$500 PC is not beneficial to the greater good even if Apple actually releasing the sub-$500 PC is).  Even more importantly the information would have come out in time anyway direct from Apple, without any shred of doubt and without any breach of NDA.  There was no need for Think Secret to publish the report other than to generate revenue for Think Secret.

What worries me more though is that Jason is willing to call Think Secret “the press”.  Think Secret is not a professional media organization, it is not responsible, it does not report news.  It reports rumors.  It doesn’t back up it’s stories with evidence and it is prepared to report rumors which can’t be confirmed.  That’s not the actions of a responsible news organization and it should not be encouraged.  It is not the behavior I expect from “the press” (though it is all too common).  Think Secret could do wonders for their reputation by simply naming their sources.  By doing so we would all be able to judge whether or not that person is in a position to know that information and those who are interested could track their previous record for information.  If they’ve provided false information in the past readers could disregard information that came from them.  However since Think Secret gets most of their information through illegal means (for the provider of the information not for Think Secret) they are compelled to refer to their sources as “a highly reliable source” or attribute quotes to “a source”.

Do you want to live in a world where we don’t have a rabid press? Sure, the world does not revolve around gadgets, but the principles of a free press should be obvious to a rebel like you. Maybe you’re not a rebel any more, and maybe you listen to lawyers more then you listen to your heart.

I don’t want to have a rabid press.  Reporters foaming at the mouths do nothing to benefit society.  Responsible, accurate, verified reporting is useful to the public.  The media seems to have forgotten that in recent years.  These days the media aren’t about providing news to the public, the media is about providing sensationalistic headlines to grab attention and about beating up stories to get readers attention and get a “scoop”.  It’s sickening and every reporter should be ashamed of the state their industry is in.  I mean you know you’re in trouble when blogs are being considered a news source that rivals the mainline media – blogs are all about personal opinion, rants and unjustified rumors.  The mainline media should stand out head and shoulders above such a raucous but they don’t.

Think of all the good the press has done for the world in righting big wrongs, and fighting for the every (hu)man.

I seem to remember the press vilifying teachers who took appropriate disciplinary action against misbehaving kids.  I seem to remember the press incorrectly branding an innocent man a pedophile.  I seem to remember the press doing a whole bunch of miracle weight loss cure stories.  I don’t recall the press ever doing anything in a “fight for the every (hu)man” but I do recall them doing anything they can to grab attention and improve their bottom line.

You need to learn to play nice in the sandbox or we’re going to go home, and I can tell you it’s no fun playing alone.

There’s a very simple, age old response to that: bye!  Face it the media isn’t going to stop reporting on Apple – doing so would reduce their readership, cause them to miss out on attention grabbing headlines and in turn reduce their profit.  So if you want to go home you do just that – another news source will happily accept all your readers.  I’d say you should expect Apple to call you on that bluff too.  What are you going to do then?  Maybe you could try telling the teacher.