the audit

Guessing What Apple Has Up Its Sleeve

When journalists rely on rumor and teasers from companies promoting their new products, are they practicing journalism, or inadvertently giving companies free PR?
February 28, 2006

A certain popular computer company based in Cupertino, Calif. is set to reveal “some fun new products” today — reason enough for some business journalists to unthinkingly publish regurgitated rumors and speculation.

Last October, we described how Apple Computer Inc. was able to set off a frenzy with just three words, priming the media, the industry and its fans in advance of its latest mysterious product launch, which turned out to be a video iPod. Last week Apple issued its newest cryptic invite — and while it has not caused a frenzy akin to last fall’s, a few prominent publications have still taken the bait.

The San Francisco Chronicle has been the prime offender. Last Tuesday Apple delivered its invite — and Wednesday a speculation-heavy story reporting Apple’s coming “special event” promptly appeared on the front of the Chronicle‘s business section.

“The invitation, sent to journalists and analysts Tuesday morning, had only a picture of a desk calendar for Feb. 28 and the words: “Come see some fun new products from Apple,” reported the Chronicle‘s Matthew Yi. The Chronicle reporter noted that “Apple has used special events to unveil products in the past” and that the invite fueled “more speculation” (including his own) on what Apple’s new gadgets could possibly be. Following Apple’s proven formula for guaranteed launch publicity, a company spokesman “declined to provide more details on next week’s event.”

Yi used the remainder of his story to take wild stabs at the possibilities (including a cell phone, a revamped Mac Mini and a new touch-sensitive iPod), yielding gems from one analyst who said “We’re talking about Apple, so it could be all of those things, none of those things, or something brand new” and another who “said trying to speculate what Apple might announce is a ‘fruitless guessing game.'”

The Chronicle‘s Ellen Lee weighed in today with another story on the front page of the business section: “Apple is hush-hush on Disney.”

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“Rumors of Apple Computer Inc.’s next move were many, wild and varied on Monday, ranging from a possible merger with the Walt Disney Co. to speculation about its latest gadgetry,” Lee reported. While “Those looking for new gadgets will likely be satisfied today,” she said, “[t]he speculation on a Disney and Apple merger will likely keep bubbling.”

Lee spent most of the piece dismissing the outlandish idea that Apple could try to buy Disney — an idea promoted in this week’s Barron’s, largely based on the conjecture of a lone analyst, Christopher Whalen — before writing that “Apple has kept characteristically mum about today’s event, saying simply, ‘come see some fun new products’ in an e-mail invitation. Rumors include an iPod boom box, a Mac that doubles as a TiVo-like recording system and the ability to get full-length movies via iTunes.”

The story concluded with technology consultant Tim Bajarin saying Apple’s latest will definitely be “a fun product,” but that trying to get any more specific is like “throwing darts on the wall.”

Consider the darts thrown. When will these journalists realize that printing rumors and speculation in these cases serves no purpose but Apple’s bottom line?

Or perhaps these journalists are saying that rumors really are a legitimate source of news (right up there, say, with paparazzi photos and celebrity gossip). In his dispatch, “Apple’s big news: Lights, camera, Mac-tion!,” Business 2.0‘s Owen Thomas leaned even more heavily on the whispered nothings, writing that “not surprisingly, the missive has kicked up a whirlwind of rumors. What could Apple CEO Steve Jobs have up his sleeve this time? The Apple rumor mill has been wrong before, but it is a reliable indicator of the products people are hoping for. And right now, the rumors center around movies.”

Thomas then hazarded some intelligent-sounding guesses, before inserting this huge hedge: “Steve Jobs, of course, is a master of surprise, so the rumor mill could be wrong on some or all of these possible products.”

Thomas could conclude one thing with certainty, however. “[S]ummoning Silicon Valley’s press corps down to Cupertino on short notice,” he wrote, “is a dramatic gesture suggesting that Jobs is preparing to make a big statement.”

Maybe the statement is this:

You’ve been had.

Edward B. Colby was a writer at CJR Daily.