Well, not court indictments. Not yet anyway. But John Gruber of Daring Fireball presents his case quite strongly. A good long read and this toward the end:
Second, publishing the name, photographs, and personal information of the Apple engineer who lost the phone is irrelevant to the story. It was the dick move to end all dick moves. Gizmodo is, ostensibly, a gadget site. The interest of their readers in this saga regards the phone. Publishing his name did not clarify in the least bit how they obtained the phone. The people whose identities I’d like to know are those who obtained and then sold the phone, not the guy from Apple who lost it. There is no interest served by outing him other than taking sociopathic glee in making a public spectacle of someone who made a very serious but honest mistake.
I think we’ve seen this whole case/story/kerfuffle become something of a blind men and the elephant situation. A lot of people I’ve talked to take the same perspective as my wife does, which is “Oh that poor guy! What a mess!”
I’ve seen friends on Facebook take a kind of pleasure in what they see as a giant (Apple) being taken down a few notches by human imperfection. Curious that Apple, the alt brand, is now seen as just as much of a monolith as Microsoft used to be. A few folks I’ve heard are happy to see a blog get away with something sneaky.
The one point of view I’ve seen very little of is discussion of the device itself. “Front facing camera? Separate volume buttons? Yeah, well, whatever. But what kind of beer was the guy drinking that night?!” I wonder if Apple as an idea is bigger than any idea they create.
There’s a lot happening in the world. Through it all, Marketplace is here for you.
You rely on Marketplace to break down the world’s events and tell you how it affects you in a fact-based, approachable way. We rely on your financial support to keep making that possible.
Your donation today powers the independent journalism that you rely on. For just $5/month, you can help sustain Marketplace so we can keep reporting on the things that matter to you.
