Gizmodo Not Welcome at 2010 WWDC

recoiledsnake writes "Gizmodo is reporting that Apple has refused to answer its request to attend the company's big Worldwide Developers Conference keynote this Monday. Apple's move to ban Gizmodo seems a direct repercussion of Apple's prototype leak by Gizmodo and subsequent actions of Apple to get the prototype back. Meanwhile, Gizmodo said that it would resort to a live blog to cover the event in case of the ban. This comes a few days after San Mateo County authorities announced that a 'special master' had been appointed to assist in the search of Gizmodo editor Jason Chen's belongings: goods seized as part of a police investigation into the disappearance (and Gizmodo acquisition) of one of Apple's prototype iPhones. It's the very device that's rumored to be announced at the Monday keynote."

Comments

Good

[thetoadwarrior]

I don't care so much that they exposed Apple's new phone but the fact they so happily gave up the guy's name showing no journalistic integrity. Fuck 'em, ban them for years.

There's a reason I stopped reading Gawker Media

[RyuuzakiTetsuya]

There seems to be a real lack of editorial power at Gawker Media. Gawker itself is factually wrong rather often. Gizmodo has a real bad habit of doing things they just shouldn't be doing. Paying for play with the iPhone prototype was really disgraceful, then hiding behind being "journalists" as an excuse. The remote incident. Then there's Kotaku, which seems to be run by immature 18 year olds who have yet to touch a boob in their life before. Jalopnik can't keep their mouth shut about Top Gear spoilers. It's frustrating.

I'm through with the entire Gawker Media network. Engadget and Destructoid are much better blogs than Giz and Kotaku. Really haven't had a need for celeb gossip or car news, but when I do, it's not going to be Gawker.

Gizmodo comments

[LinuxIsGarbage]

But don't dare criticize them for acting unprofessional, trying to milk the story, or otherwise disagree with them. They will ban or unstar you at a moment's notice.

Every fucking day they had an article summarizing the iPhone 4 coverage. Even if there was no actual new content. There were only ever two articles. The first one breaking the news, and then a second on where they showed a tear-down. But what do you expect from a firm that destroys presentations and displays at trade shows with TV-B-gone.

It's interesting how their tone changed. They used to sit around and wax and masturbate at great lengths about anything Apple. Now, not so much. Though it seems they all but forgot that computex was on this week.

I've pretty much abandoned them for Engadget.

Re:Gizmodo comments

[im_thatoneguy]

I got banned from Gizmodo on this very story for replying to someone who said something like:
"Maybe there are legal ramifications involved as to why Apple didn't respond."
I replied:
"Legal ramifications related to Gizmodo stealing a prototype?"

1 hour later...
"You were banned by Jason Chen."

What's really bullshit about it is that it's all of Gawker that you get banned from and all of your comments get deleted on every site. So Jason Chen just banned me from io9 and other sites which Jason Chen has absolutely 0 influence in because I insinuated Gizmodo is full of dirty rotten lowlife thieves who purchase obviously stolen property in order to make a quick buck. The Gawker douche-baggery seems to be limited to Gizmodo.

I have one thing to say about Gizmodo's whining over getting "banned" from WWDC. Fuck Gizmodo. They banned me for pointing out in a comment WHY they were banned from WWDC. If in Gizmodo world commenting the obvious fact that Gizmodo wasn't invited because they stole a prototype is a ban-able offense then I can only imagine the relative scale of being the douche bags who ACTUALLY STOLE IT.

People can say Steve Jobs is childish all they want, but Apple's pettiness is nothing compared to Jason Chen's in this instance.

The law is very clear. If you find something. You give it to the establishment's owner. At the VERY LEAST notify the establishment's owner that you found a phone and that you can be contacted at ###-###-####. Did the guy who found that do that? No. Did Gizmodo? No. Did Gizmodo know that this--the most basic requirement the law provides--action was not performed? Yes. How do we know they knew? Because they bragged in a story that they would only give it to Apple if Apple admitted it was a secret prototype instead of returning it as required by law to the property owner.

If they had followed the law the next morning Embarassed-Unfortunate-Apple-Employee would have gotten his secret phone out of lost and found where it belonged and Jason Chen wouldn't have had all of his gear placed where he belongs: in the courthouse under lock and key.

Re:I do not have a problem with this ...

[bigstrat2003]

How about Rockstar's bullshit [geek.com] recently at a reviewer who didn't like Red Dead Redemption? I wonder how many people Rockstar paid off to get the "critical acclaim" for their boring western sandbox... er litterbox gameplay.

I know this is probably going to come as a shock to you, but the reason it's been getting rave reviews is because people actually fucking like it. It's cool if you don't, I hate some of the most acclaimed games (and movies, and music for that matter) of all time. That's just because it doesn't fit me, not because everyone else got paid to pretend to like it.

Re:I do not have a problem with this ...

[Chyeld]

I think anyone who reads my comments, and no I'm not vain enough to think that people do, knows I'm not a fan of Apple's business practices or attitude, but you have to have a World Heavy Weight Championship Belt in Officially Missing the Point to bring up a "journalistic ethics" complaint against Apple in this particular soap opera.

If Jason Chen or the Gawker media group had even a smattering of "Journalistic ethic" in them, they wouldn't have purchased a stolen phone off someone, written an article about ripping the phone apart, followed up by an article humiliating the Apple engineer that lost it to 'prove its real', then attempt to make Apple publicly announce it's their phone before giving it back.

Re:I do not have a problem with this ...

[sortius_nod]

From both personal experience and anecdotal evidence I lost my faith in Gizmodo a long time ago. Their policy of banning commenters for disagreeing with their contributors is just one of the ways they ensure their opinion is always reflected as the truth on Gizmodo.

I'd prefer to get trolled by 100 /b/tards than see a site with just pure arsekissing & cocksucking by commenters.