WSJ on Jobs's Candor

http://www.futureofcapitalism.com/2010/06/wsj-on-jobss-candor

Someone at the Wall Street Journal has a weakness for Apple's Steve Jobs. First came the Journal's coverage of Mr. Jobs's lashing out at Adobe's Flash. The Journal reported it under the headline "Jobs Gives Very Candid Thoughts on Flash" and said his comment "offers a level of candidness unusual for the CEO of a major company." Now comes a Journal video that the paper promotes with the teaser, "Jobs talks candidly about Apple's situation with Gizmodo, the site that bought an iPhone prototype found in a bar." Unless they've got a lie-detector strapped to the guy, how the heck do they know whether he's being candid or not? Even then...

When Rupert Murdoch bought the Wall Street Journal he and his minions made a big fuss about stripping out all the unnecessary layers of editors. And he may have a point -- here at FutureOfCapitalism.com we have not a single layer of unnecessary editors. And let it be said that there's lots of fine stuff in the Journal and fine people who work there so I don't mean to single it out for criticism. Even so, once, or if, they tackle the "candor" problem, they could move on to "legendary."

In the past month alone in the Journal we've had "Legendary investor Jim 'Investment Biker' Rogers," "legendary advertising agencies such as Young & Rubicam and DDB Worldwide," "the legendary bagel manufacturer H&H Bagels" "the legendary Motown quintet The Temptations" and "the Detroit Tigers' legendary broadcaster, Ernie Harwell." If these folks and firms are all so legendary, wouldn't you expect the Journal's intelligent readers to know it without being told?

by Ira Stoll  |  Jun 2, 2010 at 11:47 am Related Topics:  Press receive the latest by email: subscribe to the free futureofcapitalism.com mailing list