Insider Chatter by Donna Bogatin

Nick Ciarelli is NO Bob Woodward or Carl Bernstein. What’s more, His Think Secret so-called sources are no “Deep Throat.” Most importantly, the unauthorized public release of proprietary corporate competitive information is NOT a noble endeavor, as was the Pultizer Prize winning journalism achieved by The Washington Post in investigating the arrest of five burglars at the Democratic National Committee offices in the Watergate complex.

Why did Ciarelli succumb to Apple’s contention that he is NO journalist and shut down his blog? The Think Secret unprofessional tag line, an embarrassment to the professional practice of journalism, solicits “GOT DIRT?” encouraging  ANONYMOUS VOICE MAIL “tips,” hardly the modus operandi of professional publications.  

The Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) and its Code of Ethics does NOT encourage anonymous “sourcing”:

Members of the Society of Professional Journalists believe that public enlightenment is the forerunner of justice and the foundation of democracy. The duty of the journalist is to further those ends by seeking truth.

But truth is hard to come by, without naming names.

The SPJ on naming sources, or not: 

Identify sources whenever feasible. The public is entitled to as much information as possible on sources’ reliability.

Always question sources’ motives before promising anonymity. Clarify conditions attached to any promise made in exchange for information.

Readers ought to question any and all stories based solely on unidentified sources, no matter the editorial masthead. The facts are clear: The reliability, or not, of a story based on unamed sources can not be determined.

Apple and Think Secret have settled their lawsuit, reaching an agreement that results in a positive solution for both sides. As part of the confidential settlement, no sources were revealed and Think Secret will no longer be published. Nick Ciarelli, Think Secret’s publisher, said, “I’m pleased to have reached this amicable settlement, and now will be able to move forward with my college studies and broader journalistic pursuits.”

Next time, Ciarelli may be naming names.

ALSO: Gawker: Will Nick Denton PAY For Media Respectability? and Google Zeitgeist: $200 University Payola AdWords Scam and Digg: TechCrunch Bails on Arrington Web 2.0 Fave

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Google’s claim to AdSense fame is that its two line text ads are “so well-matched, that your readers will actually find them useful.”

How useful will Anil Dash’s readers really find his blog’s plug for the “New Mac OS X Leopard” available now with free shipping direct from the Apple Store though? After all, the “Ads by Google” Apple OS ad may be color-coordinated to match Dash’s purple blog theme, but the product pitch certainly does not reflect the message his blog is sending today, i.e., “THE WORST THING ABOUT APPLE”

Dash on Apple:

Although I’ve been accused sometimes of reflexive contrariness, the truth is I’m just pretty consistent in my assessments of technology, with little regard for the perceptions of the companies or people who provide those technologies.

The best case in point I can use to illustrate this is an example of the worst thing about Apple. There is simply nothing less attractive than a person who is both flawed and smug, and apparently one of the few plausible justifications for treating corporations as legal persons is the fact that this holds true for companies as well. And Apple is a smug company.

The new version 10.5 of Mac OS X rather famously features a display when you’re browsing machines that appear to be running Microsoft Windows. The image deliberately uses an aged-looking monitor and a crashed computer as the illustration of your other computers. The disdain here isn’t for the unfortunate unwashed who have to suffer through Windows because they’re so clueless — it’s a snide shot at the other computers you own, or of your family’s other machines around the house, or of the computers of the peers you work with. In short, the derision is likely aimed at people who care a hell of a lot more about you and your boundless Mac-enhanced creativity than, say, the OS X team does.

Unfortunate Google AdSense advertising adjancencies are not only the Web’s bloopers, they underscore that contextual advertiisng is NOT a “solved problem,” not even for number one Google.

AdTech takes New York City by storm next week, perhaps there are some ad network disruptors in store  ready to deliver that ever elusive Google “killer.”

MORE ADSENSE BLOOPERS: Nick Carr Comes To His Senses: Goodbye Google AdSense!

PLUS: Business Plans Help the Web 2.0 Kool-Aid Go Down and YAY! Facebook Junk Now Open Social Web Free For All

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Google strikes (bombs) again, in the high-profile keynote department. After all, if a conference organizer’s first reaction to the presenter is to publicy “congratulate” the keynoter for being off-topic, something obviously went wrong, big time.

Yesterday, I previewed the Matthew Glotzbach Google Enterprise keynote set for Interop today, by wishing for substantive talk of Google’s $625 million Positini investment, but predicting it would be but another rally for a Googley consumerization of the enterprise. In fact, a consumer Google to the enterprise rescue is exactly how the Google keynote was prefaced this morning by Lenny Heymann, Interop GM.

Google, however, surprised again, but NOT in a good way! The big, bad, (not so) Apps innovation that Glotzbach hailed was but the latest incremental Gmail product enhancement, “free IMAP.”

WOW? Even more incredulous, the Google Enterprise pitch to the high-level gathering of east coast IT execs was mainly an Apple one: You go, iPod, iPhone AND Steve, was the Glotzbach message!

Glotzbach did not get a high-five upon his keynote conclusion; Heymann retorted “congratulations for talking more about Apple, than Google.” Glotzbach remained Googley proud and not deterred, staying on Mountain View non-message by refusing to directly answer the conference organizer’s questions seeking real information from the Google keynoter.

While a Google keynote non-performance is typically Google, the inaneness of Google’s supposed enterprise level presentation was rendered all the more striking by the home run performance of the preceeding Interop keynoter, Simon Crosby, CTO and founder, XenSource, newly acquired by Citrix.

Crosby provided a detailed, real-world case study of how he is successfully targeting the VMware “monoply” by executing an ambitious vision to “commoditize the hypervisor” and thereby lead in propelling the “powerful open source industry standard for virtualization.”

What “inspiration” did Google’s Glotzbach conclude his “keynote” with? A YouTube worthy home video “clip” of his infant “tech savvy” girl playing with the iPhone, while dissing (Microsoft) smartphones!

STAY TUNED FOR MORE!

ALSO: OMMA Advertising Cat Fight? Google’s Media Chief Gets Defensive and Interop NYC: Microsoft vs. Google Enterprise Showdown?

PLUS: Google NOT Hot For SILICON ALLEY Technology! and Google Confirms: Enterprise Apps is NO Microsoft Office Killer

CONTACT DONNA BOGATIN

No wonder Steve Jobs thinks he can get away with screwing early adopters: HE CAN!

Fred Wilson’s Apple analogy last week: ”like the girl I really tried to fall in love with, but woke up one morning and (she) called it off.”

My Steve Jobs analogy today: Like the big bad boyfriend that mistreats you and thinks all it takes is a bouquet of roses to forgive and forget.

Steve Jobs unveiled his latest Apple salvo today: A two paragraph declaration that “Apple Sells One Millionth iPhone.”

Of course Jobs is a man of few words now, he knows his million early adopters will dutifully cut and paste his every word so Apple worship rings loud and clear throughout the blogosphere.

Hommage is indeed forthcoming.

Dan Moren, Macworld, gives a big high five to the “revolutionary” Steve: ” One meeeeellion iPhones” YAY!

Kent Pribbernow, theiPhoneblog, envisages planetary domination: “Apple Sells One Millionth iPhone, McDonald’s Looks on Worried”

Arik Hesseldahl, Business Week, looks forward to celebrating the next Steve Jobs PR pitch: “I’ll predict right here and now that we see a press release touting two million units by Halloween” (brave man!)

WHY THE APPLE LOVE?

One million iPhones in 74 days—it took almost two years to achieve this milestone with iPod,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “We can’t wait to get this revolutionary product into the hands of even more customers this holiday season.

Way to go Steve, for your shareholders.

NOT BUYING STEVE ANYMORE? DON’T, LITERALLY! READ: BOYCOTT: Sweet Apple Revenge! Got Screwed? Return the iPhone Favor

ALSO: Chill Out iPhone Dudes! $3 is a SMALL Price to Pay for Apple Glory and Blodget & Ryan: Cool, or Suck? WHAT Silicon Valley ‘Insider’!

CONTACT DONNA BOGATIN

Give yourself a good ‘ol pat on the back blogosphere: YOU ARE THE BOSS OF STEVE JOBS!

Don’t stop now, though: Resting on your $100 store credit Apple laurels will only get you so far. After all, what will you actually do with the $100 Steve Jobs chit? Up-sell yourself most likely and end up giving Apple back its $100, and then some.

Are you “Bumming on Apple” like Fred Wilson is?:

Apple right now is like the girl I really tried to fall in love with but woke up one morning and called it off…pissing off everyone who was an early adopter. What’s that all about?

And what about the wifi iPod that doesn’t sync over my home wifi network? Forget about buying music via wifi, the main thing I want with wifi is a sync every night.

WANT TO REALLY MAKE STEVE JOBS SQUIRM? BOYCOTT THE APPLE!

“I am so over Apple, Steve Jobs, and my MacBook,” Wilson declares. BUT, he has tried in vain to ditch that other big, bad boy of tech, Bill Gates:

My new year’s resolution was to get off of Microsoft. I failed. Completely.

It is time for a whole lot of Apple DIS-Loyalty! Show Steve what he can really do with his $100 Apple tease: DON’T USE IT and DON’T BUY APPLE!

Because, If you let Steve use you this time, he’ll abuse you even more the next time.

DON’T LET YOURSELF BE SCREWED AT THE APPLE ALTAR AGAIN. DO SOME SCREWING OF YOUR OWN AND SPOIL STEVE’S HOLIDAY BLOW OUT PLANS!

ALSO: Hype Crimes: Habbo Hotel Weekend How-To

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Who loves to pick an iPhone fight?

Barry Schwartz over at Search Engine Land is as giddy as a bully in a school yard egging on “a fight” between Nokia and Apple, cheering “it just rocks” that they are”trading blows over iPhone price cut.”

Don’t worry, though, Schwartz himself is not holding a grudge that he got ’screwed,’ along with all the other ”early adopters,” by Steve Jobs’ shrewd iPhone pricing tactics: “I’ll get over it, I guess its fair,” Schwartz begrudgingly accepts.

What is really going on in Google land, though? Could the big bad AdWords brawl “exposed” by TechCrunch and applauded by SearchEngineLand really be the smackdown it is made out to be?

Maybe in “early adopter” land, as the early adopters are the ones making all the fuss.

BUT, how many Google searches might the TechCrunch crew have done before they found one that was ripe for an “angry iPhone users” headliner?

For my first Google search I used the typical–i.e., NOT ‘early adopter’–keyword search: “iPhone,” simple as that! Result? BORING! No Nokia marketing attack! No Apple vs. Nokia smackdown!

A Google search for ”iPhone price drop” is undoubtedly NOT a mainstream one, as a search for iPhone is.

Is a Nokia — Apple AdWords duel a specifically blogosphere targeted one then? Perhaps we will see those headlines tomorrow.

FOR NOW: Chill Out iPhone Dudes! $3 is a SMALL Price to Pay for Apple Glory

PLUS: BOYCOTT: Sweet Apple Revenge! Got Screwed? Return the iPod Favor

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