Apple has banned Gizmodo from WWDC. According to reports, all requests from Gizmodo to cover the event were ignored, and instead of live covering the event, they’re going to be pseudo-liveblogging the event (covering the coverage from others).
It’s not really surprising for most that a company like Apple would distance themselves from the infamous blog after the iPhone 4G leak debacle. There’s been an ongoing debate between law enforcement officials, Gizmodo, and Apple as to whether the iPhone prototype that went “missing” in a bar was actually left behind on accident, or if someone managed to steal the phone out of the engineer’s bag while it was unattended. Police officials have recently announced that they’re analyzing Jason Chen’s personal computers to forensically determine if the phone was actually stolen with the intent to sell it to media outlets.
In addition to the 4G prototype debacle, Gizmodo has been on a pretty anti-Apple kick lately, and their coverage has been far from unbiased. We wouldn’t want them at our event either if they were planning on trashing the whole thing, kinda like they’ve done in the past. Looks like trying to blackmail Jobs for more access to Apple kind of blew up in their faces.
Gizmodo editor, Brian Lam, wrote to Steve Jobs on April 19, 2010: “Right now, we have nothing to lose. The thing is, Apple PR has been cold to us lately. It affected my ability to do my job right at iPad launch. So we had to go outside and find our stories like this one, very aggressively.”
Looks like things just got a little colder for Brian Lam and his colleagues.
Article Via PCMag
