∞ Byte apologizes for critical Apple article

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From Byte:

The opinion column that follows doesn’t live up to the proud tradition and our best intentions for BYTE. It not only lacks the deep and authoritative technical content that we want BYTE to be known for, but it also doesn’t reflect the community’s views on Apple. Although there are plenty of people who don’t like Apple products, and some who have had bad experiences with Apple, those are the exception, not the rule.

After publishing an article called “The Crucible: A Sobering Look At Apple,” Byte retracted the piece and said it would redouble its “efforts to employ even tighter controls in our editing content before it gets published.”

Personally, I think it’s a good call from Byte. They admitted it was a mistake, so now we’ll wait and see how future stories read.


  • Anonymous

    OMG. I haven’t heard about BYTE since the 80s! I had no idea they were still in business. Now I’ve got an overwhelming urge to dust off my TRS 80.   

  • http://twitter.com/ShawnKing Shawn King

    “They admitted it was a mistake…” Fair enough but have they answered the question why it took them *four* days to do so?

    • Anonymous

      Gina Smith is acting like she doesn’t know what the problem is. I’m mean WTF? Do you have to be stupid to get to be an editor?

      • Craig

        This incident, plus Smith praising the journalistic intensity of News of the World on a recent TWiT, leaves the Byte reboot already tasting sour.

        • Anonymous

          Well this all points to BYTE being there in name only, not a resurrection of the pub that we all know and love. I for one won’t be gifting my eyeballs to Smith’s trash.

          • Gina

            I am glad you didn’t.

    • http://twitter.com/danielhedlund Daniel Hedlund

      They needed the hits first ;)  

    • G

      Tasty link-bait ad views?

    • http://twitter.com/RASTERMAN RASTERMAN

      @twitter-5026991:disqus After Gina posted her “mea culpa” she then decided to ask the community the following questions in the comments section of the same article:”Gina SmithDoes everyone agree here that we should not criticize Apple – in opinion columns — not BYTE. Same issue had countless reviews of OS X. And many more. So I’m asking you without sarcasm. Readers, do you prefer no commentary on Apple that isn’t positive. Or no commentary you believe is wrong. Want to send some ideas. I am listening.”

      Maybe it’s just me, but I find her “sarcasm-less” questions both condescending and a bit disingenuous. Her comments after the apology largely negate it.  She should have just stuck with the apology and retraction, then moved on.

      No one is saying that Apple shouldn’t be closely scrutinized with an intelligent critical eye.  When it’s time to call bullshit on Apple, do it.  Do it the proper way, using well established journalistic methods rather than the shallow, childish vitriol that was used.  

      It was Gina’s mistake to have Demetrius Mandzych, self-proclaimed anti-Apple “Technologist” (see his bio) write this up, and again her mistake to publish the article in the “News” section rather than posting it as an opinion piece.

      Link-bait?  It’s the only reasonable conclusion.  If true, I think it’s far below the stature of a person with Gina Smith’s apparent experience.

      I had high hopes for BYTE’s rebirth.  I hope it’s not still born.

      Now it’s time for me to move on.

      Cheers!

      —RASTER

      • Gina

        finallly an intelligent remark. true, a bug in the system was posting everything as news — i think. in the first days. that was fixed immediately.’

        But in text it said COLUMN
        it had a name.
        I am done with this. You guys are all very lucky that young writer doesn’t sue you for defamation. I wouldn’t recommend he does, and haven’t, but he clearly has no lawyer.
        gs

  • http://twitter.com/ShawnKing Shawn King

    “They admitted it was a mistake…” Fair enough but have they answered the question why it took them *four* days to do so?

  • obiwandreas

    My biggest problem with ‘Antennagate’ is that I did not see a single piece of documented evidence that the decrease in bars on the screen actually resulted in any decrease in performance or higher rate of call dropping.

    I love that one of Gina Smith’s comments was flagged as inappropriate.  And the author’s official biograph says he is “definitely not an Apple fanboy.”  If they want any future at all for that magazine, they need to dump both these blithering simpletons post-haste.

  • obiwandreas

    My biggest problem with ‘Antennagate’ is that I did not see a single piece of documented evidence that the decrease in bars on the screen actually resulted in any decrease in performance or higher rate of call dropping.

    I love that one of Gina Smith’s comments was flagged as inappropriate.  And the author’s official biograph says he is “definitely not an Apple fanboy.”  If they want any future at all for that magazine, they need to dump both these blithering simpletons post-haste.

  • instig8r

    It’s not that the article was critical; it was that it was so fraught with bad facts and abysmal logic. It showed such a bias, ignorance, insensitivity and malice as to place it resoundingly outside the category of journalism (or even editorial).

    • http://www.loopinsight.com Jim Dalrymple

      You’re right.

    • His Shadow

      Beat me to it. The haters will run with this as more imagined evidence that Apple users/supporters/defenders are thin skinned, but the simple fact of the matter is that much of what passes for Apple “criticism” is poorly thought out, mostly hystrionic link bait. For example, 4 years ago the iPhone’s lack of cut and paste was a valid criticism. Referencing it all after 2009 is sad and indefensible. And any article that purports to be talking about a problem with an Apple product that then goes on to pin any and all issues as a result of Steve Jobs personally… Well, enough already. There are plenty of valid, going concerns with Apple that could be discussed intelligently without resorting to tired clichés about Apple, it’s customers, its history and of course, personal attacks on Steve Jobs himself.

    • Gina

      Agreed, but the attack or the retraction should not have come from BYTE or to BYTE. It was an opinion column. Columnists say their points and they do not reflect opinion of mag. anewdomain.net
      gina smith, EIC

      Agreed there were errors — running dozens of stories in just a couple of hours was our fault. We could’ve corrected those errors in little errata boxes. For the last time, the columist wrote the piece, it was edited, there were errors D and I fixed. To tie a column to an entire pub — or even journalism — well, that’s … smells like Fox to me. HA HA!gs

  • http://twitter.com/sashachh Sasha Chh

    But… this was actually a good article! What the hell is wrong with the media these days???

    • http://twitter.com/ShawnKing Shawn King

      That’s a pretty hard to believe comment. What was “good” about it?

      • His Shadow

        It was a good reminder of how out of step many tech mavens actually are these days.

    • Player_16

      Hey, you forgot the word 

       /sarcasm

       below your comment.

  • http://www.jphotog.com Hrunga Zmuda

    Byte was a great magazine. When I was an OS/2 fanboy, it was the only mainstream tech magazine that gave it a fair shake. I made a friend of one of its writers, and he got me into a photo group that I’m still in today after 20 years. It was really sad to see it go away. And I was shocked at the loose with the facts article they chose to relaunch with. 

    Well, it sure got them a lot of attention. And it took a massive Byte out of their credebility. And that’s the problem with trying to use weighty words to distort reality. Such as Fox news using the phrase “Fair and Balanced.” :-P  

  • Tut

    This was Gena Smith’s way of generating a buz about the new Byte, and as usual, the best way is to bash Apple in some silly way.  The retraction part was clever, that way she creats some more talk. A bit too obvious.

  • http://twitter.com/donsullivan Don Sullivan

    I’ve seen Gina on TWiT a few time in recent months as she was trying to drum up awareness of the rebirth of Byte. Her complete lack of journalistic ethic presented there had me worried about the return of Byte and this article confirmed my worst fears. She spent one whole episode in a nearly childish rant about how horrible and incompetent Apple is. If you’re not a fan of Apple products for whatever reason, that’s fine but this article is nothing more than yet another personal rant trying to call itself journalism. The Byte name deserves better and I’ve not seen that Gina is capable of delivering that.

    • http://twitter.com/ShawnKing Shawn King

      Another reminder of why I don’t listen to TWiTs…

      • obiwandreas

        I’m a pretty tech savvy guy, and have been for 20+ years, and I actually had to do a Google search to figure out what the heck people were talking about when they were referring to ‘TWiT”.  I asked myself “Am I missing something?”

        The answer, apparently, is no.

  • Mjcp

    The “retraction” demonstrates that they still don’t understand the problem. It matters not a jot that the article “doesn’t reflect the community’s views on Apple”. The “community’s views” on any given subject may be mistaken, and back in the day Byte was unafraid to say so and to prove it with facts. This article is inaccurate, biased and completely lacking in authority. I don’t care if Byte does or does not “reflect the community’s views”. I do care if it publishes rubbish like that and can’t even understand why that’s a bad thing.

    • http://twitter.com/rickla Rick

      Yes, yes, yes. I’m surprised that the earlier commenters (and Jim) didn’t make this vital distinction: the first reason for retracting the article is a good one, the second one a very bad one.

  • Steven Fisher

    I think you’re giving BYTE too much credit here.

    Instead of saying “This was incorrect,” they say “doesn’t reflect the communities’ views.” To me, that’s leaving open the possibility that the article is entirely correct, merely unpopular enough that they needed to retract it. In fact, they go on to say that say it IS correct, just for a minority of users.

    I think the retraction one of the most cowardly things I’ve read. If they think it’s wrong, just say that. If they think it’s correct, stand up for it! Better to look like idiots than jellyfish.

    • Anonymous

      I think you’re being unreasonable. Though the original piece was an opinion piece, the retraction isn’t, it’s straight from the editors and it’s not an appropriate place for counter-editorializing. That the opinion isn’t reflective of the opinion of the community is a pretty straightforward and also pushed the envelope on what the editors should say outside of an editorial. The retraction goes on to say that the experiences depicted by the columnist was the exception and not the rule: a pretty clear statement of the editors’ stance.

      It was just an opinion piece, and the calls for the head of Demetrius Mandzych and Gina Smith (on the comment thread of the article, not here) are uncalled-for. Inasmuch as the piece drew attention to Byte, it would appear that the piece did its job well.

      • http://twitter.com/ShawnKing Shawn King

        “Inasmuch as the piece drew attention to Byte, it would appear that the piece did its job well.”

        True but the “attention” it drew was of scorn and ridicule. Nt exactly what “journalists” should be looking for.

  • Anonymous

    Can’t say never, but I don’t plan to look at the Byte website anytime soon. 

    It’s hard to tell whether it was a genuine, but not very well thought-out, opinion, or the author was simply asked to write the most ridiculous negative-Apple story he could think up. 

    Either way, the editor should take responsibility. Does BYTE aspire to be the negative-Apple website for Microsoft and Android fan-boys, or to reclaim the informative and all-encompassing reputation the original dead-tree mag had?

  • Anonymous

    BYTE who?

    There must be a double standard here, because if they think Apple makes questionable products, after getting every award known to man, just imagine the junk these Android manufactures put out. Let me give you an example, my sister-in-law bought an Android phone. The rep couldn’t even activate properly at the Verizon store. After like four tries, got it to work, took it home failed again. Took it back, got it to work, got home and it failed again.

  • iPuppet

    This is click bait, pure and simple.  What better way to generate buzz than to try to rekindle the near dead mindset of “Apple vs. PC.”  I almost registered on Byte’s website to register my disgust, and realized it would be playing right into their insidious plan.

  • http://www.bynkii.com/ John C. Welch

    Evidently, “not hiding our mistakes” doesn’t apply to moronic, passive-agressive comments by the editor on said post. She had no problem deleting THAT.

  • http://twitter.com/thegraphicmac Jim Dempsey

    It bothers me that Byte apologized and/or retracted the article. Journalism (if you can call blogs on the web “news” sites) should be practiced BEFORE publishing, NOT after.

    Furthermore, if this truly is/was Gina’s opinion, then I can live with that. That’s why we follow one writer over another (we value their opinion).

    I haven’t read the original article, or the apology – but in my opinion, we’re setting a precedent that it’s ok to say/do anything as long as you apologize after. Byte should have left the article as is and lived with the consequences.

    Of course, that’s just my opinion…

  • http://twitter.com/Moeskido Moeskido

    I won’t be too surprised if we see more such poorly-written, partially-retracted crap from this sad new version of BYTE.

  • Thestingersmith

    Haters live miserable lives.

  • Gina

    That is pure unadulterated bullshit.

    gs

  • Gina

    I never bashed Apple. I covered them for 20 years fairly and objectively. That’s an out and out lie. In law, they call that defamation. Look that up … and check your facts, darling.

  • Gina

    Also, tut, I had zero to do with that retraction. I would have run an errata on the antennagate thing. That was a mistake. Notice my name is nowhere on it. I also am a journalist and per ethics, I am prohibitied from link baiting. That is defamation. Look it up.Sorry to be harsh, but damn, the cluelessness in this string is astounding. Email me directly if you have a problem. gina@ginasmith.com p.s. There is no e in my name. To attack a story that was about Apple marketing — too silly. I haven’t responded till now because I was at BYTE before. Now I say, look up defamation. Look up libel. My reputation as a 20 year journalist in tech is AWFULLY important to me. What bullshit.

  • Gina

    Here’s another reason, Shawn. I never bashed Apple. I am a journalist who prizes objectivity and I follow the ethical guidelines of the professional society of journalists. As for Leo, with whom I hosted a radio show for years, he’s the best source for podcasts on line right now. Silly rabbit. Did all you Apple fans run out and buy a 4S? I’d love to hear your impressions, even if I disagree with you. Email me gina@ginasmith.com and if you’re looking for a job or funding in tech, you should email me, too. AND APOLOGIZE. Cripes. So SICK of this.