The Death of Media, cont.
From today’s SF Chronicle:
The good news is Apple CEO Steve Jobs is still on track to return to work by the end of this month. But it took a liver transplant surgery two months ago in Tennessee to enable his return, according to a Wall Street Journal report.
The story, which was not attributed to any source, sheds considerable light on the state of Jobs’ health and recovery and strongly suggests that his bout with a rare form of pancreatic cancer in 2004 has expanded to his liver.
Ryan Kim, who wrote this preposterous article is the ink-stained wretch of the Chronicle. He writes on technology news, mostly transcribing press releases and re-working things from the PR News Wire. I’m going to give him some props for saying The story, which was not attributed to any source… and then take away the points for then stating sheds considerable light on the state of Jobs’ health and recovery and strongly suggests that his bout with a rare form of pancreatic cancer in 2004 has expanded to his liver.
Calling Dr. Frist
Kim goes on then to interview technology analysts about the state of Jobs’ health. While this is amusing ( “Hi, I’m a technology pundit and my medical knowledge is limited to Aisle 3 at CVS” ), it is also some what infuriating. When Jobs announced he was taking a leave of absence, Kim interviewed some doctors who had never seen Jobs or his medical history to get their opinion on Jobs condition.
Once he gets a new liver, he can function and heal faster. For all intents and purposes, it sounds like this gives him a better chance to recover.
–Tim Bajarin, president of Creative Strategies, a technology consultancy
The story has been unconfirmed by Apple and we don’t have a cause of the liver failure, and that could be very important. And if this is cancer, did this surgery solve the problem or did the cancer spread to other parts of the body?
– Rob Enderle, president of the Enderle Group
For the record, it must be noted that Enderle has a long-standing contract with Microsoft — and in fact, MS may be the Enderle Groups largest (if not only) customer; but Ryan Kim does not state that. Enderle has been predicting the imminent collapse of Apple for at least 15 years. He predicted the failure of the iPod, the iPhone, and the iMac. A long-standing joke in Silicon Valley is that whatever company Enderle pans is going to be the next big thing.
Enderle goes on to his favorite (and paying topic), the death of Apple is Jobs does not return. He never misses a chance to alarm investors.
Conclusion
Scribes like Ryan Kim, though I am sure sincere, are leading the death march of newspapers. This is a sloppy and alarming story, based upon an unattributed bit of gossip from a Rupert Murdoch owned paper.
We don’t need newspapers — SF Chronicle included, and I love that paper — we need journalists.
[...] Chron (via Mock, Paper, Scissors): The good news is Apple CEO Steve Jobs is still on track to return to work by the end of this [...]
As if their uncritical acceptance of every fucking thing the Bush administration said wasn’t enough. And they wonder why they are losing eyeballs.