Video: Apple’s PR machinery caught on tape (updated)

I think benjamin Cohen is a pushy – bully know it all piss-off journalist! Having said that– go make your own phone or buy another brand if you have a problem with Iphones monopolizing Itunes.

fix your damn HTML TAG Address!!

ex ped: Could you clarify what the problem is?

What’s amazing about this is that the overreaction by the PR staff is what ultimately ends up getting the ink and the exposure. All they had to coach the interviewee to say was “That’s really not my area, I’m not the person to best answer that question.” And by extension, the PR person could have said, “Mr. Schiller isn’t the person to answer that question, but we can certainly get you someone who can.” Even if it’s Steve Jobs himself, at least you’re getting the reporter what he wants. Instead, saying “We’re excited about the Iphone and want to stay focused” makes them look guarded and secretive. Jumping in front of the camera and acting like the reporter had a gun is what makes this a story, not whether or not Apple has some kind of monopoly going. The reporter has every right to ask the question, but “no comment” is a very simple answer that would have gotten ZERO exposure. This is a good lesson for what NOT to do in a dicey PR situation, for those watching.

I love how half the commenters on this blog accuse the writer of Apple-bashing, and the other half accuse him of sucking up.

Apple is indeed trying to establish forms of market control, but who can blame them. WIth Microsoft, the Media and Communications oligopolies all setting the tone, who can blame them. All you folks that are so delighted in finding a chink in Apples armor would be much better served in demanding an end to the entire oligopolistic monster starting with the real big boy MS.

At least Apples products are delivered when promised and actually work very well most of the time as contrasted with the absolute crap put out over budget over time line with a screw the customer and the competition pricing structure by microsoft.

The FACTS ARE that the tape doesn’t lie.
Apple stopped the interview when they heard something they didn’t like.
Boo-hoo, poor Apple cry babies.

Nice try Apple-haters, but this only shows what a-holes the press are, Schiller comes off looking like a saint and the interviewer sounds like a tool.

This whole blog is a sham. Do you want to know why every article here is biased?

Okay, HERE ARE THE FACTS:

This article tries to make Apple and iTunes look bad.

This blog is owned by CNN/Money and Fortune magazine, all of which are owned by Time Warner.

Time Warner is a partner in hulu.com, a so-called iTunes killer, owned by Time Warner and NBC/Universal. [Editor's note: That's not accurate. Hulu.com is a joint venture between NBC/Universal and News Corp.]

In other words, THE OWNER OF THIS BLOG IS IN DIRECT COMPETITION WITH APPLE.

So DeWitt, who writes for an Apple competitor, writes negative stories about Apple ALL THE TIME.

He should disclose this FACT before EVERY ARTICLE.

It does not benefit his bosses if he wrote glowing reviews about Apple.

It actually HELPS his bosses if Philip writes bad things about Apple and iTunes in particular.

This blog is a shill operation, plain and simple. What a joke. I won’t be reading it anymore.

The irony of Apple’s recent ‘PR Lady’ campaign is a bit much no?

blogs had the juxtaposition pretty well covered yesterday:

http://www.commpoint.ca/Point/Blog/Entries/2007/11/18_Apple_Quicky.html

Bob S.: what the hell are you talking about? “Consistently pulled the same (monopoly charges) against Microsoft”? Consistently? I don’t know of a single instance. Since you obviously know more than I do, name at least two instances where Apple has tossed the M-word at Microsoft?

In case you never noticed, one CAN mount a Microsoft-formatted drive on a Mac. You can often read PC-formated data files on a Mac. Try doing that on a PC with a Microsoft OS. Whose system is “closed”?

Now go back and continue smoking your crack.

I find it disingenuous for Apple to sidestep the monopoly issue when they have consistently pulled the same on Microsoft. MSFT beat them silly in the computing game, Apple wins in the music game. Why can’t people ask the same questions about closed systems of Apple that Apple tossed at Microsoft?

Perhaps it is time for the Dept of Justice to dust off their Microsoft case documents and take a closer look at Apple.

My god, that 2nd chick with the coffe in her hand who says “we’re really excited about blah blah..” Imagine coming home to that smarmy bore every night? The whole thing is rather stupid. Ipods are cool and so is bit torrent. Everyone wins. Well, at least I do (and every person under 21 in the world)

I am having so much fun with my IPhone
that I do not care that I will probably go out and buy a Mac so to make this a seemless integration–is that a monopoly? Naw,it is a good business, run well…other U.S. companies take a page…

What I see looking at the video is a journalist being granted an interview to talk about the iPhone launch in England. They are at an Apple building and an England style bus goes by the window. They probably made it clear they would only talk about the iPhone. The guy pulls the monopoly question out about iTune’s instantly signaling him as a hostile journalist looking to get some dirt instead of talking about the iPhone like they probably previously agreed. Sorry interview over.

I’ll alert the media….zzzzzzzz

Schiller’s response should have been simple: “Sir, last night I tuned into your TV channel looking to see a competitor’s report on the Apple iPhone, but your station did not carry his report. Why are YOU and your employer engaging in these monopolistic practices?”

I know, I know … this *is* after all a UK reporter who works for a GENUINE government-mandated monopoly, but indulge me in this mental exercise…

Big deal… not. In summary, reporter asks a loaded question. Schiller refuses to answer it. DeWitt blows it all out of proportion.

Another day, more DeWitt negative spin. Nothing newsworthy here.

People seem to misunderstand how the media work, whether in the UK or pretty much anywhere else in the world where there’s a free press. If you meet a journalist then he or she can ask any question they like, just as anyone who you might talk to openly in a bar can ask what they want. And let’s face it, these guys weren’t in a bar but at a press briefing speaking to accredited journalists working for the British national press. So you would think they’d be prepared for whatever question came their way. The trick is to know how to respond (even if that response is essentially ‘no comment’) and be well briefed to answer any question. The answer in this case should have been: no, we’re not a monopoly as there are plenty of alternatives out there. If they had said that, this video would never have become a cause-celebre. Simple. If you refuse to answer in the way that these guys did by trying to stop the interview in a heavy-handed manner, you run the risk of looking stupid, evasive or appear to have something to hide. It beggars belief that neither the chief marketing officer of Apple nor his professional PR advisers couldn’t deal with this situation. This is how the world of the media turns, and Apple had better get used to it. I should know, I’m a former UK journalist and now a PR adviser. How much goodwill or credibility have Apple lost as a result of this video.

Nice scripted interview, what a joke. The majority of people know Apple isn’t better, just better at hype. And they obviously like to keep a firm grip on their hype.

Own an I-Phone.

It’s OK, no real complaints, but it’s not the end all of end alls that I somehow worked myself upto thinking it would be.

After thoughts:

More rational thinking says I should have bought a Pearl instead and with the difference in the money’s, bought a newer I-Pod. Live and Learn.

Heh. The dork reporter’s point is that APPLE’S phone won’t work with 3rd party music software out of the box. He insinuates that this is a monopoly.

Ask the reporter to make his Yugo stop smoking with some Mazda engine parts. Have him try to fit that piston in there. Then indignantly declare autos a monopoly.

The iPhone is made by Apply and uses Apple software. It works, and it works great because of their control and Steve’s direction. When other companies have input, the result is a steaming pile of ROKR.

It seems instructive to me that even in this brief clip, Schiller can be heard to protest that the question was asked and answered. Insisting on repeating the question several different ways is a reporter’s trick elicit an unrehearsed response. This technique can sometimes be useful in flustering the subject enough to get an honest answer from someone determined not to speak to the truth (most often when something illicit is to be uncovered.)

But it is important to realize that someone who has nothing to hide is unlikely to become flustered and will easily recognize that you are fishing — as, it seems, Mr. Schiller did when he insisted that the reporter was obviously just looking for a different answer than the one he already gave (off camera.)

To the reporter in question: learn to read people’s body language. Your career will improve when you can distinguish when someone is hiding something versus when they just think you’re an idiot.

Bad journalism at Fortune again. Show the WHOLE interview or your article is just a hack job built on an out of context portion of video. This is a really bad way to build your reputation in journalism. Because of the missing portion of the video you never get a sense of how the interview went. It’s interesting that Phil never got upset and only said that he already answered the question. Only the reporter and the media coordinators get riled up and now FORTUNE runs to the report’s aid to write a disparaging article about Apple and Jobs (regardless of the destortion field).

As the the ‘M’ word -
Apple built a better mouse trap and people voted with their pocketbook by buying them up. iPod and iPhones were build on improving the entire user experience of owning these types of equipment which, if anyone recalls, was really bad. Everyone is welcome to vote by not buying Apple equipment if they wish. There is no gun to their head. These are LUXERY items not items required to live and breath. Go ahead and vote against Appple and get a knockoff Zune so you can give the real monopoly (MS) more of you money if it makes you feel better?

If vendors want in, then they can buid their own part of the iPod economy, though that may not include the core hardware for media playback or phones. The margins on that stuff is pretty good too and everybody makes a buck.

ex ped: Several readers have demanded that I post the full interview. If you know where I can find it, please send me a pointer. –Philip Elmer-DeWitt

God bless Apple. Makes me proud to be an American.

I think Phil missed the opportunity to turn this into a huge positive. Here is what my answer would have been “iTunes is the software we used to configure the phone and get data on it. That’s no different than any other smart phone coming with it’s own configuration software which they all do in one form or another. If you want to buy video or music for your iPhone you can do it from a number of sources, you don’t have to buy it from the iTunes Store. But to get it on the phone, yes, you need to do that through iTunes. The good news is that iTunes is way better than than the software that comes with other smart phones. We update & improve iTunes on a regular basis and make it available for free to everyone – again unlike the software that comes with other smart phones.

Schiller is not a moron which would have been a prerequisite for allowing that reporter to change the subject.

One or two European Union countries have initiated legal action to force Apple to share iTunes Digital Rights Management (DRM) schemes with competitors.

If I were Schiller I wold have simply referred that reporter, and his question, to Apple’s legal department.

As always CNN/Fortune with a negative Apple article. What is the agenda here?

“But every once and awhile”

Don’t you mean “But every once in a while”?

PED ex: These Britishs are crazy reporters. Do not blame me for this video.

When you are small & act cute (like Apple) then it’s OK to criticize the market leaders (Microsoft). But when the cute boy becomes a big boy (in different industry/product/genre) & behaves exactly the way the Bully’s treated him, its called hypocracy. Apple suffers from the ‘Cute Kid Syndrome’

Insights from within the media’s distortion field

The media caught manufacturing “news”.

The above would be a more accurate lead-in for the video in my opinion. I agree with those that think the video shows the interviewer trying to go outside the pre-arranged topic to create a “gotcha” moment for the camera. With the help of YouTube and CNN.com it worked.

Such foolish people. You can’t compare Microsoft and Apple. Microsoft is a monopoly. They control the software industry. Microsoft copied, bought, put out of business many companies. Apple has yet to do this. Apple acquires companies that are small and meaningless. Unlike Microsoft who refuses to release Office or any application for Unix, Linux, and many other operating systems. Companies such as Novell, Intuit, Adobe, IBM, Sun, Apple, Oracle, etc… have been punished my Microsoft’s abusive monopolistic tactics. iTunes is not alone in the online music arena. Neither is the iPod. Apple has created an opportunity for others to either duplicate or learn from. The reason so many music stores and players are unsuccessful is because they are unappealing, non user friendly, and are marketed wrong. Unlike Office which crushed all of it’s competitors by buying competitors, stealing features from developers, bundling, and of course giving incentives to include or pay the price; Apple has done the opposite. The music industry was almost crushed if Apple did not come to the rescue. Microsoft did not help the computer industry out instead it bought and became that industry. Now if Apple bought a music company then I can see it becoming monopolistic. So everyone calm down. Show the who video and not a clip. Apple has done is a wonderful job at helping to save an industry. Instead of comparing Apple to Microsoft think of how Apple is taking us into the future. Apple is an innovator not a destroyer. Companies should put more money into Research and Development. Make better products people want and use. Instead of whining we should ask companies to further there development and take us to the next century. How many Office equivalents do we know of, use daily both at work and home, and actually must know to get a job. This does not Apply to the iPod and iTunes. They are not deferential nor essential. They also have well know name brand competitors. We have Sony, Creative, Microsoft, Dell, Acer, Sanyo, Nokia, Philips, Toshiba, and others in the hardware section. We have MTV, Sony, Walmart, and others in the music store section. The only difference I see is Apple has successfully integrated a perfect product that users can agree on buying.

lame. reporter knew the rules & broke ‘em. i love how the reporter tries to backtrack at the end and ask questions about the iphone. retard.

What do you expect from media morons? When Steve Jobs doesn’t like the question, he has been known to walk off the set, walk out, and just get up an leave. It happened once on CNBC with an idiot reporter who asked a question he was told beforehand not to ask.

Get real, people!

The Google Phone will win the day in the end.

I love Apple.

Would someone please tell me what an Iphone can do that “no other phone can do?” Please???

I own an Iphone. Could someone please show me how to text on it? Or how about a way to feel the numbers when I’m dialing one handed?

Hi Philip,
I just wish I too could short this stock (not really) and then be able to have my garbage show up on the AAPL Yahoo stock research… or were you just one of the longs who keeps selling on the dips and misses all the big moves up… or finally, too proud to leave your windows/linux machine for one that works ALL THE TIME, and WORKS WELL, and actually WORKS WELL WITH OTHERS (new intel MAC that runs windows)… by the way, this interviewer doesn’t work well with others and neither do you to give him the time of day…. after all when you have to use uTube for your support its time to look for new leads…

Yellow Apple PR guy’s name is Alan Helly. Apple Europe’s most flexible doggie… This is pathetic. Pathetic he’s asked to do that. Pathetic he’s actually doin’ it (and so much lovin’ it). Nobody will cry when Apple’s empire will fall down… Ah wait Apple’s a public company… That must be it. One need to be concupiscent…

>>Steve has done a JOB on the music industry.<<

If only he can completely destroy it here, It deserves no mercy in the U.S. As far as music goes, Apple’s the only big company here in a a quarter of a century that’s done anything right.

As far as this interviewer goes, he simply should have been accused of what he was doing, telling someone questions instead of asking them.

It’s amazing how easily suckered the “big boys” are by a staged YouTube video. The exact same thing would have happened if this was Steve Jobs, except for the fact that Apple never puts Jobs in the position to let some 15-minutes-of-fame-seeking “reporter” with a video camera asking the same question over and over until he had to be shuttled away.

For the record, Schiller DID answer his question, but that was before this video starts. Schiller even reminds him of it on the tape. How long is Apple (or ANY company) supposed to let some guy just stand there and ask the same thing over and over? All companies would have done exactly what Apple did.

The problem is that the so-called “A-list” bloggers and news outlets that are supposed to know better swallowed it whole and posted it as “newsworthy”. You’ve been duped by a staged event.

I Phone is so far ahead, it is obvious that the competition will try anything to hurt the Mighty Apple! I PHone is and will take Europe and China by storm!

This was ambush journalism and it was out of line. If it were a press conference, perhaps the question would have been answered. They were right to shut the interview down. It is like someone agreeing to an interview as long as you didn’t talk about their divorce and the first question they ask is about their divorce = INTERVIEW OVER.

The PR people were polite, but firm. They did a good job.

It is a good question, but asked at the wrong time.

what a pathetic attempt.. lets see the whole interview hahahaha

What were the terms of this interview? The video shows Cohen was caught conducting an obviously dirty ambush on the Apple guy. Shame on you for not showing us the whole picture. But that wouldn’t accomplish your agenda, would it Philip? Don’t you really wish Apple had pulled out some Tasers?

I look forward to the EU coming down hard on the Evil Empire of Apple. They should use the MSFT penalties and quadruple them for Apple. Apple has damaged multiple industries, not just the computing industry. Steve has done a JOB on the music industry. Hang him high1

Shame on Apple. Anyway hte new Zune is much cooler. I will never buy an Apple product again.

This was news? I think I just wasted a few minutes of my time following this obvious attempt at some Apple bashing.

Ironically the same journalist, Benjamin Cohen, used to own the itunes.co.uk domain name and was sued by Apple. Perhaps he has an axe to grind.

Well this is how it is:
You establish and agree before hand what the interview is about and the reporter obviously didn’t follow the rules of engagement.

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BTW, PED, there is more errors for you correct.

>>>largely by saying out of the picture and letting Steve Jobs speak for the company.<<<

You did wanted to write,

largely by staying out of the picture?

——————-

Like your blog suggests, some people should stay out of camera and in your case, WRITING! It is not your forte.

“Machinery with which Apple keeps a firm grip on the media shows through”

Not sure this clip says that at all. What’s more telling is that the clip is so tightly edited and that there’s apparent badgering occurring by the questioner that’s become offensive. There’s no reason why the clip couldn’t have been longer to show the line of questioning leading up to this brush off.

This is an attempt at a “gotcha” moment, it’s very clear. CNN/Money/Fortune crew hard at work trying to “create” some news, some spin. Keep it up and watch your market share of eyeballs dwindle as your reputations become synonymous with boiler room antics of wallstreet.