twin ambition
There's something gnawing at you long after you have read Ginia Bellafante's
profile of Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen. It's not the fact that they won't be interviewed together, it's not that they employee 18 people in their Dualstar company, and it's certainly not that Ashley is the sadistic mastermind of the two. No, it's the fact that the Olsens say they want to build "a true America brand." If these two aim to achieve world domination through marketing, what exactly do they want with America?
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Lessons
Last Friday a rumor went up on CNN's "Citizen journalism" site saying that Apple CEO
Steve Jobs had had a heart attack. Apple stock plunged momentarily, but the posting was debunked within the hour. The suspicion now is that the rumor was planted by a short seller looking to capitalize on the skittish reaction of the market. So that means don't trust crazy internet rumors because
the internet is lies! Right? No:
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rumormonger
A "citizen journalist" on CNN's iReport site
is saying that Apple chief
Steve Jobs was rushed to the ER a few hours ago with a heart attack. So far
the rumor appears to be unconfirmed by any other major news sites. "I have an insider who tells me that paramedics were called after Steve claimed to be suffering from severe chest pains and shortness of breath," they write. The Unofficial Apple Weblog, meanwhile,
says via Twitter (techie!) that Apple PR says Jobs is fine [UPDATE:
Untrustworthy Apple flack also reassures Valleywag].We won't believe it till they trot him out for the cameras. Full citizen report below [UPDATE 2: and a statement from CNN Worldwide debunking it as a hoax]:
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greatly exaggerated reports
The Bloomberg financial newswire decided to update its 17-page
Steve Jobs obituary today — and inadvertently published it in the process. Some investors were undoubtedly rattled to see, as our tipster did late this afternoon, the Apple CEO's obit cross the wire and then suddenly disappear. Jobs's battle with pancreatic cancer, and speculation over his health, jarred Wall Street earlier this year and
continues to be the subject of speculation. The
Times weighed in on the matter as recently as last month, when
columnist Joe Nocera spoke with the secretive tech executive. But news organizations routinely prepare obituaries in advance, even for the healthy. And if Bloomberg readers had seen the internal story slug, "testjobs," their jitters might have abated. The obit, which we've obtained and reprinted after the jump, is a bit macabre to read but should not scare you out of your Apple shares. (
UPDATE: Bloomberg has "retracted" its obituary, and the retraction is also after the jump.) More interesting are the accompanying notes for Bloomberg reporters!
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journalismism
When the
Times got a call from
Steve Jobs, the hands-on CEO of personal computer maker Apple, it had already been investigating the former pancreatic cancer victim's health for several days. Following a Monday report in the Post that some Jobs associates were "
troubled by his thin appearance," the
Times on Wednesday revealed Jobs underwent
some sort of surgical procedure earlier this year. By Thursday afternoon,
Times columnist
Joe Nocera was preparing to report that Jobs was losing weight due to "ongoing digestive difficulty" and, possibly, due to a recent infection. That's when Jobs phoned to give a peace of his mind. But with a liberal interpretation of the term "off the record," Nocera would go on to finagle a scoop out of the confrontational call:
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advertising
The image you see on top is a standard ad for
Mad Men, AMC's series about hard-paryting admen in the good old days that conveniently
advertises itself everywhere. The image on the bottom is what you see when you visit iTunes to purchase the full season of
Mad Men. The difference? On iTunes, the man has had his cigarette taken away.
Steve Jobs does not understand the point of this show
at all. Click to enlarge the Apple-approved scrubbing of our culture.
cult of apple
Steve Jobs announced something today, about his
fancy Apple phones that turn you into an incorrigible asshole. He has new ones, and they're cheaper, and faster. All good news, right? Too bad you won't be able to get one, if you have a job. Because only the people willing to give up their lives and camp out before the release will get the first batch! The Apple Stores will not be as quiet as they were when
Choire and
Neel stopped by today. Why? Because Steve Jobs hates you (and because it's HOT).
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webtards
So
the blog by Spitzer's call girl is obvs fake, because all she writes about is blogs. I wish it were harder to tell, or at least had clever jokes, because then she could join this list of the ten best ever parody blogs.
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