Lyons: I wouldn't have gone off the record with Jobs

Newsweek tech writer Dan Lyons, famous for his “Fake Steve Jobs” blog, says he would not have agreed to talk off the record to the Apple CEO like New York Times columnist Joe Nocera did this past week.

Jobs called to downplay questions about his health, which Nocera was writing about.

Lyons writes, “I’m always suspicious of off-the-record demands, especially in cases like this, and I’m not sure Nocera should have agreed to it. What he produces is a kind of denial that isn’t really a denial. Clearly Jobs and Apple want to get out the message that Steve is okay. They want to protect the stock. They were clearly freaked out about what Nocera might say in his column.

“If Nocera had simply refused to go off the record, the burden would have remained on Jobs to get his message out and to do it openly or suffer continued hits to Apple stock. By going off the record, Nocera let himself get played by Jobs and Apple. Consider this. What if Jobs is lying? I’m not saying he is. But gods have been known to lie, especially when dealing with mere mortals. Think of how Zeus looked upon humans and you get an idea how Jobs views pretty much everyone in the world who isn’t Steve Jobs.

“If Apple lies in a press release, or if its CEO lies in an on-the-record statement, the company has problems. But if everything was off the record, who’s to know? Or maybe you don’t exactly lie but you kind of hint at something and shade the conversation and lead someone to believe something even without explicitly saying that thing.”

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