NYT biz columnist Carr slams Apple reaction to Gizmodo

David Carr, a media columnist for the New York Times, doesn’t like the way that Apple reacted to tech blog Gizmodo purchasing a prototype iPhone that had been left in a bar by one of its employees and then writing about it.

Carr writes, “The media’s crush on Apple has always been an unrequited love affair. The company has a few familiars in the press whom it favors, but Apple has ‘no comment’ programmed on a macro key. The company has unsuccessfully sued bloggers who, it believed, had punctured its veil of secrecy, and important tech news organizations like Wired have been shut out as a result of coverage deemed ill-mannered.

“The raid on Mr. Chen can only ratchet up the tension.

“‘When I got home, I noticed the garage door was half-open,’ he said in a letter posted on Gizmodo. ‘And when I tried to open it, officers came out and said they had a warrant to search my house and any vehicles on the property ‘in my control.’ They then made me place my hands behind my head and searched me to make sure I had no weapons or sharp objects on me.’

“Apple has an admirable history of innovation and marketplace performance, but this time the company and Mr. Jobs are drawing attention for all the wrong reasons. Everyone knows that it is his show, his call. But in engaging the long arm of the law on behalf of his corporate interests, Mr. Jobs may lead us to think, um, differently about Apple’s growing cultural dominance.”

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