Bad PR - Dell But Not Apple?

I totally forgot about the amount of mainstream press that Jeff Jarvis’ generated against Dell when Dell’s customer service told him to “pound sand.”

Duncan Riley reminded me again that the press treats Apple differently than it treats Dell and other companies. Why is that? Is it because Apple gives exclusives to mainstream press and won’t even talk to bloggers?

Is it because mainstream press are sent Apple products to try and use before anyone else sees them? (True story, how do you think that Newsweek and Time gets iPods on its covers at the same time the rest of the press gets to see them?)

Does the mainstream press not want to attack Apple cause Apple is so exclusive and this exclusivity turns into MAJOR TRAFFIC on blogs and Web sites (and, sales of magazines, etc)? After all, I don’t see many, if any, bloggers getting access to its ~~PR events~~ Steve Jobs keynotes. That’s quite different at other companies.

Is it because Apple fan sites drive more traffic than almost any other (true story, when I write something provocative about Apple I get more traffic than anything but Digg’s front page sends)?

So, BusinessWeek, Newsweek, Wall Street Journal, and New York Times, are you going to mention the ongoing problems that Apple customers are having with its products? Or, you gonna go for the “exclusive” about the new iPod phone?

If it’s OK to print miles of bad press about Dell, why isn’t it OK to print miles of bad press about Apple?

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