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Another View On Speculation And Rumor Issue
By Joey Cooper
Last week MacMilitia.com's John Norton wrote an opinion piece -- "iPalm, Pismo, and 17" iMacs: Stop the speculation!" -- and he talked about how he thinks everyone should just stop speculating about unreleased Apple products:
"I'm not saying that all rumor or speculation is bad. Every once in a while it's neat to hear about upcoming products, such as the 'iPalm.' There is a point, though, when enough is enough. Just stop there. Haven't you ever gotten sick of seeing a 'Pismo' article on every Mac site? Why can't we just wait and see what comes?!?!?"
Dan Knight at Low End Mac talked about John's article is his recent Mac Musings column -- and stated that there's a difference between rumors and speculation:
"But there's a clear distinction between rumors and speculation, one which both the reader and the Mac-centric web need to keep in mind. Rumor sites claim to have inside sources and claim a basis in reality -- which makes it even more surprising that their stories are so far from the truth ... However, that doesn't mean I don't visit the rumor sites regularly, looking for an inkling of what's ahead. But I don't take their claims at face value; I use them as a jumping off point for my own speculation ... "
Charles W. Moore put his two cents in about the issue with a recent "Two Radically Opposing Views On 'Pismo's' Debut (Or Not) At MacWorld Tokyo - And Some 'Rumors' Observations" article:
"I understand the argument that new product rumors 'hurt Apple,' but I do not entirely agree with it, and IMHO that is really not my problem as a journalist and consumer advocate, although it may or may not be my problem as a Mac enthusiast. As I asserted in my recent Applelinks column, 'Cheerleader or Critic?' there is a balance to be struck."
My personal opinion is that all three of these articles state some very good points -- but I think you have to take some from each view point on this whole "rumors" and "speculation" topic, which is what I've used to form my own opinion on the matter.
While on the whole I think John has a valid point with his article, I tend to sway more with Dan Knight that speculation is different from rumors and that speculation about new products is something you can't stop (and probably shouldn't stop). As Dan says, "Does a thinner, lighter PowerBook make sense? Will it have a faster CPU? Does it even matter if the CD-ROM or DVD drive is slot loading? Which parts of the rumor make sense -- and which are nonsense?" Speculation is something that shouldn't "be stopped" as John's article might have implied; in all honesty I believe John meant more for "rumors sites" to stop speculating and implying that they had proof the back it up.
That brings up an uneasy topic. If speculation and hoping for unannounced products is fine, then should we ignore so-called "rumors" and "inside information" that supposedly have info about upcoming products? Should Mac websites cover only announced product news and not rumors? Does telling the Mac masses about upcoming products before they are announced hurt Apple's current sales?
Charles Moore also has a good point in his article. As journalists we don't have the responsibility to watch out for Apple -- that's an unfair bias protecting one company's sales (in that case we might as well be on Apple's payroll if we never do anything that will hurt Apple's sales). A responsibility we do have as technology journalists is to be fair toward readers: tell them like it is and help them with buying decisions by alerting them to possible new products. But that doesn't give us the right to illegally publish insider info from a company -- and printing information that isn't confirmed is even worse; that's unfair to readers who may base buying decisions because of false information we printed. If the info turns out to be faked or just plain wrong, we've misused the trust readers give us. And it's just plain bad journalism.
In the end it's just a matter of taste, I suppose. If you frequent rumors sites, just beware that not everything you read can be taken as gospel.
Although we've never really had rumors on MacMilitia.com, from here on out I can fairly safely assure you that we won't have rumor or inside scoops published on the site in the future either. I prefer to help readers use their current computer setups better than help them decide on whether waiting 2 months is worth the extra 33 megahertz or whatever the next model of Mac will have.
Joey Cooper wrote a how-to in the February issue of MacAddict.
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