It turns out that rapidly circulating news of iPhone becoming the
new gadget of choice for hundreds of House members in the next
Congress, due to strong demand over the BlackBerry, may have been wildly exaggerated
according to a new report by Jordan Golson of TheIndustryStandard.com, contradicting an article posted by TheHill.com entitled "iPhones are a must-have for Congress"
The TheHill.com report written by Jordy Yager, quickly became the headline for many Mac centric websites with some claims stretching far beyond the real facts. "That's not exactly how the story unfolded last week, as dozens of news sources--including yours truly, unfortunately--ran with TheHill.com's report that the iPhone was under serious consideration by the House." said CNET's Tom Krazit in his own report.
It appears that the statement; "testing a small number of iPhones" was slightly pumped up into sensationalism. A fact confirmed by Jordon Golson who spoke directly with Jeff Ventura, director of communications for the Chief Administrative Officer of the House. The story of 8,000 BlackBerry phones potentially being replaced by Apple's iPhone is a far greater tale to tell rather than simply testing a handful of devices. Especially for cult of iPhone faithful who want to believe in the power of the Jesus phone, expecting it to someday dominate all of planet earth.
"Right now, when we compare iPhones to the BlackBerry, the sort of
utilitarian functions that BlackBerrys offer in a business setting --
we're not seeing them on the iPhone side of things. We may consider
them if they ratchet things up on the business applications side." Ventura told TheIndustry Standard.com
Tom Krazit goes on to bemoan a reality that has become the mantra of many established news organizations losing readership to smaller, independent blogs who rarely follow the often outdated standards of traditional journalism. A trend that has made the interwebs the wild, wild west its morphed into of late, where a citizen journalist can severely effect Apple's stock with one false CNN iReport, a post perfectly placed for wreaking havoc with traders back on October 3, 2008.
"Until
the people running the news business rediscover the value of research
and reason over speed and rhetoric, and until those who consume news
demand it, this will continue to happen." said Krazit in his
CNET post.
While I respect the candor of Tom Krazit, admitting he too was
caught up in the moment, it's clear that the Megatrons' of modern media
are no
longer in sole control of reporting news for all of the people, all of
the time. A fact that's daunting, but true and will remain so as
thousands of new, untrained voices enter the blogging fold everyday
around the globe. Each one bent on grasping their own slice of internet
micro-celebrity. The independent spirit of grass roots reporting is
alive and well in America and unfortunately, just like many well
paid professionals at major publications, we too will get it wrong once
in awhile. I'm willing to
take that risk. As a reader, are you?
There are only 435 members of the House of Representatives. I think you may have meant Congressional staffers.
Posted by: Some Guy | October 30, 2008 at 08:40 AM