iPhone – The Musical

I recently enjoyed the David Pogue video “iPhone: The Musical” You can watch it here

One thing, however, really bothered me about it. While it is one thing for Macworld Magazine to produce something like this, being an Apple and Macintosh advocate magazine, The New York Times is suppose to be a balanced and objective news organization. While humor has its place, this goes a little beyond just being clever and funny, and starts to become a little too partisan for my tastes.

As a long-time Mac writer myself, I remember David Pogue on the back page of Macworld Magazine. I know he is a die-hard Mac user, and has been for longer than I have. In fact, one of the earliest interviews I conducted via email was with David Pogue, way back in 1996. So yes, David is a Mac guy. (And a very, very talented writer.)

But here’s the thing: David no longer writes for Macworld Magazine. He writes for The New York Times. He writes about technology, doing both product reviews and offering his expert opinion on the industry. In such a roll, I find it more than a little unnerving that he wrote, produced, and stared in a video homage to the iPhone.

This really blurs the line in what is and is not acceptable as a writer for The New York Times. I don’t think this is appropriate at all, creating a musical advertisement for Apple, Inc. Even going so far as to toss his “designed in hell” cell phone into the river.

Advocacy has its place. MyMac.com is an Apple, Macintosh, iPod, and iPhone advocacy site. It’s right in our name! It would be one thing if I had made this humor video and posted it online. It is quite another for David Pogue to do so on The New York Times website.

While this is not meant to be taken too seriously, and in fact David has done other humorous videos for them, the stink of being married to Apple hangs a little too thickly in the air with this video.

I am amazed that The New York Times would allow such a blatant Apple promotional video to appear on their website in this manner. If I were the publisher, there is no way I would have allowed this to be posted. If David had posted it on his own website, that would have been a little different. (Although still, as a New York Times writer, this sort of biased love and devotion for one technology company is a little too over the line. Were I the publisher, I would have asked him to at least show a little restraint for such partisanship. Or at least the appearance.)

After this, should I really put much stock in what David Pogue has to say a year from now in a Cell Phone Shoot-out? If the iPhone wins, will I immediately think “Well, David does love Apple, and especially the iPhone. Hell, he made a music video for it…”? Yes, I will think just that. And if the other phone(s) win, will I think “Pogue is just trying to prove he is not Apple’s bitch”? Maybe. And that’s a real problem for him now.

This video, in my opinion, has hurt David Pogue’s credibility. That said, it is a funny and well produced video. Watch it here. But in the future, perhaps someone should remind David Pogue that he writes and works for The New York Times, and that these sorts of video projects really does not further his standing as a unbiased technology writer.

I welcome your comments below.