The Thin Skin of Apple Fans

This one requires little in the way of commentary. Because it's true: IN his new book, "True Enough: Learning to Live in a Post-Fact Society," Farhad Manjoo, a writer for Salon, argues that "new communications technologies are loosening the culture's grip on what people once called 'objective reality.'" In an excerpt posted this week, he looks at an area where facts often become particularly slippery, specifically perceived bias in the news media against, of all things, a technology company: Apple. "Last year," Mr. Manjoo writes, "I praised the iPhone in something of the way Romeo once praised Juliet: The device, I said, is revolutionary — 'it marks a new way of life. One day we'll all have iPhones, or things that aim to do what this first one does, and your life will be better for it.'" But because he mentioned that the phone was a bit pricey, "several readers alleged that I was an Apple-hater." One wrote him to ask, "Does Salon actually pay you or are you being paid under the table by rival companies?" Anybody who has ever written about Apple products will tell the same story — introducing even a hint of negativity into a review or article will bring down the wrath of Apple's most fanatical fans. The phenomenon is particularly stark when it comes to opinionated reviews — however laudatory — of Apple products. That's because many Apple fans "care little for honest opinion," Mr. Manjoo writes. "They want to pick up the paper and see in it a reflection of their own nearly religious zeal for the thing they love. They don't want a review. They want a hagiography." Exactly. And for your edification: The definition of hagiography.