WordWeb Pro defines dido as “a ludicrous or grotesque act done for fun and amusement.”
Gizmodo is a gadget-oriented technology blog. Last week they published information, including photos, of a prototype next generation iPhone. Gizmodo said they paid someone $5,000 to get it. That person said they found it at the Gourmet Haus Staudt, a Silicon Valley bar, where Gray Powell, an Apple engineer, inadvertently lost it while celebrating his 27th birthday on March 18. Gizmodo contacted Apple that they had it, but not before disassembling it and publishing photos of its inside. 
Many tech bloggers and journalists have offered their opinions about the brouhaha created by this story. Most are disdainful of Gizmodo and Nick Denton the head of Gawker Media, Gizmodo’s parent. They refer to him as if he were a four letter word.
Apple’s journalist fans
Apple loves the attention it gets from the press and bloggers. It has perfected a cult of fan-journalists and control of the press, while remaining secretive about what it does. That overwhelming cult of secrecy is the underlying cause of this story.
Journalists and bloggers have furthered Apple’s PR machine’s success by avoiding their responsibilities to report. Journalists like the New York Time’s David Pogue, The Wall Street Journal’s Walt Mossberg and The Chicago Sun-Time’s Andy Ihnatko regularly sign Apple non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) in order to get access to pre-release versions of Apple hardware and software. They are careful not to be too critical of Apple lest Steve Jobs blacklist them from future information. This is not reporting. It is kowtowing to Jobs and Apple. It should not be acceptable to them, their newspapers or the public. But it is.
The newspapers and journalists accept this state-of-affairs because they value readers and viewers over integrity. They are in bed with Apple. They are prostituting journalism and do not admit it to us or themselves. They rationalize their behavior. They are happy to avoid their own ethics when it suits their profit motives. So why should they disparage Nick Denton and Gizmodo for doing the same things they do, which is to report what is likely to grab viewers instead of adhering to journalistic truth?
Who is right?
This is a case of the pot calling the kettle black. Ihnatko and others are no better than Denton and Gizmodo. I bet they secretly wish they could have broken the story but that would have ended their cozy relationship with Apple. Thus for them, it is better to be critical of Gizmodo and Denton and to deflect questions about their journalistic chops by castigating Gizmodo for “illegal” actions. Who besides Apple and California law enforcement cares at this juncture? I don’t. I bet most of you don’t either. I wanted to see the prototype and learn what is new and different.
Gizmodo’s story was fun and amusing. It was grotesque in exposing what news organizations will do in order to satisfy our craving for information and gossip.
I am glad that Gizmodo published this. It was informative. I enjoyed reading about the next generation iPhone. I bet Ihnatko and Mossberg did too. It is what the press should do but often avoids doing because of conflicts-of-interest.
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