
So Dan Lyons Called - blasdel
http://daringfireball.net/2009/08/so_dan_lyons_called
======
jonshea
Gruber’s reply was unbecoming and mean-spirited. Gruber routinely awards
people the title “Jackass of the Week” for having opinions he disagrees with
or for making erroneous predictions. When he himself whiffed hard on his
Google Voice post he had to know that some ribbing and criticism was headed
his way. He should have been prepared to handle it graciously.

Capitalizing on Gruber’s mistake, John Lyons writes a post that primarily
ridicules _Apple_ for its obsession with secrecy and for its contemptuous
relationship with the media. Yes, he does make fun of Gruber, but it’s from
the point of view of Fake Steve. Lyons himself isn’t saying Gruber is a
“dipshit”, he’s saying that he bets that’s how Steve Jobs thinks of him.

In return, Gruber seems to really scrape the barrel to find ammunition for a
purely ad hominem attack, ridiculing Lyons’ day job and implying that his
writing is disingenuous. I takes a serious lack of perspective to call the
creator of Fake Steve Jobs a tool of old media.

~~~
jsb
I think you're reading too much into it. John has posted to Fake Steve
articles he enjoys in the past. Gruber receives and dishes out this kind of
stuff all the time. I bet if you'd ask him, he just thought the article about
him was funny, wanted to link to it and decided to play along a bit.

~~~
jonshea
You could be right. Maybe Lyons get together every Thursday at a bar and rib
each other over who had the harsher blog post while they sip on Deus Brut Des
Flandres. Maybe they have pet names for each other’s kids, and give them
noogies at get-togethers.

Maybe it is all fun and games, but they don’t write about that stuff on their
blogs so it’s impossible to tell. From my point of view Gruber’s reply doesn’t
read as friendly or jocular. Lyons calls Gruber a egotistical, obnoxious
fanboy and jokes that Apple hatched a wide-reaching conspiracy just to trick
him into a journalistic mistake. Fair enough.

Gruber “jokes” that Lyons writes limp, insincere, watered-down articles for a
failing magazine. Maybe Gruber misjudged his tone, but ouch. I’d be hurt if
Gruber wrote that about me. I’d be hurt if a _friend_ wrote that about me.

~~~
pohl
The whole thing is written according to one of Dan's FSJ schticks. The form of
this "So Foo Called" schtick obligates the recipient of the call to treat Foo
with casual, but brutal condescension.

They don't have to be drinking buddies for this to be a sincere form of
flattery.

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brandnewlow
Lighten up guys. Gruber's trying to be funny here and he mostly succeeds. I'm
100% certain that Lyons read this and thought it was hilarious. Journalists
being hypercritical professional whiners, there's nothing Gruber's saying
about Newsweek here that Lyons and his editors probably haven't said to
eachother over lunch a hundred times already.

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gjm11
That reads like it ought to be on a blog called Fake John Gruber.

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calambrac
Oh, snap. Nothing burns like six days later.

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jbellis
Why the drama?

Edit: oh -- [http://www.fakesteve.net/2009/08/dear-gruber-youve-been-
pwne...](http://www.fakesteve.net/2009/08/dear-gruber-youve-been-pwned.html)

Not entirely undeserved.

~~~
lanaer
I’m not sure if it’s “drama” or “teasing fun”. With those 2 it can be hard to
tell.

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kijiki
Some blogger catfight over an Apple fanboy apologia?

How on earth did Apple manage to turn consumer electronics into a drama-rich
soap opera? And more to the point, why?

~~~
tvon
It's a joke.

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tptacek
It's funny, but kind of hollow. I'll take Gruber over Lyons any day, but
Newsweek is also the home of Steven Levy, not to mention Michael Isikoff.

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railsjedi
Gruber sure can take a joke. What a trooper

