Apple backs down from Pulitzer putsch

Apple has invited Pultizer Prize–winning editorial cartoonist Mark Fiore to resubmit his NewsToons iPhone app that was rejected last December because it "ridicules public figures." "I feel kind of guilty," Fiore told The Wall Street Journal, "I'm getting preferential treatment because I got the Pulitzer." Well, Mark, that too …

[Wallyb132]

If i were this guy...

If i were this guy, i wouldnt resubmit my app, i would take the stance that i submitted it once and it was crapple who took the questionable stance and denied it, so if crapple want to try and save face by allowing the app, they can find the original submission request and approve it, otherwise the app stays off the crapp store indefinately.

and seriously, after being humiliated like that by crapple, i wouldnt want to soil the like of my prize winning work by having it publish to the crapp store, crapple needs to be held accountable for their actions and not be allowed to backtrack in the name of some bad press.

[LaeMing]

It's about time Apple started having to apply

It's about time Apple started having to apply for the privilege of hosting high-profile content of this type. Let /them/ come begging -- multiple times after arbitrary and for-dubious-reasons rejection. Would teach them some much-needed humility.

[D. Suse]

Or...

He could accept what passes for an "apology" from Apple, and then immediately post cartoons showing Apple and Steve Jobs in a politically-humorous light, perhaps as a Prophet, dictator, or a school teacher. What a great opportunity to see how open-minded Apple actually is in terms of free speech!

[Eddy Ito]

Freedom?

Boy, once you set foot on the Apple plantation, you best set your mind to workin'!

Sent from my iPhone

[Rafael 1]

Yeah, right.

"We can only hope that Apple has learned a lesson about freedom of expression - but, to be frank, no breath is being held here at Vulture Central."

Heh, I bet you like Apple just the way it is -- much easier to write about it this way, right?

[Watashi]

New Censorship

It seems that dead Communist Party Leaders get reincarnated as advisors to Steve Jobs.

Mine's the one being used to put out those burning books.

[Anonymous Coward]

Oh please ...

Just like the Americans burning Harry Potter or McCarthy and his burnings.

[D. Suse]

This is The End

This will just not equate to the Apple Faithful:

P1 - Steve Jobs is our infallible Leader, Who can do no wrong.

P2 - But Steve Jobs has broken Articles 18 and 19 of the UN declaration of human rights.

C - Therefore either the world must be wrong, and Steve must be right, or Steve must be...no...does not compute...the Apple Empire must be perfect in every way...does not compute...

[Captain DaFt]

If it was me...

Dear Steve:

I've got better offers, Ta.

sent from my blackberry

[John Tserkezis]

No surprises here.

Here at Apple, we have complete and absolute control over our clients. No ifs. No buts. No nothings.

Unless of course we get bad press, or our bottom dollar is affected, in which case we'll bend over like the spineless twats we are.

[Anonymous Coward]

My question remains the same

Why didn't he just publish the cartoons on the internet where everyone could see them, regardless of OS?

[Flybert]

my question to you is ..

.. why don't you see if they are on the internet before suggesting they are not ?

.. how hard is it to do a search for "Mark Fiore" ?

.. http://www.markfiore.com/ .. BTW

[scarshapedstar]

Brilliant!

You mean like... http://www.markfiore.com ?

[gimbal]

Oh. Boy. Yay. Apple.

The enthusiasm I feel for Apple is, at this point, quite underwhelming.

Emperor Jobs for Congress! .... :snark:

[Anonymous Coward]

there's an app for that?

why?

CustomApp, meet Mr Website and his child, CSS... and now this whole story goes away...

Seriously, I thought everyone knows Apple's control-freakery when it comes to what is sells in its Appstore. Stop doing stupid things like writing a specialised app when a website is more appropriate.

At least Apple don't make me run all my internet traffic through their proxy servers... now *that* would be really creepy...

I suspect most of these issues would go away if it was easy to buy things online. People use the appstore with a veneer of application to cash-in on what is essentially a website. What we need is an app to simplify billing from websites. Now if only the banks or visa would get together with OpenID. Surely there must be something which could be done there, even if it was something like, "I authorise up to £x per day and y per month with just an 8 character password and from a browser with this cert in it."

[John Tserkezis]

Just occured to me.

This smells like more PR work from Apple.

The application was submitted and then denied.

After the public furore, Apple gives Mark Fiore the "opportunity" to submit again.

Submit AGAIN? Oh I'm sorry, is Apple corp so bloody large they can't automatically pass through an application that failed the first time?

Or do they want it to be resubmitted, so it can go through a DIFFERENT Apple suitability test than it did before?

Either way, how can this possibly look good for Apple?

[Captain TickTock]

Automatic Resubmit?

What if he (quite sensibly) no longer wants to be seen endorsing such a bunch of control freaks?

[Malcolm Boura 2]

Unjustified censorship should be criminal

There are serious problems with censorship and it is getting worse. Nearly all of it is invisible and what is visible is either largely or wholly unacountable to anyone. Even the official censors policies are founded more on popular prejudice than on evidence of harm and that is in itself resulting in widespread and often serious harm.

I have nearly finished a review of the recent Home Office report on sexualisation of children and it is frightening what it leaves out. In a hundred and something pages there is not a single mention of the adverse effects of censorship and government policy and legislation. It looks at the detail in quite a lot of detail, but does not look at the overall picture. It bewails the dominance of the porn and advertising industries in providing role models and misinformation to children and young people but does not mention the role of censorship in stopping anyone else from doing so. Censorship has been much more effective at hampering the responsible media than it has at hindering the irresponsible. The solution will of course be yet another round of even more repressive regulation which through unintended consequences will probably do more harm than good.

Government has difficulty with understanding a single causal link. Anything requiring two or more steps in the causal chain, no matter how serious the consequences, is too difficult to contemplate.

[Tom 13]

Fiore should respond that he will resubmit his application

when Apple has provided him with sufficient evidence that other political cartoonists will not be subjected to the same arbitrary process that caused his problem. And he should do so by making it the subject of his next cartoon.

Were it not for opening the app to other writers and artists, I'd say Apple should resubmit his submission for him.

[The First Dave]

Whats the point

Why would anyone bother to turn a perfectly normal website, that can easily be accessed by the iPhone, into a packaged application, that then gets downloaded for free?

A website stays up to date a lot more easily, and can carry advertising, so why bother?

[Captain TickTock]

Surely he'd be knocked back again?

The animations are in flash (hence the need for an app, I suppose).

But that begs another question - has he re-animated his work from scratch in C/C++/Objective C or JavaScript....?