perfidy

So asks Earl J. Wilkinson, CEO of newsmedia trade association INMA (International Newsmedia Marketing Association) in a blog entry from which the title to this post was cadged, verbatim.

Look, I'm prepared to be first in line to buy the hype. Yet I was first in line to see “Ishtar,” too.

I would have enjoyed the movie more had it not been promoted as a game-changing, must-see movie with two big Hollywood mega-stars. Given those high expectations, I was bitterly disappointed.

At minimum, I suspect the iPad will be a short-lived spark that will spur other tablet revolutions – revolutions that will always be compared with the original (kudos to Apple). Yet the product also smacks of eight-track tapes, something if shown publicly in a few years will date you instantly to 2010. At maximum, I wonder about the “Ishtar” effect – a good product that, through too much hype, will never live up to expectations.

I hope I'm wrong.

Heck, he might well be wrong, but the reason I'm not queuing up at the local Apple Store on Saturday morning is similar to his concerns above. Even if the initial "wow" factor is high, this first version is certain to be subsumed by its follow-on, and by the time that (and it's attendant hype) appears in the marketplace, I won't even be able to fob off my crappy v1.0 iPad on my daughter as I upgrade.

[wik] 2010-04-01, Early AM - Oh, hell. I can't let Minister Buckethead get any farther ahead of me on the technology curve. I just ordered the 64GB WiFi+3G model. I blame my Safari browser, on which I was too lazy to set the home page to anything but apple.com. If it turns out to be a disappointment, at least Ministerette Patton can use it as a beefed up iPod. Just trying to keep up. But I still didn't queue up at the Apple store - I purchased it on-line. So there.

Found in a Friday/Saturday op-ed piece in the Wall Street Journal, this tidbit from Peggy Noonan, while trying to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest:

...I'm speaking of the interview Wednesday on Fox News Channel's "Special Report With Bret Baier." Fox is owned by News Corp., which also owns this newspaper, so one should probably take pains to demonstrate that one is attempting to speak with disinterest and impartiality, in pursuit of which let me note that Glenn Beck has long appeared to be insane.

Conflict of interest clearly avoided, and a public service offered.

I don't know why that would bother anyone.

Related.

From Reuters:

Nurses' union: Care does not include sex

(Reuters) - A union representing Dutch nurses will launch a national campaign Friday against demands for sexual services by patients who claim it should be part of their standard care.

The union, NU'91, is calling the campaign "I Draw The Line Here," with an advert that features a young woman covering her face with crossed hands.

The union said in a statement Thursday that the campaign follows a complaint it had received in the last week from a 24-year-old woman who said a 42-year-old disabled man asked her to provide sexual services as part of his care at home.

The young woman witnessed some of the man's other nurses offering him sexual gratification, the union said. When she refused to do the same, he tried to dismiss her on the grounds that she was unfit to provide care.

"This type of action is not part of the job responsibilities of carers and nurses," NU'91 said.

The case has been reported to police, the union added.