Discussion

• @benyt Ben Smith on x

  Apple TV Was Making a Show About Gawker. Then Tim Cook Found Out. https://www.nytimes.com/...

• @nytimes @nytimes on x

  From beyond the grave, Gawker has revealed an unnerving truth about media consolidation: the chief executives of some of the world's biggest companies get to decide what you watch, our media columnist @benyt writes. https://www.nytimes.com/...

• @ihnatko Andy Ihnatko on x

  A corporate overlord meddling in creative decisions at a studio it owns isn't a new thing in the entertainment biz. Still, not a good look for Apple...particularly given how the company chooses to brand itself. . https://www.nytimes.com/...

• @tianathefirst Tiana Lowe on x

  I have zero problem with this. Most Hollywood studios wouldn't green light a pro-life film, and unlike user-based content platforms, we don't expect viewpoint neutrality from corporate content production. Why should Cook propagandize the homophobes who outed him? https://twitter.…

• @kentremendous Ken Tremendous on x

  This makes sense. I mean, why would you want your fledgling streaming site to have the first show created by multiple WGA- and Emmy Award-winning writer @cordjefferson? https://www.nytimes.com/...

• @dmccabe David McCabe on x

  One way I occupied myself during breaks in the AT&T/Time Warner trial was imagining phone company exec John Stankey having to work the red carpet for, like, Detective Pikachu. But as Ben notes, it's not Stankey that's gone full corporate synergy on his streaming service. https://…

• @bmarchetich Branko Marcetic on x

  Tech oligarchs aren't ethereal, enlightened humans in some next stage of evolution. They're regular people with the same kinds of petty grievances as anyone else, only they happen to be rich and powerful enough to make it affect the rest of us. https://www.nytimes.com/...

• @yashar Yashar Ali on x

  Apple TV Was Making a Show About Gawker. Then Tim Cook Found Out. Big tech companies now exert huge influence over what stories get told. The message is clear: Be careful who you offend. ⁦@benyt⁩ reports https://www.nytimes.com/...

• @k_trendacosta Katharine Trendacosta on x

  Tell me more, Hollywood, about how you and Big Tech are not the same—thin-skinned, monopolistic, and exploitative https://www.nytimes.com/...

• @bobbyallyn Bobby Allyn on x

  For running the most valuable company in the world, Tim Cook portrayals usually don't go deeper than casting him as calm and collected. But @benyt reveals an out of sight Machiavellian side. https://twitter.com/...

• @walthickey Walter Hickey on x

  explains why everything on Apple TV seems milquetoast af https://www.nytimes.com/...

• @ashleyfeinberg Ashley Feinberg on x

  Shouldn't he have other shit to do https://www.nytimes.com/...

• @benyt Ben Smith on x

  “The two things we will never do are hard-core nudity and China” https://www.nytimes.com/...

• @annehelen Anne Helen Petersen on x

  This is the problem with massive media consolidation: MGM would've never made a movie shitting on MGM, but MGM wasn't also the most powerful tech company in the world https://twitter.com/...

• @vinncent Vincent Bevins on x

  A good @benyt story on - I will use stronger language than he did - our new tech oligarchs and the way they shape our culture to suit their interests https://www.nytimes.com/...

• @dandrezner Daniel W. Drezner on x

  The highest compliment I can pay @benyt is that when his columns are just asking questions, they're asking really good ones. https://www.nytimes.com/...

• @alissamarie Alissa Wilkinson on x

  Who could have foreseen it https://www.nytimes.com/...

• @geoffreyfowler Geoffrey A. Fowler on x

  Ever wondered why prestige TV involves so few shows critical of China? “Eddy Cue, Apple's senior vice president for internet software and services, ... has told partners that ‘the two things we will never do are hard-core nudity and China.’” https://www.nytimes.com/...

• @moryan Mo Ryan on x

  I think it's worth noting that one of the key creatives on this project was a Black man, Cord Jefferson. It is still rare for Black folks to be the key creative leaders on big Hollywood projects. And Apple kicked this one to the curb without a qualm, it seems. https://twitter.com…

• @john_hudson John Hudson on x

  smart piece on the growing set of conflicts-of-interest in the media/tech/entertainment space. “The two things we will never do are hard-core nudity and China,” said senior Apple executive Eddy Cue, reports @benyt https://www.nytimes.com/...

• @edzitron Ed Zitron on x

  Steve Jobs smashing his way out of his coffin groaning “must...destroy....Jason....Chen....” https://twitter.com/...

• @josheidelson Josh Eidelson on x

  “[Tim] Cook... was surprised to learn that his company was making a show about Gawker, which had humiliated the company at various times and famously outed him, back in 2008, as gay.... Apple proceeded to kill the project.” https://www.nytimes.com/... @benyt

• @marcorubio Marco Rubio on x

  More proof that many of our “woke” corporate elites are completely under #China's control. https://www.nytimes.com/...

• @chaykak Kyle Chayka on x

  Very funny for what Apple bans in its tv shows: no religion, no critiquing China, no damaging phones, no “hardcore nudity,” no Gawker https://twitter.com/...

• @susanelizabeth Susan Elizabeth Shepard on x

  This is gross because Apple killed the show. And I'm personally extremely upset to be deprived of a show about Gawker, which I've wanted to exist for years, that Cord Jefferson and Max Read and Emma Carmichael wrote!!!! I hope this gets made somehow https://twitter.com/...

• @lucas_shaw Lucas Shaw on x

  This adds to a long line of Tim Cook influencing the output of Apple TV. First reported by us in 2017. Cook asked for changes to Carpool Karaoke. https://www.bloomberg.com/...

• @hshaban Hamza Shaban on x

  “...Gawker is revealing another reality in this era of media consolidation: that the chief executive of one of the biggest companies in the world, who testifies before Congress and negotiates with China, also decides what television shows get made.” https://www.nytimes.com/...

• @megancgraham Meg Graham on x

  Apple TV was making a show about Gawker. Then Tim Cook found out.... “Apple proceeded to kill the project. And now, the show is back on the market and the executive who brought it in, Layne Eskridge, has left the company.” Via ⁦@benyt⁩ https://www.nytimes.com/...

• @jeffjarvis Jeff Jarvis on x

  Uh, like The New York Times decides what stories to cover? https://twitter.com/...

• @stevekovach Steve Kovach on x

  Name a major studio that doesn't have this unwritten policy on content w/r/t how China is portrayed. https://www.nytimes.com/... https://twitter.com/...

• @_harshilshah Harshil Shah on x

  It's a free speech violation to not fund a show about a blog that repeated tried to out you, actually https://twitter.com/...

• @nishachittal Nisha Chittal on x

  Netflix or Hulu better pick up the Gawker show asap bc I need to watch it https://www.nytimes.com/...

• @harmancipants Reyhan Harmanci on x

  Apple has no core strength https://twitter.com/...

• @anandwrites Anand Giridharadas on x

  Creators have total freedom if they make something for Apple TV — unless it involves the human body, Christian crosses, China, or a depiction of a damaged iPhone. https://www.nytimes.com/...

• @leongreen Leon Green on x

  @benyt @CaseyNewton Given they outed him I'd say fair play for Tim wanting to kill this show...

• @shiraovide Shira Ovide on x

  In addition to the stories here, my favorite Gawker reporting on Apple were the incessant stories of a (then healthy) Steve Jobs consistently and with impunity using parking spaces designated for people with disabilities. https://gawker.com/5506526 https://twitter.com/...

• @dbrauer David Brauer on x

  Was hoping for a musical, but someone, pick this up. Not you Thiel. Or you Hogan. No catch-and-kills. https://twitter.com/...

• @pkafka Peter Kafka on x

  Everyone inside Apple swears Tim Cook doesn't get involved in its TV programming. Everyone outside Apple says that's not true. https://twitter.com/...

• @weareyourfek Foster Kamer on x

  An unreal (but not at all surprising) story. Powerful people are still settling scores with Gawker years later. https://twitter.com/...

• @brandonetc Brandon Carter on x

  the idea that CEOs of massive corporations were involving themselves in content production decisions and issuing mandates not to say anything bad about China is...the exact reason why Gawker was good and necessary https://www.nytimes.com/...

• @anandwrites Anand Giridharadas on x

  What if the hard-core nudity is in China? Does it cancel out? https://twitter.com/...

• @dangillmor Dan Gillmor on x

  Terrific column this week by @benyt on how Tim Cook vetoed Apple TV show about Gawker, which for years did more to puncture Silicon Valley's bubble of arrogance than any other media outlet. https://www.nytimes.com/...

• @bernstein Joe Bernstein on x

  Well, with all the other great original content on Apple TV, this show will hardly be missed https://www.nytimes.com/...

• @chr1sa Chris Anderson on x

  Gawker was 20% pioneering new media and 80% toxic gossip, class warfare, clickbait and gross public shaming of people who didn't rise to the level of public figure I hugely admire Nick Denton, but everyone who worked for Gawker is tainted by its history. Glad that Apple did this …

• @bpredict Jeff on x

  I feel like not enough is made of the fact that US media companies almost exclusively show our own government in a negative light while simultaneously showing in an exclusively positive light the genocidal Communist dictatorship we are effectively at war with. https://twitter.com…

• @scottclandis Scott Landis on x

  The continued defense of Gawker is inexplicable to me. They were The National Enquirer dressed up in a beanie and skinny jeans. They printed revenge porn and outed people for no reason except they found it fun. Cook was right to decline the show. https://twitter.com/...

• @delia_cai Delia Cai on x

  this is all wild but i am never getting over the fact that Apple doesn't do shows w/ scenes where a phone gets dropped??? hello if you are Apple you should do ONLY scenes of phone damage cause then you have to go get another ya dummies https://www.nytimes.com/...

• @dhh @dhh on x

  Who could have foreseen that the conglomerate making your phone, your set-top box, your watch, your speakers, your credit card, your fitness plan, as well as distributing your news, music, and movies might not be the ideal producer of your TV shows! https://www.nytimes.com/...

• @donie Donie O'Sullivan on x

  Can't believe a company that uses cheap labor to make $300 headphones (that we all buy) would do this. https://www.nytimes.com/...

• @sam_baker Sam Baker on x

  What should we watch tonight? “White Mirror, Actually” or “Glory to China and its Benevolent Leaders”? https://www.nytimes.com/...