Jobs asks author: \"Are you a nut case?\"

On Friday, Apple CEO Steve Jobs lashed out at an author who wrote an article about the untold story of Jobs' biological father, reports the New York Daily News.

Fredric Alan Maxwell last week emailed Jobs a 4,000-word article he wrote for Fast Company magazine about Jobs' biological father, reportedly a Syrian immigrant and political science professor named Abdulfattah Jandali.

"Are you a nut case?" Jobs replied, signing the oneliner "Steve."

Maxwell reportedly fired back: "Are you?"

According to the Daily News, the Montana-based author has been pushing Jobs' buttons for a while, even conducting 18 months of research for the unauthorized biography. He finally sent Jobs the piece after Fast Company decided not to run with it.

In January, Maxwell was reportedly stripped of his press credentials when he tried to enter Jobs' keynote speech at the MacWorld event in San Francisco.

This isn't the first time that an unauthorized biography has drawn the ire of Jobs.

In April, Jobs had Apple pull all books published by John Wiley & Sons from its retail stores in protest of an unauthorized biography titled "iCon Steve Jobs : The Greatest Second Act in the History of Business" which the publisher had agreed to release.

But Jobs' reaction to the biography did nothing but bolster sales and interest in the book, causing Wiley & Sons to double the book's initial press run of nearly 50,000 and to race it to stores a few weeks ahead of its original publication date.

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102 Comments

cosmonut

said about 18 years ago

Quote:

Originally posted by AppleInsider
This isn't the first time that an unauthorized biography has drawn the ire of Jobs, who often responds irrationally.

*snip*

But Jobs' overblown reaction to the biography...

AppleInsider stories: Journalism at its finest.

mcloki

said about 18 years ago

The less discussion people like this are given in any press the less likely they they will stoop to this soft harassment and racism. There shouldn't even be any discussion of the man or his article.

IN FACT the best thing AppleInsider could do is just remove this article and never mention it or the author again. Just like radio stations in my are will never name the person who killed John Lennon, so as not to give him an publicity or notoriety, Appleinsider should do the same.

eai

said about 18 years ago

Yes, but when does not reporting somthing become censorship?

aplnub

said about 18 years ago

Quote:

Originally posted by eAi
Yes, but when does not reporting somthing become censorship?

That is like the chicken and the egg...and is not a good arguement.

I would assume that people know where lines should be drawn. This guy is a freekn' nut case.

melgross

said about 18 years ago

Censorship can only be applied to government action. It has nothing to do with private interests.

When Yahoo gives into the Chinese government so that it will be allowed to do business there, that's censorship.

If a publishing house decides not to run a piece because they think that either it's unfair, or poorly researched, or simply in poor taste, it's not censorship.

If AppleInsider decides not to publish this info. it's not censorship either. If they do, it's not approval.

Every time a decision is made, something that someone somewhere does not like, occurs. That person may think that it's censorship, but it's not.