Baltimore Sun Looks At Reaction To Al Gore's Appointment To Apple's Board

by , 8:00 AM EST, March 27th, 2003

The Baltimore Sun's Web presence, SunSpot.com, has published a very interesting look at the reaction to Al Gore's appointment to Apple's Board. Apple made the appointment last week, and the news drove much of the Mac community into a frenzied flaming chaos of insanity everywhere from TMO to Slashdot. The column, written by David Zeiler and called The Mac Experience, looks at that reaction, including comments from TMO posters. He also includes reaction from analysts Charles Wolf of Needham, and Kerry Moynihan. From the article:

Few additions to a company's board cause even the barest ripple of reaction from shareholders, never mind customers. But few companies are the lightning rod that is Apple Computer Inc., and few board additions list "vice president of the United States" on their resume.

When Apple said March 19 that former Vice President Albert Gore Jr. had been elected to its board, the initial reaction was that of surprise, with some mild approval and criticism.

Famous arch-conservative and longtime Mac user Rush Limbaugh promptly posted his dismay on his Web site, characterizing it as "devastating."

"I have to see if one bad apple can spoil the whole bunch," Limbaugh wrote. "Gosh, I hope not, and I hope he doesn't have anything to do, other than ceremonial duties, with this outfit."

Reaction in forums on the Mac Web was considerably more fierce. "What an embarrassment and a joke!" wrote one poster at The Mac Observer site. "Apple -- get real! Or do you want failure??"

There is a lot more information in the full article, and we recommend it as an interesting read.

The Mac Observer Spin:

It's been remarkable to watch the insanity in our (normally) peaceful and (mostly) rational Mac community. That the debate on Al Gore's appointment could warrant commentary from a mainstream columnist is just this side of remarkable, and we found it interesting to read David Zeiler's take on the topic. We don't think that we've seen the end of such commentary, either, though hopefully discussion in our community (in article comments and forums) will settle down to reasoned debate on the subject.

SunSpot Article