Last week Apple tried something different and did a pre-release of its latest version of OS X (Mountain Lion) by doing 1:1 presentations to a select group of tech journalists.
This has led others - notably, those not selected - to opine that the company has begun to take favorites, and that it has specifically ostracized the New York Times. This, the theory goes, is due to that paper's recent series of articles about working conditions at Foxconn in China, a company that assembles consumer electronics for Apple... And for a large number of other major electronics companies.
A theory that, as Daring Fireball's John Gruber ably points out, ignores the fact that David Pogue was among that select group of journalists. That's David Pogue of the New York Times.
The entire story smacks of sour grapes... Or perhaps bitter apples.
As someone who runs a business and who has on (very rare) occasion had business related interviews, I can tell you that one is always uncertain how the information one gives will be used by the interviewer. Anyone - and any business - in such a position would take pause at considering giving additional direct information to a news source which had shown a bent towards sensationalizing or reflecting unfavorably on their business in the past.
The news here - if any - is that Apple didn't excommunicate the New York Times. Pogue got his early information despite a multi-part exposé that, frankly, often seemed to present Apple as if it were the only company using the massive Foxconn operation for product assembly. This despite the fact that the entire industry - virtually every major consumer electronics manufacturer - has the same issue.
I'm not sure I'd be so generous were I in the same position with my company. Especially if I was in Apple's position. They likely no longer really need the NY Times for publicity.
The rest of it - complaints over who did and didn't get early information - plays as whining from the did-nots.