I noticed a Wired post titled "Why the Japanese Hate the iPhone" scooted to the top of the "popular today" stories on popurls. With a linkbait-laden, controversy-attracting title like that, it had better! The article was written by Brian X. Chen, whose surname some commenters predictably assumed to be Chinese, evoking racial tensions between Japanese vs. Chinese. One dubious fellow who dubbed himself "hehe" declared:
Hello, My name is Brian X. Chen and as an American-born Chinese I think life is really unfair. First, Asian American women won't date me. That really makes me angry. When I see an Asian American woman with a white guy, it hurts me deep inside. And as a Chinese, I hate Japan. Japan. Japan. Japan. Japan. It's all you Internet webus ever talk about. Japanese Electronics. Anime. Japanese porn. Japanese women. I'm really sick of it you know.
Many commenters derided the article as being over-simplistic, and a few moar trolls stepped in to impersonate Chen. Of course it slid downhill from there, for crying out loud!
What's more, Daiji Hirata claims he was misquoted alongside another source, Nobi, and you know how much I hate when fæces like that goes to town:
I have never said "And carrying around an iPhone in Japan could make you look pretty lame." I feel many Japanese think iPhone is one of the coolest phone. I have iPhone, too.
I have never met the author.
Ouch! Burned!
Eventually, the comments were unceremoniously closed without an official reply from Brian X. Chen or anyone else from Wired (so far). I don't know much about "journalistic integrity", but that definitely ain't communication. I read Wired regularly and perhaps there's giggles over the traffic they're getting (do a Ballard-Cronenberg and humans will look!), but impressive followup this is not.
There were many dirty faces in the comments, but that doesn't excuse Brian from stepping above it all and clarifying the situation. It's another one of those events where stupid "leap before looking" takes over, like having only one frame of a video's entire context, like accusing Woz of cutting in line.
What would be the right thing to do here? It's simple: earnestly admit you screwed up and move on.
Saying something is better than trying to sweep it under the rug, because the Internet has lots of gladdicted people who notice, and I'm one of them.
[UPDATE] Glad to see other bloggers speaking up about this, iPhonAsia and MacDailyNews among them. The reddit and Digg peanut galleries are in full effect, too.
[UPDATE 2] Yes, I know what Twitter search can find. No, it's not obvious enough for most, and bxchen's response and acknowledging the edit should be in, or linked to the original post that set it all off.
![Torley posted a photo:[13:53] White Lebed: When I met Jayjay and joined the UWA sims as an artist-in-residence I didn't know much about this place. Once I realize what an amazingly special wonderful program this small team runs I was so impressed. And I wanted everybody know about what is going on here. Since it is better to see once than hear 100 times, I thought it would be the best way to tell the world about them is to invite machinima artists and ask them to film it. It was wonderful to be able to see this place through your eyes. And I love that the machinimas we got were not just advertisements, they were wonderful art pieces. What I never expected is that Jay will turn out to be the best fundraiser in thPosted by Second Life Resident Torley Linden. Visit University of WA.](http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2693/4341983054_53aed5ab46_s.jpg "Torley posted a photo:[13:53] White Lebed: When I met Jayjay and joined the UWA sims as an artist-in-residence I didn't know much about this place. Once I realize what an amazingly special wonderful program this small team runs I was so impressed. And I wanted everybody know about what is going on here. Since it is better to see once than hear 100 times, I thought it would be the best way to tell the world about them is to invite machinima artists and ask them to film it. It was wonderful to be able to see this place through your eyes. And I love that the machinimas we got were not just advertisements, they were wonderful art pieces. What I never expected is that Jay will turn out to be the best fundraiser in thPosted by Second Life Resident Torley Linden. Visit University of WA.")
![Torley posted a photo:[13:47] Jayjay Zifanwe: CISKO VANDEVERRE, Berlin, GermanySEEKwww.youtube.com/watch?v=H6zbFx3DxwsPosted by Second Life Resident Torley Linden. Visit University of WA.](http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2773/4341231363_c8b3458d23_s.jpg "Torley posted a photo:[13:47] Jayjay Zifanwe: CISKO VANDEVERRE, Berlin, GermanySEEKwww.youtube.com/watch?v=H6zbFx3DxwsPosted by Second Life Resident Torley Linden. Visit University of WA.")
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![Torley posted a photo:[13:38] Jayjay Zifanwe: CHANTAL HARVEY, Maastricht, NetherlandsUniversity of Western Australia in Second Lifewww.youtube.com/watch?v=tR_pc90Eu4k[13:39] Jayjay Zifanwe: I want to say hi to all machinimatographers and their friends, fans and crews.Before I go into details, I want to express that I am very sorry that I cannot be here myself, at this ceremony - my real life got in the way. My boss wont give me the night off, not even for an important event like this. (cries). My ONE chance to meet the famous Torley and ask him to consider being a part of the MMIF machinima festival on the 20th of Februari - down the drain!Posted by Second Life Resident Torley Linden. Visit University of WA.](http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2753/4341958070_318b895425_s.jpg "Torley posted a photo:[13:38] Jayjay Zifanwe: CHANTAL HARVEY, Maastricht, NetherlandsUniversity of Western Australia in Second Lifewww.youtube.com/watch?v=tR_pc90Eu4k[13:39] Jayjay Zifanwe: I want to say hi to all machinimatographers and their friends, fans and crews.Before I go into details, I want to express that I am very sorry that I cannot be here myself, at this ceremony - my real life got in the way. My boss wont give me the night off, not even for an important event like this. (cries). My ONE chance to meet the famous Torley and ask him to consider being a part of the MMIF machinima festival on the 20th of Februari - down the drain!Posted by Second Life Resident Torley Linden. Visit University of WA.")
![Torley posted a photo:[13:36] Jayjay Zifanwe: LASLOPANTOMIK YAO, Barcelona, Spain MachinimUWAblip.tv/file/3147141 (LASLOPANTOMIK YAO, Barcelona, Spain MachinimUWA blip.tv/file/3147141)Posted by Second Life Resident Torley Linden. Visit University of WA.](http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4006/4341206009_e30658c02b_s.jpg "Torley posted a photo:[13:36] Jayjay Zifanwe: LASLOPANTOMIK YAO, Barcelona, Spain MachinimUWAblip.tv/file/3147141 (LASLOPANTOMIK YAO, Barcelona, Spain MachinimUWA blip.tv/file/3147141)Posted by Second Life Resident Torley Linden. Visit University of WA.")
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Great post Torley … I had not noticed the Daiji Hirata misquote … I'll add that to my post.
Regards,
~ Dan
idannyb
Here you go:
http://brianxchen.tumblr.com/post/82351094/my-response-to-screwing-up-in-the-japan-iphone-story
@Dan B: Thanks!
@Brian X. Chen: Thank YOU very much for replying and going into details which I certainly didn't want to assume.
I'll also be absolutely clear the stupid, baseless comments attacking you personally are worthless. But why didn't you and your teammates at Wired call out how unacceptable this is in the comments?
To be specific, when I mentioned "screwed up", I'm also referring to the headline you used — which *is* highly inaccurate because it's a gross generalization, personifying something with emotion that can't be meaningfully quantified. A "business fail" is different from "hate".
I know, something more precise would've been harder to digest, and I can relate to the balance of focusing on the "meat" in your story vs. peripheral distractions. But still.
I already read the AppleInsider analysis of this: http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/09/02/28/japanese_hate_for_iphone_all_a_big_mistake.html and while I haven't done the research to substantiate your followup points, I'm all too keen to move on too.
Thank you again and damn the troll-slop.
So, what about the "pretty lame" comment? He did not clarify it, he actually attributed it to someone else in his correction, but it turns out THAT person denies saying it as well.
Appleinsider points out the second person Chen claimed said the iPhone was lam said in repsonse to Chen's "correction", "If I am asked about iPhone as fashion view," Hirata added in his defense in his own blog, "I will answer I feel iPhone is very fashionable and many Japanese too. And I love the internet so I love iPhone."
Chen did screw up. In his original published article he fabricated a quote and had it attributed to a real person. Twice. That is unethical and in some countries basis for litigation. And even now Chen has yet clarify nor address that wrong doing.
Can you imagine what the reaction would be if I were to pull a quote from Hitler then say it was from Gandhi?
If you read the comments from Digg or Wired, the majority of them were spraying insults to Japanese people, some were directed to Nobi/Hirata and Chen is purely responsible for it.
So yes, Chen did screw up.
I commented on the original Wired blog post and here is my take on the following uproar: The point is that Chen was responsible for sloppy journalism, sloppy fact finding and a sloppy choice of subject. Why write about something you know absolutely nothing about? I never questioned the poor headline or the hit baiting contents (after all, it is Wired, and we are all getting used to their over the top style of journalism). I commented because I wanted to give the opinion of people on the ground here in Japan, people who have never heard of Wired or touched an Apple computer but do own an iPhone. From this huge wealth of source material (hundreds of thousands of Japanese users), he didn't manage to pull more information? He didn't manage to persuade his editor to give him a couple more days to do some research? Chen's response was pretty poor as well. After being attacked by just about everyone (the people he quoted, iPhone lovers, iPhone haters, etc) he still claims he did nothing wrong and that the readers misread his article.
His action reminds me of the guy driving down the highway listening to the radio being intrrupted by a special announcement:
"We'd like to warn people driving down Highway 55 that there is a madman driving in the wrong direction. Take care!"
To which the man snarkingly responds: "One?! There's hundreds of them!!!"
Way to go Chen.
I love comments
You asked, I provided the data. ,