Apple under fire over cancellation of Jon Stewart show amid China concerns
Apple under fire over cancellation of Jon Stewart show amid China concerns
US lawmakers write to Apple CEO Tim Cook over worries that ‘coercive tactics of a foreign power’ led to political TV show’s end
Upon reading the article, it's actually just a few upset people. No active military operations or gunfire involved.
Apple could probably put up a decent military response, but it shows how much the US spends on the military that it's "woah! Apple has $250 billion in cash, they could do so much!" and that's less than 1/3 of 1 year of the US military budget. I bet Tim Apple would spend it more efficiently though.
I wish Plex would provide some kind of system where I could buy content directly from the publisher, download it and watch it locally. Cut out the current middlemen for a pure delivery mechanism straight from the manufacturer.
If people could buy and get a drm free digital copy...
It would cut down on a lot of piracy. But studios will never do it because they think it would increase piracy. Completely ignorant that all it takes is a single person to rip a movie and put it online. No matter how difficult it is to rip, someone will do it.
Cut out the current middlemen for a pure delivery mechanism straight from the manufacturer.
Apple was the manufacturer...
To people asking why Stewart would make a show for Apple in the first place, in some circles Apple is seen as a basically ethical company. I won't comment on whether it's valid to see them this way, but they make a lot of comforting noises regarding privacy and green tech. Plus, being what amounts to a broadcaster, one might expect them to keep their hands off shows being made for them.
What I find interesting to think about is, if China is able to apply pressure on Apple concerning shows made for them, what kind of pressure could they have over TikTok?
Jon Stewart actually covered this in his podcast.
Basically, Apple gave him editorial freedom and the ability to put his message out there. You have to pick your battles, and he shit on apple a bit during his show and podcast.
He did what he could. When Apple asked him to compromise on his rhetoric, Jon said "fuck you" to which Apple then cancelled the show.
This is a paraphrase obviously.
Jon is a fucking hero for putting his morals first. He is also pragmatic. But he didn't cowtoe to Apple when push came to shove.
As a comic writer I like once said, "Interior crocodile alligator, TikTok is a Chinese spyware aggregator." Or something.
China using the same weapon that made the west a superpower against them. Capitalism is by far more powerful than the constitution and religion combined.
Russia does the same, but it relies on freedom of speech. All of that disinformation is hard to stop, but turns out it can be quite powerful even when there is plenty sources where one can easily verify facts.
Can we all not pretend it was Jon's best work? The show kinda sucked and wasn't nearly as good as the daily show.
John Oliver is doing so much better with his.
I believe the ratings weren't great to begin with. Apple was looking for reasons to cut him loose and he gave them one.
I wasn't a big fan myself, either. Still respect Jon, though, and Apple cancelling the show is pretty clearly about silencing "improper" voices and they deserve to be called out on it.
I agree. I watched the Daily Show from Craig Kilborn until the very end of Jon's run. He tried, but the balance between satire and serious was off. He's trying to make change and shed light into dark areas, but people don't want that the same way.
“To reassure the creative community in light of these reports, we also respectfully request that Apple publicly commit that content that could be perceived as critical of the CCP or the PRC is welcome on Apple TV+ and other Apple services,” said the letter, signed by the panel’s Republican chairperson, Representative Michael Gallagher, and Representative Raja Krishnamoorthi, the panel’s ranking Democrat.
None of them see the irony in government officials coercing Apple into making an approved political statement?
This is the best summary I could come up with:
US lawmakers asked Apple Inc to explain the abrupt end of the political comedian Jon Stewart’s television show on its streaming service, according to a letter made public on Wednesday, citing concerns that content related to China was behind the cancellation.
The newspaper said Stewart told members of his staff that potential show topics related to China and artificial intelligence were causing concern to Apple executives.
The letter was released ahead of a dinner expected on Wednesday night at which top US business leaders were to dine with the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, in San Francisco as he seeks to court American companies and counter his country’s recent struggles to entice foreign investment.
The dinner on the margins of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) forum would follow a day of talks between Xi and Joe Biden, aimed at stabilizing fraught ties between the world’s two largest economies.
US lawmakers have long expressed concerns about potential Chinese government censorship given the ruling Communist party’s strict media controls.
The concern is particularly acute for Hollywood films, as some studios have altered or self-censored scripts to appease Chinese government minders and gain access to the country’s market.
The original article contains 383 words, the summary contains 194 words. Saved 49%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!
Why would John Stewart even join Apple? Seems counter to his entire reputation, and what did he or anyone expect from Apple if not this kind of shit? Did he think the leopard wouldn't eat HIS face?
Shouldn’t be too tough to explain. “We paid a lot of $ $ to bring John Stewart out of retirement, but nobody watched the first two seasons, so we didn’t make a third.”
You're covering for Apple censoring on behalf of China.
I’m just saying, this wasn’t The Daily Show, either in quality or in viewership. It would be a much cleaner case to make if the show was at all popular, but there were like 12 people still watching. A 3rd season would have been a real stretch.
It's one of the few things on Apple TV I actually watched... and as a talk/news show it's not like it was terribly expensive. We know exactly WHY they cancelled it, and they deserve any vitriol directed at them, not that it will matter.
From what I remember of the original announcement, there were a couple of other topics that Apple also found it annoying that Stewart might cover, and one of them was the things companies are calling AI. NYT source: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/19/business/media/jon-stewart-the-problem-ends.html