This week, Jon Stewart devoted his edition of The Daily Show to tackling a topic that he claims his former bosses at Apple barred him from exploring. “I wanted to have you on a podcast and Apple asked us not to do it,” the late-night host said to his guest Monday night, Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan, referencing the companion podcast to his former series, The Problem with Jon Stewart that ended last October. “They literally said, ‘Please don’t talk to her.’”
Stewart’s remarks arrive less than two weeks after the U.S. Justice Department sued Apple for exploiting its monopoly in the tech market and violating antitrust laws. The lawsuit highlights Apple’s “power over content creators and newspapers” and notes that the company’s conduct “even affects the flow of speech,” adding, “Apple is rapidly expanding its role as a TV and movie producer and has exercised that role to control content.”
After joking that Apple killed Khan’s potential appearance on the podcast because “I didn’t think they cared for you,” Stewart alleged that Apple also told him not to discuss artificial intelligence. “They wouldn’t let us do even that dumb thing we just did in the first act on AI,” he said, referring to a segment earlier in that episode on the “false promise” of that technology. Stewart then asked Khan: “What is that sensitivity? Why are they so afraid to even have these conversations out in the public sphere?”
Khan replied, “I think it just shows the danger of what happens when you concentrate so much power and so much decision making in a small number of companies.”
Honestly what was he expecting? I think it was shitty and morally shady of him to even take Apple’s money, and he got what he should have expected.
You can use that excuse sure. But apple having and wanting to keep good relations with China is expected, and taking their money and complaining about their shadyness, would be like taking money from Starbucks and then being surprised that they don’t like your anti union stories.
Apple is a monopoly that “affects the flow of speech” yet I know nothing of any of this and am completely unaffected.
I don’t get it. Just buy different phones.
Cool.
How do you like the fact that Apple news on iOS affects headlines for literally everyone due to visibility on iOS, and thus will still affect you.
Or that their ownership of AppleTV and now Apple+ puts them in direct position to edit that speech, even if you see it elsewhere and don’t know Apple did it.
That’s the point. They’re huge.
Just don’t use iphones or apple products. It’s a solvable problem. I recommend books. Any history book about a great civilization can explain what is happening now better than the news or movies anyway.
Okay you’re either missing the point that those platforms extend beyond Apple products, or willfully ignoring that.
Apple has spread its network wide, same as Amazon and Disney.
“jusy don’t buy from them” seriously misunderstands how wide their reach is.
Not to sound like a conspiracy theorist, but if a monopoly was powerful enough to “affect the flow of speech”, wouldn’t they try to use that power to ensure you know nothing of it?
My ipad is a glorified notebook. I don’t get any news from Apple, Google or the usual suspects because I assume it is all curated distraction bait. I learn all I need to know about how things are going by looking out my car window when driving through town. (It’s not going well)
That’s super cool and all, I’m sure that is a sufficient sample size to be well informed, but now I’m confused as to your main point.
Do you mean to imply you don’t understand the issue with Apple controlling a massive amount of information because your lifestyle is representative of the majority of people?
Or do you mean that news has no potential value and as such is not worth protecting from bad actors?
Or do you mean that because some people are less aware of and/or dont care about being fed misinformation, they are not worth protecting regardless of any damage that might have on society as a whole?
Man I wish he’d somehow start that podcast back up. It was so good. I really watch the show but the podcast I listen to every time it came out.
Edit: hold up, there might be hope. After making this post on a whim I checked on the podcast and there was a one minute trailer from February saying stick around he wants to do something with the podcast feed again. How about that? I mean almost 2 months ago so not quick but maybe hope.
Lena Khan is amazing and taught me the word monopsylony. Absolutely stoked that Biden chose her and the fact that she is going so hard on creating a competitive environment
I want people to understand that when they vote for a president they’re also voting for all the administrative appointments as well. The stakes of who is president is already high enough, but if you want people like Lena Khan in charge, that also comes from your presidential vote.
You mean “monopsony”?
Good reminder that Monday’s The Daily Show is Jon Stewart day
Yeah, I don’t even watch the other ones. Sorry other people. Just change it to the weekly show at this point
Nobody is Jonny Boy, except maybe Johnny Boy, but you gotta give the other folks a shot. We need more.
