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Further down... "It needs to be said, of course, that comparisons between, say, McCarthyism and Apple’s PR strategy are absurd. I make them here only to illustrate the history and purpose of blacklisting."

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"It needs to be said..." After spending several paragraphs mentioning the most egregious black list example in US history. Sorry, but "this is just an illustration" is just a cop out given the example was there to set a particular tone.

The article could have been written without the extremes of prior examples.

The longer you read the article, the further and further he gets from accusing Apple of anything, really. He's quick to point out that the blacklist tactic shouldn't affect how you see the tech press. Towards the end he admits that the difference between a whitelisted journalist and a blacklisted one is practically nil.

Read between the lines and you see it's just a matter of status and pride. You get one kind by being on the blacklist and another by being on the whitelist. The author is clear which side he'd rather be on.

And that's the real point of the article. To show off how 'independent' he is by daring to compare Apple to Joseph McCarthy.

I caught a bit of the same, it felt like the introductory paragraphs were really meant for sensationalism and to create some buzz, which probably worked.

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