"Nice Enough Guy"

The full transcript and video is finally in (see below, begins around the 52-minute mark), and you can now judge for yourself. Did Steve Jobs call me a liar?

Um, no.

It's those pesky live blogs and paraphrased "transcripts" that fanned the flames of this story. My read on this is that, besides calling me a "nice enough guy," Steve Jobs was a little peeved that I didn't try to resubmit before the Pulitzer win. (As I stated before, the reason I didn't resubmit was because Apple said the NewsToons app would only be approved if it didn't "ridicule public figures.")

I'm hopeful that the "ridicules public figures" edict is no longer in force, but Apple hasn't come out and said one way or another. Jobs uses the "95% of apps are approved" line of response quite a bit--- which I hope means satire and political cartoons are welcome and will contribute to a bright future of journalism for Apple and for cartoonists!

At the risk of joining the ranks of Steve Jobs-ologists, his one comment I take issue with is that political cartoons, by their very nature, defame people. As far as I know, defamation is a legal description that goes above and beyond clever satire. You can get sued for defamation, it's very rare for a political cartoon to defame. Tweak, needle, anger, yes. Defame, no.

Let me know what you think or if you legal scholars out there can enlighten me.

ipad

"Nice Enough Guy"