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The publisher of a certain Mac site emailed us today with a message whose subject line read: "Can you believe this f___ing [censored]?" It seems he was denied a media pass to Macworld, despite having been granted one for numerous previous Expos, because according to the email he received, "...the guidelines to receive a badge stipulate that outlets featuring coverage on rumors and speculation are not eligible for a media pass."

The site in question is not a rumor site, at least not to our way of thinking. In fact, we can't think of anything our correspondent has done that might have roused the ire of whoever has blackballed his domain except to be very vocal in speaking his mind on certain Mac-related issues. We have most assuredly done exactly the same thing on countless occasions [gulp] -- but if any Applelinks staff have been denied media passes, we have yet to hear of it.

Which brings us to the question: why exclude so-called rumor sites anyway? Wouldn't it make more sense to bring rumormongers into the fold by giving them direct access to the facts? Much of what will be reported by so-called "true" Mac journalists at Macworld New York will be hearsay in any case: "A company rep told us such-and-such," etc. Why not try co-opting instead of coercing?

Perhaps our fellow Mac writer and publisher has been mistaken for someone else. Perhaps his media pass was denied by an overly zealous subaltern applying too fine a standard. Perhaps by the time you read this, all will be well. We certainly hope so, especially since the way things are going in the industry these days, Apple needs all the free publicity it can get -- and we can't think of a better way to make that happen than to put enthusiastic Mac site people into Expo keynote chairs.

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