WSJ Falsely Confirms Apple's CES Attendance?

An article by Engadget this morning draws attention to what they believe is shoddy journalism by Ben Charny of the Wall Street Journal.

In article which was picked up by most blogs yesterday, Charny reveals that "Apple plans to attend the show's 2010 version, marking the first time in memory the Cupertino, Calif., consumer-electronics giant will be there." This information supposedly came from CES head Gary Shapiro.

Engadget's Ryan Block says that quote is 'specious and flatly wrong'. Sitting directly across Shapiro he was listening to the entire conversation and recalls no such revelation.


Shapiro went on to mention that Apple was a great and long-standing supporter of the efforts of the CEA, but that their only direct involvement was sending a check each year to pay their membership dues.

At no point did Gary even remotely imply that Apple would be present at a future CES -- let alone state flatly that Apple "will be there" in 2010. In fact, at one point, someone asked if, hypothetically, Apple did want to attend CES, whether the CEA could accommodate them. Gary said flatly that if pressed, they might be able to come up with a small 2,000 square foot booth, but they couldn't do anything, say, Microsoft-sized on such short notice.

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