Steve Jobs: 'One-on-one' blogger combat?

"I didn't plan to pick a fight with Steve Jobs," says Gawker's Ryan Tate, but after a few cocktails on May 14, Tate shot off an angry late-night email to the Apple CEO — and got a response. In their 10-email "one-on-one" sparring match, which ended at 2:20 a.m., Tate accused Apple of micromanaging iPad content in power-mad ways, and Jobs defended Apple, saying it gave its users "freedom from porn," among other perks. What does the "feisty" back-and-forth reveal about Apple's CEO? (Watch a report about Steve Jobs' heated e-mail exchange with a blogger)

Jobs' legendary passion is no myth: Jobs' mostly "level-headed" responses to Tate's "clearly agitated" e-mails make one thing clear, says Jason Kincaid at TechCrunch. "Jobs in on a mission to reinvent computing," controversies be damned. And for better or worse, "it sounds like he genuinely believes that what Apple is doing will lead to a better future."

"Steve Jobs spars with Gawker blogger over revolutions, freedom, and porn"

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Jobs has a God complex: The most revelatory exchange, says Nick Farrell at Tech Eye, occurred when Tate wondered if Bob Dylan, a Jobs hero, would find the iPad revolutionary; after all, "Revolutions are about freedom." This evidently "miffed" the "Apple Messiah." But Tate is right: "At no point in the past would a revolutionary Bob Dylan ever wanted a ban on porn and locked in gizmos"

"Steve Jobs gets in a fight with Valleywag"

He's certainly not a normal CEO: Whether you "respect or hate Steve Jobs a little more after this exchange" probably depends on whether you're a "PC lover" or "Apple fanboy," says Bill Green at Make the Logo Bigger. And both sides have a point. Tate's "Apple = Big Brother" argument raises "legit concerns," but kudos to the "iGod" for being "the rare company leader who communicates directly with the people who reach out to them."

"You'll either hate or respect Steve Jobs a little more..."