Comment by chipotle_coyote
20 hours ago
The retraction post from Gruber details ways in which he tried to fact-check this, including confirming that his understanding was correct with Mr. Godier and even running a draft of the post by him to make sure he'd stated the "facts" that Godier presented him correctly.
I'm not really sure what you're implicitly expecting him to have done "better" here. Ask Godier for a signed affidavit? Not publish this until he could get a statement from Apple to get their side of the story? (Which is to say, not publish it at all because the chances of Apple giving anyone "their side" of something like this is essentially zero.)
> The retraction post from Gruber details ways in which he tried to fact-check this
Yes it does. To fact check this story - he asked the source (twice) if he was lying.
> I'm not really sure what you're implicitly expecting him to have done "better" here.
He could have asked for the full text of the rejection letter, which would have revealed the name switch. For starters.
Other journalists make a much stronger effort to avoid these kinds of errors.
I don't know, maybe google a few things? The most obvious search terms for me, turned up the pre-existence of the legitimate astronomy app, not to mention the trademarked name collision with a horror video game.
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49217212
Perhaps engage critical thinking? Apply the CRAAP Test? Seek some independent confirmation of facts, rather than just being a mouthpiece for some hysterical acquaintance? If I had a Bitcoin for every time I heard some gamer was "banned for no reason!!1"
Apple could've denied the app just for clashing with the name of an existing game... a game that involved demons tossing fortune-telling cards around