Questionable Claims

from the outright-lying dept

Unfortunately, I have no link for this one, but I just caught TellMe's CEO, Mike McCue, on the Charlie Rose show on PBS. Now, I've not disguised the fact that I really don't think TellMe is a big deal, but I was amazed to hear McCue talk about it. He continually mentioned that he was "changing the world" because people could now get the internet on their phone. When pressed for examples, the best he could come up with is that people can order airline tickets on their phone now (as if we couldn't before). Then came the whopper. When asked exactly how that was "changing the world" McCue announced that only 10% of Americans had access to the internet, and he was making sure that the power of the internet wasn't just in the hands of "the elite few". I have to wonder if (1) he actually believes that number (and if so what that means about his connection with reality) and (2) if he doesn't - why he thinks people listening to him would ever believe that. It took me all of about 10 minutes to find stats that tell a very different story. Here's another one that clearly states nearly two-thirds of Americans accessed the internet in the past year (and that's nearly 6 months old).
Hide this

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team


Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread


  1. identicon
    Ryan, 14 Nov 2000 @ 3:50pm

    Elite few

    Also (and in saying this, I assume he was referring to cellular phones), wouldn't the 'elite few' be more likely to have cell phones? With the way ISPs are fighting for customers, you can get dialup for (in some cases) nothing, compared to the monthly cost of a cell phone. Of course, you do have to have a computer, but still... If you feel this is uniformed, feel free to correct me. I just think that people who 'haven't accessed the internet' (that's my quote, not his) are as likely, or even more so, to have a computer as to have a digital cell phone.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  2. icon
    Mike (profile), 14 Nov 2000 @ 7:59pm

    Re: Elite few

    This actually brings up a very good point. Whenever I talk about TellMe, I pretty much only think about using it on a mobile phone... However, when he's talking about it, I think he actually does mean any phone.

    Of course, that brings up another issue which is that while I can see the occasional reason why you might want to use this with a mobile phone, I don't see all that many times when anyone would ever need this on their regular phone.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  3. identicon
    Clouser, 15 Nov 2000 @ 1:10am

    Tell Me

    Good work here. Dug up the facts and got to the bottom line real fast.

    link to this | view in thread ]


Follow Techdirt
Essential Reading
Techdirt Deals
Report this ad  |  Hide Techdirt ads
Techdirt Insider Discord

The latest chatter on the Techdirt Insider Discord channel...

Loading...
Recent Stories

This site, like most other sites on the web, uses cookies. For more information, see our privacy policy. Got it
Close

Email This

This feature is only available to registered users. Register or sign in to use it.