Microsoft CCO details Apple's reporter blacklist era and Microsoft's own "Lashinsky" blocking tiers
firstadopter · x · 2026-11-07
Tech journalist firstadopter says Apple was the only company in his 12 years of coverage that never gave him the time of day, resharing a Microsoft CCO Frank X. Shaw essay on PR blacklists. Shaw recalls Apple's era of acceptable/non-acceptable reporter lists — blocked events, interviews and briefings, sometimes entire outlets — and describes Microsoft's internal "Full/Half/Quarter-Lashinsky" tiers of graded cooperation, named after the Fortune writer Apple blocked hardest, asking what engagement tactics actually work.
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