The Snort-Laugh Heard Round the World

(If a nurse ever acted like this at work, he or she would be fired on the spot.)

See the woman standing by Steven Jobs? Her name is Katie Cotton. Katie is Apple's Vice President of Worldwide Corporate Communications, and one of the dumbest people on the planet. She never learned the first rule about the blogosphere: Do not snort-laugh at a blogger, especially one who is a cult hero. It will come back to haunt you for the rest of your life.

During Macworld 2008, Violet Blue saw Steven Jobs on the show floor and decided to go talk to him. According to her website, Ms. Blue is pro blogger, podcaster, vlogger and femmebot at Metblogs SF, Geek Entertainment TV, and Gawker Media's Fleshbot. She is also a sex columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle, the author of almost two dozen books, an 11-year SRL member, and a Forbes Web Celeb. In other words, Ms. Blue is well connected. This is what she wrote on her blog:

So, I saw that Steve Jobs was just hanging out on the Macworld expo floor, not in conversation, not talking to anyone, and poking at his phone in the middle of the public so I walked over. Thinking a girl -- in this case, a fangirl, me -- will never get anything if she doesn't ask for it, I lightly touched his arm and said "hi". He looked at me, and I blushingly asked if it would be okay for me to ask if I could take a picture with him. I didn't say my name or anything else, I was just a girl. He told me curtly, flatly that I was rude. And turned his back to me. The small circle of people around him sniggered. That woman you see actually snort-laughed at me, and rolled her eyes.

Ms. Blue snapped the picture (above) of Steven and his posse. Moments later, technical evangelist, Robert Scoble, caught up with Ms. Blue. He filmed and livestreamed her reaction to the snubbing. See below:




Correct me if I’m wrong, but I thought that people in public relations specialized in public relations. Apparently Ms. Cotton missed that lecture in class, or maybe she is just stupid. Whatever happened, the story about her rude behavior is going to be out on the Internet forever. I bet that Marc Monseau from JNJ BTW could teach Ms. Cotton a thing or two about public relations. Marc does his job well, and he is a gentleman.



As for you, Steven, I think that you’re stupid, too. What's wrong with you? You were rude to a young, hot, sexy girl who is one of your biggest fans. You have demonstrated something that I figured out a long time ago. Money can buy you power, but not common sense.