Netflix, Facebook, News Corp. take flak

A Saturday Night Live dress rehearsal sketch, now online, satirizes industry reactions to the death of former Apple CEO Steve Jobs. Executives from many companies were quick to praise Jobs in the days immediately after Apple's formal announcement. The SNL sketch jokes, though, that many corporate heads claim to admire Jobs without actually understanding what makes Apple products work.

The segment uses a Charlie Rose roundtable as a backdrop. "Mr. Jobs taught me that you could bring beauty to the world of technology. He wanted his products to be works of art that were both efficient and elegant," says the fictional version of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg at one point. "And how do you apply that elegance to Facebook.com?" asks Rose. "Oh, I don't. Not at all. Facebook.com started off as a simple, user-friendly website, but now it's just a mess. It's covered in ad and invites from local bands. Like the bulletin board at an annoying coffee shop," Zuckerberg responds.

Other targets in the sketch include Netflix CEO Reed Hastings, the Huffington Post's Arianna Huffington, and News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch. "Steve Jobs used new media to make the world a better place, and I use old media to make it a much, much worse one," the parody Murdoch says.

By Electronista Staff