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In the eyes of some Macintosh users, Yale Information Technology Services (ITS) Director Daniel Updegrove is an evil man.

In June 1997, Updegrove sent a letter to incoming freshmen advising them not to bring a new Macintosh computer to Yale. But according to some online journalists, Updegrove went one step further: he conspired with Intel to quash the Macintosh platform at Yale in exchange for $2.7 million in grant money.

Donna Ladd first broke this story in the online portion of the Mac Home Journal. The Oct. 14 article appeared three days before Intel announced that it was granting $90 million to 13 universities, among them Yale; the story implied that Updegrove sent the letter to freshmen in order to obtain the grant from Intel.

Ladd's article provoked outrage among Mac enthusiasts. The story was reported on several pro-Macintosh websites, including Macintouch and MacFixit. Updegrove reported receiving hundreds of hate letters from Macintosh devotees.

During the week following the article's publication, more convential news sources picked up the story, including the Chronicle of Higher Education, and The New York Times business section.

In interviews with the Yale Herald Online, however, Intel officials insisted that they never suggested that Updegrove release a letter encouraging students to adopt Windows-based PCs, and that they did not know about the letter until recently. Jeff Walz, an Intel engineer responsible for assisting universities with their grant proposals, said, "When we do our grants, we essentially don't require anything: no additional equipment purchases or anything. The only thing we request is that the schools report on the progress they make with the education initiative."

In subsequent interviews, Updegrove was similarly insistent of his innocence. While he declined to comment on the Ladd article for the Yale Herald Online, the Chronicle reported that he characterized reports about the grant as "absurd" and "extremely naive."

Thirteen additional colleges and universities, including Harvard, Columbia, and Princeton, received grant money from Intel at the same time as Yale; none of them mailed letters similar to Updegrove's to their incoming freshmen.

"Home page reporting"

Jeff Young, the writer of the Chronicle for Higher Education article, believes that Ladd's article is an example of a new type of journalism. "Call it 'home page reporting,' perhaps," Young wrote to the the Yale Herald Online. "Journalists are able to do investigative work by cruising the Net....[Ladd] made some interesting connections between information on Mr. Updegrove's home page, on Intel's home page, and on other on-line sources."

But, explained Young, researching on the web can be treacherous. "Reporters [must] carefully consider the accuracy of...online materials," Young said.

Ladd believes she has reported the whole truth. In a recent email message, Ladd wrote that "[her] job is to report the facts and let readers draw their own conclusions."

On the Internet, rumors can spread to every corner of the world in a day, and a single person's voice, right or wrong, can be heard by millions."Online readers are able to get the news faster," Young said. "In a way, that speed can make journalism more valuable and relevant to people's daily lives. Or, if a story is poorly researched, it can cause misinformation to spread like wildfire."
Graphics by See-Ming Lee

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