Just goes to show the stupidity of the media, and the reason why "stepping on eggshells" has become 2nd nature to breathing.

Actually, I goes to show how stupid society is in general. This CEO shouldn't be apologizing for telling the truth. He could have easily said I help software pirates store illegal software or I help kids train to be efficient killers on Doom and at leaast a few of the computers they use have a Seagate hard drive in it.

The guy didn't say he condoned pornography or created the content.

If anyone was offended by his comment or believe their first amendment rights were under attack, for the love of God, get a life. Americans are way too quick today to announce how their rights are being attacked over any stupid thing they can find.

Watkins rules! The coolest CEO I've seen around. Go Seagate! -former employee, and forever Seagate fan

Typical corporate over-reaction and over the top political correctness. Bill's comments were dead on. I think its insulting that someone in HR felt the audience reading the review wouldn't be intelligent enough to know the deeper meaning behind his comments. Rich media is driving the storage and network/routing business. Porn, family movies, software, whatever... his comments got his company in the headlines. Kudos to him for being on the edge and willing to take risks to raise further awareness about his company.

Just another example of the political correct being completely out of touch with reality! His comments were great and no apology was need.....truth be told :-)

Watkins shouldn't apologize for an irresponsible headline writer. His comments were fine -- when taken in context. But, without reading the story, people can clearly get the wrong idea about Watkins and Seagate. The porn comment was but part of one sentence about a variety of topics. Though you'd like to think that people could look past the sensationalism of the headline, I can see how Seagate's personnel/clients/partners could be a little put off by seeing "Seagate" and "Porn" in the same 24 pt bold headline.

He had nothing to apologize for. In fact, as CEO it's his JOB to know what his customers are doing with his product and why, how it's being used, where the demand is, and so on. Knowing those things are his responsibility to the company, to the shareholders, to the employees and to the face he sees in the mirror every morning. Some CEOs might like to lie to themselves or have employees feeding them pat answers, but this guy actually seems in touch. That's damned impressive. More CEOs should be like this. The only other one I can think of off hand is Bob Parsons over at GoDaddy.com. These are CEOs to watch.

I posted this on December 1:

Some readers think that the headline on this interview with Seagate CEO Bill Watkins was over the top. In a freewheeling exchange with Fortune's Jeffrey O'Brien, Watkins said: "Let's face it, we're not changing the world. We're building a product that helps people buy more crap - and watch porn."

I personally and professionally found that statement to be astounding, as well as funny and remarkably self-deprecating. That's why, as O'Brien's editor on this story, I moved the quote high up in the story, and also turned it into a headline that, yes, I thought would grab the reader's attention. Does that make us, as one reader put it, "right up there with the tabloids"? I didn't think so, but I'm sensitive to readers' concerns, so let me say for the record: We're certainly not trying to say that Watkins or Seagate promotes pornography per se. I suppose if you read the headline without reading the rest of the story, you might think that we were. So if that's misleading, I apologize. At the same time, I think readers would do better to focus on the fact that a CEO of a public company that makes computer hard drives really did say that the end result of his firm's product is helping people buy more crap and watch porn. Also, it's worth noting that a number of readers wrote to O'Brien saying that the interview made Watkins look like a genuine leader. So go figure.

The words can only offend those who feel offended. It seems to me that every day we are tightening society as how far we can go. I just wonder if we are on a mission of self destruction.
Mr. Watkins definitely was making a point, which consider on the true context, you going to find a truth on it. He is not promoting pornography, he is making known that the storage business is definitely benefiting even from the "bad" side of the economy.

well, remember that in most of the mainstream media and in public education, businesspeople have been portrayed as less than human for decades. that has an indubitable effect, given businesspeople's need to be both quantitative and qualitative leaders.

I absolutely agree with your last remark that Mr Bill Watkins has anything to apologize for when what he said is the stark reality of the market place. Those in Seagate, of all the people in the world who benefits from the development of the Internet which directly benefits the employees of Seagate should acknowledge that it was the porn industry which hastens the Internet development and progress.

My next hard drive will be a Seagate.

Jeffo:
You're comment is disingenuous in that you neatly ignored the comment about the headline taking his comment out of context in order to get attention. Maybe doing so is accepted jounalistic practice, but it sure does not encourage a speaker to be candid. It also cause me to question the accuracy of the reporting.

I sat next to Bill Watkins that night and correct the record on my personal blog. He was taken out of context as part of a bigger conversation. It is the reporters job to convey the 'story' not some cherry picked quotes to drive ratings. The user loses in that situation.

http://podtech.wordpress.com

Hey, it got ME to read that article!

Oh yeah, and didn't I just see another article about how the Web is now officially 1% porn? I think that justifies the representation that both Watkins and the Fortune blogger made.