Apple has free range to print more or less what it likes in the US trade press, however the presence of fan boys in the media is getting more than a little irritating.

Currently speculation is rife about a press conference which is going to be held in two weeks. Most of the smart money is on yet another range of the failing iPods, so instead the tame Apple press is speculating that Steve Jobs will show up and show off his liver transplant scar. In other press events people with lives don't usually give a monkey's who tips up to peddle the product, Steve Ballmer or Chuckles the Clown it is all the same to us. However in the shallow Apple religion it apparently matters that Steve Jobs is there. It does not matter what the product is, the Pastel Messiah is the event.

How the hell did this happen? No one claims that Jobs is a nice bloke, least of all Jobs himself. Autocratic control freaks make good crazy despotic dictators, rarely someone you want to buy an overpriced toy from. But AP, normally free of the Apple brainwashing has expended bandwidth asking analysts if Jobs is going to show up at the event.

Kaufman Bros analyst Shaw Wu said that it would be great of Jobs appeared, but most investors have moved beyond that. He said it will not have a material impact on the stock if he doesn't and could even get higher. Jobs' last appearance at an Apple event was in October of 2008. He returned from a 6-month medical leave in June, during which time he underwent a liver transplant after telling shareholders he needed hormone replacement therapy.

FTN Equity Capital analyst Bill Fearnley Jr. said it is "likely" that Jobs will make an appearance because there is no other event that would present a keynote-type address or presentation opportunity for Apple or its CEO.

The question is why? What makes Jobs different from every other CEO that the US press would lovingly kick to death with nasty questions such as “why do your Chinese partners beat up employees?” Or: "Why do you ship your new operating systems with out of date security risks?”

Answers on the back of a postcard please to: “How the hell does Apple get away with it, Private Bag, London.”