It was a quickly formed consensus: Apple “simply appears petty,” says Alyce Lomax — an “Apple product loyalist who says “I’m Apple all the way, baby.” In a Motley Fool commentary, she joins the growing chorus criticizing Apple for yanking all books published by John Wiley & Sons from its stores in retaliation for Wiley’s publication of a Steve Jobs biography, iCon Steve Jobs: The Greatest Second Act in the History of Business (see yesterday’s MobyLives news digest). Lomax adds, “The media blitz about said move certainly doesn’t do much for Apple — and it has likely achieved exactly what the company didn’t want by stoking interest in the book.” And the media blitz is coming on strong. There were immediate and myriad stories in the mainstream media yesterday, such as this report by Matthew Yi from what is essentially Apple’s hometown newspaper, The San Francisco Chronicle, which quotes marketing expert Hayes Roth commenting that “Any time clients or companies take actions like this, it amuses me because inevitably it backfires. Almost always, it comes across as mean-spirited, not getting the joke, or petty. You wonder what Apple’s public relations adviser is saying about this.” Trade publications were also covering the story closely, and usually, being quite critical of Apple, such as this report from Bryan Chaffin for MacNewsWorld.com, which notes that despite seeing its books pulled, Wiley is going ahead with the iCon publication. It quotes a Wiley official saying, ” of course, Wiley stands behind our authors.” The article also quotes one of the banned Wiley authors, Bob “Dr. Mac” LeVitus, who also writes a column for The Mac Observer. He calls the banning a “sordid affair,” and says, “It stinks. I’m sad that Mac users won’t find my books at the Apple Store. At the same time, I’m tickled that Wiley did the right thing in spite of the pressure.”

• RELATED: A MobyLives column commented on the manipulative attitude, and lack of grammar, in Apple’s slogan long ago . . . .