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LinuxToday Editor Apologizes For Astroturfing
Thanks to Dean Pannell (and Paul Ferris for the initial head's up) for pointing out the apology and statement of fact from Kevin Reichard, the Executive Editor of LinuxToday. I think the argument that people would know that "George Tirebiter" was merely a contrivance is weak, but whatever. You can read the previous stories in the astroturf [?] ing saga.
> Plus it contains grammatical mistakes, which looks kind of bad when your job title includes "editor".
Nod a nissue, far Linux-friendly geek cites.
Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
Alan Cox - Subject: Astroturfing ( Aug 8, 2001, 20:13:51 )
So you've now publically admitted impersonating people in public and making libellous comments about me and other community members. Can you clear up one detail - why are you still working for internet.com/linuxtoday ?
Alan
I sincerely apologize to those of you who were offended by my actions.
Mom: Now Kevin, apologize to Suzie for what you did!
Kevin: I'm sorry that you don't like your pigtails dipped in permanent ink, Suzie.
He's apologizing that we were offended by his actions, not for his actions themselves. Big difference there.
He doesn't even mention the other points, like trying to avoid linking to competing sites.
LinuxToday used to have value because they posted *everything* and you could go there to quickly find anything going on in the Linux world. Now that's no longer the case.
Not surprisingly Internet.com has ruined them, and just about every other Linux property they touched. Reichard should be promptly fired, but instead he'll probably stay there until Internet.com folds or does away with the Linux channel. I hope this indiscretion travels with him so no one else is foolish enough to hire him.
Interestingly, the apology is under "normal news" so they don't even seem to consider it important enough to put at the top of the site.
Considering THIS post, to the LT talkback:
Thank you for the apology. Here is one reader who appreciates it and will continue to recommend Linux Today as _the_ premier news site for all things Linux.
Cheers,
Caleb
How much do you want to bet Kevin Reichard is still posting under assumed names? I mean c'mon, at least be more subtle!
Yeah, I could see "George Tirebiter" being a contrivance. It's about as blaringly screaming "ignore me, I'm a mo-ron" as "Anonymous Coward". But for someone in charge to be doing it...guh.
A few years back when I worked for TOTK.com Sports, I had a fellow staff member fake some email [or so he thought] from the current President of the United States. It sounded just a bit too much like this one guy...and when I traced it out, it was him. I "fired" [in the sense that I never let him write again] him on the spot. Though we were "new media", I wasn't going to put up with pointless bullshit. Scary to think that a college sophomore [at the time] had more balls than a "major new media company" like internet.com does at present.
Oh well, I never read LT much anyway. This just assures that I never will.
-- Geof F. Morris
The really sad thing is of course that this is completely true, as has already been demonstrated.
ahem. Basic logic please.
It does not follow that, because moderators have moderated the parent to your post down to zero, that those moderators were slashdot editors. Far more likely that slashdot readers with moderator priveleges modded the post down as the flaimbait it certainly appeared to be (to me at least, although I do not have moderator priveleges right now).
The slashdot editors are the ones who decide which stories get posted (decisions I disagree with as often as not BTW), not those readers who happen to have moderator priveleges at a given moment.
The Future of Human Evolution: Autonomy
I personally think that these fine gentlemen have, by virtue of their effusive apology, proved themselves to be well and truly sorry, and that we should all forgive them their minor trespasses. Who's with me?
-Kevin Richard... I mean, uh Ben. That's it. Ben.
AHHHHHHH! I'm burning with goodness again!
- Reakk, Sluggy Freelance
The apology has that forced sound of someone who doesn't understand or doesn't want to understand why their actions were wrong.
Plus it contains grammatical mistakes, which looks kind of bad when your job title includes "editor".
Ben "You have your mind on computers, it seems."
An editor of a respected news portal should never have commited something like this. In paper media it would have been much better to resign and safe face afterwards. This person using psudonames trolled LinuxToday's talkback forums and flamed Linux, Linus, SlashDot etc. Often he used anti-linux and sentiments and questioned the existance of an opensource/linux community. He should resign IMHO. If LinuxToday is to be respected, this is the only way out for this publication.
It doesn't sound like the editor is acknowledging that he did anything wrong, just saying "I won't do it again because other people misunderstood."
There are good reasons to post anonymously under some circumstances, but I don't think he gives any here. How would the debate have been any less "lively" if he had acknowledged the source of his comments all along?
** The opinions expressed here are my own, and do not reflect those of my employers - past, present, or future**
My name is Billy Evans. I am a very sick little boy. My mother is typing this for me, because I can't. She is crying. The reason she is so sad is because I'm so sick. I was born without a body. It doesn't hurt, except when I try to breathe. The doctors gave me an artificial body. It is a burlap bag filled with leaves. The doctors said that was the best they could do on account of us having no money or insurance. I would like to have a body transplant, but we need more money. Mommy doesn't work because she said nobody hires crying people. I said, "Don't cry, Mommy," and she hugged my burlap bag. Mommy always gives me hugs, even though she's allergic to burlap and it makes her sneeze and chafes her real bad. I hope you will help me. You can help me if you forward this email to everyone you know. Forward it to people you don't know, too. Dr. Johansen said that for every person you forward this email to, Bill Gates will team up with AOL and send a nickel to NASA. With that funding, NASA will collect prayers from school children all over America and have the astronauts take them up into space so that the angels can hear them better. Then they will come back to earth and go to the Pope, and he will take up a collection in church and send all the money to the doctors. The doctors could help me get better then. Maybe one day I will be able to play baseball. Right now I can only be third base. Every time you forward this letter, the astronauts can take more prayers to the angels and my dream will be closer to coming true. Please help me. Mommy is so sad, and I want a body. I don't want my leaves to rot before I turn 10. If you don' tforward this email, that's okay. Mommy says you're a mean and heartless bastard who doesn't care about a poor little boy with only a head. She says that if you don't stew in the raw pit of your own guilt-ridden stomach, she hopes you die a long slow horrible death and then burn forever in hell. What kind of cruel person are you that you can't take five freakin' minutes to forward this to all your friends so that they can feel guilt and shame about ignoring a poor, bodiless nine-year-old boy? Please help me. I try to be happy, but it's hard. I wish I had a kitty. I wish I could hold a kitty. I wish I could hold a kitty that wouldn't chew on me and try to bury its turds in the leaves of my burlap body. I wish that very much. Thank You, Billy "Smiley" Evans
As if we should believe him? I'm well aware of the current state of today's media. Journalistic integrity is a word that most media reporters and editors seem to have forgotten.
However, this is totally out of line, even by today's standards. Someone looking at his apology would think that he had just committed minor infractions. No, he was busily posting nastygrams about competitors and rivals.
He should just resign and get the heck out.
'crow
Heh.
I've said something similar to my wife more than once. I wonder if LT readers are sharper than she is...
Also, I noticed Kevin Reichard seemed to be having some really weird friends posting under his Talkback.
A certain Mike Moore posted this under the subject of "Excellent", A couple of posts below that, Eric Kiersky writes with subject "Kevin shouldnt apologize", At first look this all seem to be optimistic well wishers giving their support to Richard. But if you ever visted the Borg, you might wonder why those names seem so familiar.
Well, it just so happens that Kevin has some very good friends working backstage at one of the best authorites on Austroturfing.
With friends like that who needs enemies? Now, I wonder how far deep the fangs of corporate monopoly sinks in our community....
Trust the source!
This speaks for itself. I have no respect for this man, or how he has behaved on their forums. Internet.com should fire the man posthaste.
--Maynard