Free Software Mag Interviews Sys-Con Publisher

NW writes "Tony Mobily, editor of the Free Software Magazine recently interviewed Fuat Kircaali, founder and publisher of Sys-Con Media. The interview revolves around the recent controversy surrounding the article written by Maureen O'Gara attacking Pamela Jones of GrokLaw."

Comments

Slashdotting != DDoS

[Anonymous Coward]

From the article:

I am not interested in offending our readers or in driving them away. I do wish that they had tried to work with me to find a solution before the fanatics out there launched DoS attacks for days even after we pulled the story. Our Web sites remained under constant attack from Monday through Wednesday, for three days. We lost thousands of dollars in revenues during the past three days. We are trying to recover from the biggest cyber attack in history any media company was ever subject to!

In Korea, only old people call a Slashdotting a cyber attack.

Huh? Does this man use his own dictionary?

[davidwr]

Read the interview. I think this man is either underqualified for the job of CEO of a media enterprise, or is pretending to be.

Either that, or he's purely in the business-as-in-corporate side of things and not the business-as-in-journalism side of things. If that's the case, he shouldn't have been asked to approve O'Gara's ("I decided to publish the article"), or anyone else's works, that job should go to people with editorial responsibilities.

Here's my "favorite" example of confusing statements:
In one part, speaking of Pamela Jones being a blogger not a reporter, he says "The reporter's job is to report news." In another, speaking about O'Gara's hack job, he says "I decided to publish the article. It was published because it was an accurate news story." Are you as confused as I was?

My least-favorite part, if true and I sincerely hope he's mistaken (I think he's confusing a DOS attack with the /. effect):
"The reason why we decided to pull it [O'Gara's hack job] was that when the content, style and the language of the story was perceived as offensive by a group of the readers, a denial-of-service attack was launched against our entire company, interfering with all of our publications and all of our readers."

discussion with Fuat Kircaali

[brennz]

My email ("A problem with your advertising + SYS-CON Media website") was quoted in that interview. I'd like to set the record straight on what Fuat Kircaali discussed with me. I sent out email to SYS-CON advertisers, questioning them if they knew about the article. A few hours later I received a call from him. First he was yelling at me "I want to speak with the chairman of $MYEMPLOYER" Then he started threatening to sue me. It was only then that I said I he could easily discuss this with my lawyer. Only after his verbal tirade continued, did I choose to end the conversation with him. His claim that people "needed legal counsel" is a joke. He was threatening to sue people, they no doubt replied "speak to my lawyer". Mr Kircaali treated me in a manner which I find unbecoming of a CEO / publisher. He also did not know the definition of slander/defamation either. Another legal newb attempting to intimidate people. gg.

unethical ... and cowardly and disloyal

[wes33]

in the immortal words of Fuat Kircaali:

"The reason why we decided to pull it [O'Gara's hack job] was that when the content, style and the language of the story was perceived as offensive by a group of the readers, a denial-of-service attack was launched against our entire company, interfering with all of our publications and all of our readers."

Leaving aside the incredible moral blindness of missing what was wrong with the O'Gara article, this guy admits he is willing to dump "entertaining" and "accurate" reporters because of a DOS attack. Nice guy to work for ...

What a piece of work is Fuat Kircaali.

Incidentally...

[dacarr]

PJ has her own pointers regarding what O'Gara did over here. Her side doesn't line up with Kircaali's statement - and under the circumstances, I'd believe her first.

Re:The Credibility of Groklaw

[DickBreath]

Let's be clear: PJ threw the first punch at MoG by publicly accusing her of lying

Pointing out the differences between MoG's story and the actual facts is throwing a punch?


including its censorship policy

Whether you agree with them or not, Groklaw's posting policies seem completely clear, at least to me. I've never had any trouble abiding by them, and I post often (under a different name).


Groklaw community regularly attacked MoG in the most vicious and personal terms.

Private individuals posting to a website can freely express their disgust at the actions of a reporter. Perhaps you are new to trolling on slashdot?


If someone was anonymously running a web site attacking me, I sure would want to find out who was behind it.

Even if you did know who was behind a website, you have no need to publish their personal details.

I find it interesting that MoG can't argue any actual facts or issues. She can only resort to personal attacks. MoG doesn't refute PJ's arguments, she just publishes the personal address of PJ's 80+ year old mom, right before Mother's Day, an elderly woman who has no connection to the running of Groklaw; nor does PJ's brother. What do these personal details have to do with the problems in MoG's stories?

If MoG didn't want someone "attacking" her by pointing out the blindingly obvious problems in her earlier stories, maybe she should do some real journalism?