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LinuxWorld Senior Editorial Staff Resigns

Posted by Zonk on from the someone-should-have-thought-ahead-on-this-one dept.

sachmet writes "In light of the interview with Fuat Kirccali, James Turner has announced on his blog the immediate resignation of the LinuxWorld senior editorial staff." From the post: "We regret that Sys-Con Media has been unable to apply a standard of journalistic ethics that we can comfortably operate under. We feel that recent articles published with the consent of Sys-Con Media fail to meet minimum generally accepted journalistic codes, and because the management of Sys-Con Media has failed to acknowledge that the articles are by all informed judgment ethically unsupportable, we have decided we must find other avenues for our work."

26 of 344 comments (clear)

  1. Honesty by ninthwave · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It is nice to see some honesty and morals in the mess that journalism has become.

    It is sad that it took this mess for it to be shown.

    I wonder if slashdot might be hiring or its parent company might have a home for these people. Even if it is just for PR purposes.

    --
    I was thinking of the immortal words of Socrates, who said: "I drank what?" - Chris Knight (Val Kilmer)- Real Genius
    1. Re:Honesty by capt.Hij · · Score: 5, Insightful

      When Turner first acknowledged problems with the O'gara article he used some weasel words and stopped short of apologizing. I was critical of him and his staff, but now he has really stepped up to the plate and did the right thing. It will certainly be a costly action on his part, and he has shown a lot of class and integrity. I was critical of him before, but I was wrong.

      Kudos to a group of people who made a difficult decision and did the right thing.

    2. Re:Honesty by tyllwin · · Score: 5, Interesting

      If PJ really is a little old lady who lives modestly, and who's a member of the Jehovah's Witness sect, there's nothing wrong with publishing that. THAT gives insight into a public figure. If the phone number listed in the article was truly obtained from an old news release, then that too would be ethical, if tasteless.

      But, public figure or not, publishing people's home addresses is outside the generally accepted practices of professional journalists. Sarcastic commentary and personally identifying information about about elderly relatives is outside the generally accepted practices of professional journalists. Mocking their religious choices and age is outside the generally accepted practices of professional journalists.

      Doing so with obvious spite is calculated to increase people's disgust.

      I doubt you'll find many highly visible examples of the home addresses, phone numbers, elderly relatives, and religious affliations of the SCOX attorneys being publicized and mocked. People are justified in being angry that PJ has been subjected to that -- just as SCO's attorneys would be justified in thgeir anger if it were done to them.

    3. Re:Honesty by Trailer+Park+Boy · · Score: 5, Interesting

      "If Daryl McBride's personal information had been published (and it seems like at some point it was, although I can't find the story now), everyone would be cheering the public's "right to know."

      M'oG went to PJ's mother's home, harrassed her, and then published her address and photos of her home on the Internet. No one did anything like that to any SCOX board member, and if they had, the linux community's name would have been dragged through the mud in the media. There's only one possible reason for publishing PJ's mom's personal info, and that's "We know where you live" style intimidation, pure and simple.

    4. Re:Honesty by LarsWestergren · · Score: 5, Informative
      [...] the simple fact is that PJ stepped up and made herself a public figure in an extremely controversial case. And there is no constitutional or guaranteed right to remain anonymous.

      Public figures deal with this kind of poking and prying all the time. Celebrities deal with paparazi. Politicians deal with people digging into every nook and cranny of their life. Innocent, ordinary people who are thrust into the spotlight have all sorts of private details published and pored over.

      As others before me have pointed out, there is a big difference between tabloids and reputable newspapers and magazines. I never read tabloids, I find them disgusting stupid garbage. Now, I believed Sys-con to be a company that dealt with serious journalism, but it seems I have been proven wrong. Therefore I have cancelled my subscription to Java Developer Journal.

      and to claim her story was a gross violation of journalistic ethics is a biased response. (The Google cache of her story is still available. If you haven't read it, read it yourself.)

      I HAVE read it, and it was a breach of journalistic ethics. If you think my opinion is biased, ask Fred Brown, co-chair of the Society of Professional Journalists Ethics Commitee:

      James,

      I agree with you. That piece by O'Gara definitely is outside the norms of good journalism. It's bullying, insulting and harassing, and I, for
      one, really don't get the point of it. That's not to say that other journalists are sometimes guilty of those sins, but that still doesn't make it
      good journalism.

      So I don't think you did the wrong thing in using you First Amendment rights to call for O'Gara's ouster or reprimand or whatever. The SPJ Code of
      Ethics says ethical journalists should "expose unethical practices of journalists and the news media" and "abide by the same high standards to which they hold others."

      Fred Brown

      Co-chair, SPJ Ethics Committee

      http://turner.linuxworld.com/read/1277987.htm

      If Daryl McBride's personal information had been published (and it seems like at some point it was, although I can't find the story now), everyone would be cheering the public's "right to know."

      Yes it was, I have seen it posted on Slashdot by ACs on serveral occasions. Guess what, it wasn't cheered as the public's right to know, it was modded down to -1 on all occasions I saw, and people who replied and said that this was wrong tended to be modded up.

      If you choose to put yourself in the spotlight, you can expect to have the press breathing down your neck. You don't have to like it but you might as well get used to it. It's a part of American life. It's the obverse side of the "freedom of the press" coin. Would you really prefer to live in a place where the press is constrained?

      I believe you are presenting a false dichotomy here. You essentially say: Either we are against freedom of the press and pro-censorship, or we should shut up about this case. I haven't seen one post here advocating censorship. We are expressing our own DISLIKE of these tactings, and say that we choose to not buy Sys-con products in the future. Big difference.

      Apart from these things I agree with your article. Foul tactics should always be fought against. You must be careful that you don't become the thing what you hate.
      --

      Being bitter is drinking poison and hoping someone else will die

  2. Good to see some people have integrity by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful
    It is unfortunate that this had to happen but it is also unfortunate that many of the media owners seem to have lost their integrity.

    I applaud the integrity of the LinuxWorld senior editorial staff and wish them the best. Hopefully they will be picked up by a publisher that does respect journalistic integrity and just plain human decency.

  3. Fundamental problem with OS advocates... by bigtallmofo · · Score: 4, Funny

    We regret that Sys-Con Media has been unable to apply a standard of journalistic ethics that we can comfortably operate under.

    How do you expect companies to make obscene amounts of money with you holding on to your morals like this?

    --
    I'm a big tall mofo.
  4. Re:uhhh.... by cranos · · Score: 5, Informative

    Long story short, well known anti-FOSS journalist posted article that was seriously devoid of journalistic ethics as well as attacking the maitainer of the Groklaw blog.

    Editorial staff demanded article be withdrawn by the publishers other wise they would walk. Article was pulled as well as all other articles by original author.

    Head of publishing company gives interview basically saying the only reason he pulled the articles was due to a threat of a DoS attack. Otherwise he sounds very much like he supports original author in her attack on Groklaws maintainer.

    Senior Editors get pissed at latest example of publisher not getting concepts such as ethics or integrity and decide to show him what they mean.

  5. Dee-Ann LeBlanc's resignation by TimCrider · · Score: 5, Informative

    http://dee.linuxworld.com/read/1278292.htm

  6. Grab your copy of the page while its there by tomhudson · · Score: 4, Interesting
    You left out some important stuff with your cut-n-paste, so here it is:
    Why is Fuat the Only Person Who Doesn't Get It

    I just got home from my 25th High School reunion, so sorry if I'm coming to the game a little late on Fuat's interview in Free Software Magazine this afternoon.

    A few things right off the bat. I've been supporting Sys-Con this week because I believed that this was based on, at worse, a misjudgement on the part of Fuat Kircaali in approving the publication of Maureen O'Gara's original article. It is becoming clear that Mr. Kircaali does not understand or value the basic ethical standards respected by the mainstream publishing industry. I wrote earlier today to the Ethics Committee of the Society of Professional Journalists, who's code of ethics I've quoted before in this space. I included a copy of the original O'Gara article. Here is the response:

    James,

    I agree with you. That piece by O'Gara definitely is outside the norms of
    good journalism. It's bullying, insulting and harassing, and I, for
    one, really don't get the point of it. That's not to say that other
    journalists are sometimes guilty of those sins, but that still doesn't make it
    good journalism.

    So I don't think you did the wrong thing in using you First Amendment
    rights to call for O'Gara's ouster or reprimand or whatever. The SPJ Code of
    Ethics says ethical journalists should "expose unethical practices of
    journalists and the news media" and "abide by the same high standards to which
    they hold others."

    Fred Brown

    Co-chair, SPJ Ethics Committee

    In spite of this, I have received abuse from Sys-Con staffers accusing me of treason against the company. I've also been implied to be responsible for the DDoS attacks against Sys-Con. In light of this, you can expect further developments later in the weekend.

    James

    Addendum: Comments from Steve and Dee-Ann
    Of course now they're going to claim again that they're being DoS'd, when its only people going for a look-see ...
    linuxworld.com has encountered an error!
    Oops an error has occurred. We apologise for any
    inconvenience this may have caused.

    A report of the fault has been sent to the administrators.

    Check the URL in which you used to access this page;
    there may be invalid characters

    Return to linuxworld.com
    Thank you

    linuxworld.com
    Yes indeedy, Linuxword has encountered an error - Maureen O'Gara aka the MoGTroll, along with Fucaali, killed them - oh the irony (and they say web servers have no sense of humour).
  7. Ex Linuxworld editiorial staff by backslashdot · · Score: 5, Insightful

    These people who resigned because of their willingness to stand by their morals are welcome in my home any day.

    If I owned a publishing house I would hire them immediately.

  8. The total is now 3 by VGPowerlord · · Score: 5, Informative
    Steve Suehring has also resigned:

    It is with some sadness that I've had to resign from LinuxWorld Magazine. Over the past nearly two years I've worked with a group of people with whom I've developed a great rapport and friendship. We were unpaid editors but we devoted a lot of time and energy to it nonetheless. It was a great experience for me and I look forward to other opportunities as they arise.

    I may edit this post in the future and add more details.

    --
    GLaDOS for President 2016! "Well here we are again. It's always such a pleasure." -- GLaDOS, 2011
  9. Re:In a Linux magazine you can't say... by Pharmboy · · Score: 5, Insightful

    You need to do a little more research. Anyone can say anything negative about Pamela at any magazine. Publishing personal information for the sole purpose of inviting stalkers is not news or commentary, its predatory and unethical.

    I don't always agree with Pamela's point of view, but I don't publish mom's address to invite harm to her.

    --
    Tequila: It's not just for breakfast anymore!
  10. Re:and others will fill their places by tomhudson · · Score: 4, Informative
    there are hundreds of editor wannabes who need that ca$h right now and will do anything to get it
    Guess you haven't been following the story. The editors were doing it for free. The only ones who were benefitting were Fucaali and the Maureen O'Gara MogTroll
  11. And more... by Arker · · Score: 4, Informative

    Dee-Ann Blanc has posted.

    This letter has already been emailed to the people involved:

    Dear Fuat and SYS-CON,

    I am writing this letter to tender my resignation. I have worked hard on LinuxWorld Magazine since its inception, and really don't want to walk away from it as it continues to build up a good head of steam, but given recent events I just cannot continue to be associated with SYS-CON. The complete (and public) lack of understanding of why O'Gara's maelstrom article was wrong, among other things, suggests to me that my sense of ethics is simply too divergent from SYS-CONs and there will be further heated clashes in the future.

    It goes on a bit, and of course the entry before it was interesting too. One thing - despite Turners announcement that the entire senior staff was going, it appears that he may have stepped out on a limb, as several of the other editors have not, at this time, announced their resignation. Just Turner and Blanc, so far. I'm hoping to see Walker, Winslow, and Taylor follow suit soon.

    --
    =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
    Friends don't let friends enable ecmascript.
  12. Ten Ethical Principles by dark-br · · Score: 5, Interesting

    If only more journalists follows principles like this we would have a better media:

    1. Define a set of values
    2. Tell the truth
    3. Respect human dignity
    4. Recognize the complexity of human nature
    5. Be distrustful of unchecked power.
    6. Foster a diversity of views
    7. Challenge "group think."
    8. Take time to listen and to think.
    9. Encourage criticism and self-examination
    10. Correct mistakes

    Have a look at a brief description of each of them.

    1. Re:Ten Ethical Principles by NtroP · · Score: 4, Insightful
      I want my reporters being willing to call bullshit on Clinton as well as Bush.
      Ah, I think this is the rub. In many other posts we keep referring to these people as journalists. I think this is the problem with the media today. Everyone wants to be a "journalist" and no one wants to be a "reporter". What's the difference? Let's look at the two words: Journal and Report. When I write a journal I am perhaps discussing factual occurrences, but usually in a heavily personal (and therefore from a potentially personally biased) viewpoint. On the other hand when I write a report, I am simply collecting, organizing and analyzing facts. I should be including in my report where I got those facts and how reliable those facts are.

      I feel that there are far too many journalists in the media today. They all want to present every story in such a manner that in reenforces their personal, political and/or social world view. There always seems to be an agenda. This is true whether it's MSNBC, CNN or Fox News. We as a society have become so inured to listening to journalists, editorializing (journalizing?) that we don't even realize it any more unless we hear a journalist from "the other camp" and then we just assume that "our" journalists are just giving us the facts and that "their" journalists are heavily biased.

      All-in-all, my sense is that PJ does a good job of presenting the facts (she provides publicly verifiable sources) and when she provides opinions, I can usually tell they are opinions. But then again, maybe it's just because she's a journalist in "my" camp...

      You know, just give me a good old-fashioned reporter and let me figure out where I stand on an issue. I'm a big boy, I think I can handle it.

      --
      "terrorism" and "pedophilia" are the root passwords to the Constitution
  13. The Proper Way to Respond to such things by ZPO · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I find it highly ironic that a company such as Sys-con denigrates blogs as "not real journalism" while posting a link to start a blog on their home page.

    The proper way to respond is to vote with your dollars.

    1 - If you currently subscribe to a Sys-Con publication, cancel the subscription. Don't do this via email or a web form. Do it via a published toll-free number (this drives their telco costs)

    2 - Check the advertisers list. If you've got a receipt for a purchase from a competitor laying around, send the advertising department of the Sys-con advertiser a POLITE and business-like letter. In that letter state that the broad facts of the case and that due to their continued support of Sys-con you've decided to make your purchases elsewhere.

    Avoid the temptation to threaten fire brimstone, retribution, or DoS attacks. Such tactics are not in the best interests of anyone concerned. The LW senior editorial staff left via the moral high-road. Please ensure that any community reaction joins them there.

  14. Re:Honesty - Sys-con Advertisers list by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Talking of who is endorsing who, here are the people to complain to and/or boycott. This is to save you from having to go to the sys-con site yourself. More will be added as I (or you) find them.

    First letter capitalised for easy sorting. Alphabetical order. Product advertised where mentioned. No links to avoid giving further adverts.

    Please be polite and clear when contacting, not angry. Please only do so where you have a real existing or potential business relationship with the company which you are able to cut off or otherwise influence. Please remember that these companies may have already cut off contacts with sys-con and simply their adverts have not yet been removed.

    Arkeia / Enterprise Backup Software
    Barracuda Networks / Spam Firewalls
    Chrystal reports (XI)
    Embedded Systems / PDA Sync Software
    Forum Systems / XML security of some kind
    Fusion Ware / Integration Server
    Google (ads by google)
    IT program management / office best practices
    Infitech / X5 NAS
    Jboss (JEEE application server)
    Microsoft
    Netop remote control
    Networld Interop / conference
    Oracle
    Oracle technology network
    Parasoft automated software error prevention(tm)
    Quadbase
    Qualcomm / Qcamera (SymbianDJ)
    Quest software / Jprobe suite
    Sleepycat software / Berkley DB Java Edition
    Sun / Java Studio Creator
    Sybase
    Tenable / Network Security
    TruePosition / Location based services
    Wily technology
    XSL Maker / XSL IDE

  15. Re:Honesty - But what about Linus by gmack · · Score: 4, Informative

    Actually Linus didn't actually trademark the name. It was given to him in a settlement with someone who trademarked it and tried to hold the entire community hostage back in 1997.

    SCO wasn't the first company to make money at the expense of the Linux community.

  16. Now is the critical time for /.ers support by i_want_you_to_throw_ · · Score: 4, Interesting

    If you REALLY want to make a statement fellow /.er immediately cancel your Sys-Con subscriptions. Then go a step further to discourage others from wasting their money on Sys-Con publications.

    After all these folks who resigned are geeks of high knowledge and high moral fiber who are making the ultimate sacrifice for OUR community and on behalf of one our most important members. They are standing up for what's right. They are standing up for Groklaw. We need to stand up for them.

    They gave up their jobs for reasons the right reasons. If there is a time to hit Sys-Con where it hurts it's now and financially.

    It's not just about standing up for our own, it's also about letting these folks know that the /. community is behind them 100% and will not stand for this lightly.

    There's a special place in heaven for PJ and the LinuxWorld Senior Editorial Staff.

  17. Details on LinuxWorld DoS by swsuehr · · Score: 5, Informative

    As an editor (now former editor) for LinuxWorld, I've been attempting to get details of the DoS against Sys-Con all week and bring them to our readers. Just yesterday I received those details and was working on a story about the DoS to appear in LinuxWorld. Since I don't think the story will be appearing there, it's now here. From TFA: "There is still some doubt over whether the DoS attacks against Sys-Con actually existed or whether they were the result of 'The Slashdot Effect' for lack of a better term. I believe the DoS attacks did exist. I too was initially skeptical but based on e-mail correspondence I now believe them to have happened." More in my blog.

  18. Re:award winning linux workstation by kevcol · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Name the company. You don't work there anymore, so spill it.

  19. Unfair comparison by Mr.+Underbridge · · Score: 5, Interesting
    I'm no fan of O'Gara. But she's no worse than scores of other reporters out there, and to claim her story was a gross violation of journalistic ethics is a biased response.

    Well, you seem to be mixing tabloid and news journalism in your examples. Maureen claims to be an actual journalist, not a Papparazza. If she were to get a job with the National Enquirer and publish pictures of PJ next to Bigfoot, OK, fine. But the key is that most certainly isn't journalism.

    But this was getting passed as real journalism along with material that actually is real journalism on LW. What Marueen did is NOT journalism. It was a personal attack. It wasn't professional. For instance, you won't see anything like that in the NYT or WSJ. For someone who claims to be a journalist, that was reprehensible.

    The response to this piece by many zealots has been much more unethical than the publishing of the article. I realize that the response, in particular the DOS and threatening email, is attributal to only a small minority of OSS and Linux supporters, and that many of the leaders in the field have spoken out against them. But the denial of those actions has been almost perfunctory. We should be screaming about those who smear the Linux and OSS name with illegal and unethical attacks at least at the same volume we're screaming about O'Gara and Sys-Con.

    That's not unethical, it's flat illegal. Not to split hairs, but I don't see it as unethical because the people doing it don't claim to have a code of ethics. To me, revenge in kind isn't necessarily unfair. I agree it's a bad idea because the OSS community is fighting an uphill PR battle anyway, and fighting it against someone with a media outlet isn't smart. But to continue my prior point, that ain't journalism either.

    If you choose to put yourself in the spotlight, you can expect to have the press breathing down your neck. You don't have to like it but you might as well get used to it. It's a part of American life. It's the obverse side of the "freedom of the press" coin. Would you really prefer to live in a place where the press is constrained? There are those reading Slashdot who do, in fact, live in such a place. Ask them which is preferable.

    Again, ethics vs. law. I don't think anyone's calling for overturning of the 1st Amendment. People are criticizing Maureen, not the law. What Maureen did wasn't illegal. It was certainly unethical as a journalist, though not as the hack Paparazza that she is.

    I basically get what you're trying to say, but I think you can be objective and still be nauseated by what she did as someone who claims to be a journalist. Thankfully, she finally made it much easier to discredit her, which to me made that article a bonehead move on her part.

  20. Re:What the hell is LinuxWorld? by mcappel · · Score: 5, Informative
    Hi Josh,

    I was the editor of LinuxWorld in the IDG.net era. IDG licensed the title and content of LinuxWorld to Sys-Con in the summer of 2003 for a period of five years.

    Sys-Con's business model is interesting, or at least it was in 2003 when I spoke to the company about continuing with LinuxWorld. None of the editors for any of Sys-Con's publications or Web sites are paid. Neither are authors.

    The business model of relying on volunteer editorial seems to work because a) it's cost effective if your objective is low CPM, and b) Sys-Con seems adept at finding people willing to work for exposure, c) advertisers and readers don't seem to mind that the editorial product is assembled in this manner.

    I did not choose to stay with LinuxWorld when the transfer occurred.

    Mark Cappel

  21. Re:huh? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Because in a followup interview, the guy who runs Sys-Con said that he saw nothing wrong with what O'Gara did, that it was ethical, moral and factually accurate, and that the only reason he caved was because the website was under a Denial of Service attack.

    Basically, the guy is completely out of touch with journalism ethics and his own conscience, and even if they could ignore their ethical obligation to stand up to him (another journalist ethics thing), they can't be professionally associated with such a hack if they value their careers.