Infoworld journalist fired over fake alter ego | Hacker News Reader

Infoworld journalist fired over fake alter ego

computerworlduk.com

27 pointsmonkeygrinder14 comments

This "Win7 memory usage" story keeps getting weirder...

Here's an excellent investigative piece by ZD.net which exposes the shenanigans: http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=31024

And here's Randall C Kennedy ("Craig Barth") claiming that Microsoft is out to get him. http://exo-blog.blogspot.com/2010/02/when-microsoft-attacks-...

Wow, he lied to his employer and colleagues, and now he claims that it was a Microsoft plot? This guy has utterly ruined his credibility and was exposed - thanks to ZDnet and also Gregg Keizer at Computerworld US. (Full disclosure: I work for IDG).

Part of a reporter's job is to evaluate the veracity of a source. I did that, but failed, for which I'm sorry.

Proper respects to Gregg Keizer for the apology.

Robert X Cringely was an alter ego for years; PBS gave him his own show under the name. I guess this fellow carried it a bit too far, but it's not the first time it's happened.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_X._Cringely

The difference is that Cringely wasn't promoting his own products.

It was a pen name, and as Wikipedia mentions, was used by several different writers. It was made clear in his (their?) columns, at least in the early days, that the name was fictitious.

What happened here is a little different. Someone was claiming to be two different real people. In at least one case he even interviewed himself.

Microsoft should change their "available memory" widget ASAP to make it clear what is just used for caching and what is really "used up". If not, they should fire some people from marketing.

Because that't the extend of the "deception" that everyone is so excited about.

This guy's a journalist, you say?

I guess people are upset because he didn't make it clear that it was a pseudonym. I don't see the beef, really.

Er... ok Mr. Downvote guy, then what beef should I have?

He wrote controversial articles around data he claimed to have gotten from another individual. This alleged source was his own fabrication. That itself is a serious violation of journalistic ethics. The fact that the data itself seems suspicious is the cherry on that stinking pie.

FWIW, I am not the down-vote.

What is a real alter ego?

yeah, edited headline and I guess he meant "secret alter ego". Actual headline is "Infoworld journalist fired over Windows 7 claims"

What is the deal here, that he used an alter ego at all or that he didn't reveal that he was using an alter ego to InfoWorld? Personally, I don't have a problem with it, even in the latter case. If you're creating an alter ego, you want to protect your real identity. The fewer people who know your real identity, the more protected it is. If we claim to care about technical matters, we should evaluate claims purely on their technical aspects, not on who made the claims (both for positive or negative).

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