Sad, sorry tale of space journalism -- unconfirmed

JimO: This is baffling -- Phil is a GOOD researcher/writer and
I can't understand why -- if this story is even true -- he would NEED to
do what is claimed.

http://www.wired.com/news/culture/me...?tw=wn_index_3

Wired News Writer Faked Info


By Wired News Staff 12:00 PM Aug, 09, 2006

Wired News has removed three articles from its website after an internal
investigation failed to confirm the authenticity of a source used in the
stories.

Jim Oberg wrote:

JimO: This is baffling -- Phil is a GOOD researcher/writer and
I can't understand why -- if this story is even true -- he would NEED to
do what is claimed.


Any background on this regarding the pulled stories?
I'd like to read what was originally written there for curiosity's sake.

Pat

Pat Flannery wrote:
Jim Oberg wrote:

JimO: This is baffling -- Phil is a GOOD researcher/writer and
I can't understand why -- if this story is even true -- he would NEED to
do what is claimed.


Any background on this regarding the pulled stories?
I'd like to read what was originally written there for curiosity's sake.

Pat

For now they can be read in the Google cache:



Tribal Curse Haunts Launch Pad
http://72.14.203.104/search?q=cache:...s&ct=clnk&cd=1


NASA Boosts Heart-Monitoring Tech
http://72.14.203.104/search?q=cache:...s&ct=clnk&cd=1


Don't Flush It -- Breathe It
http://72.14.203.104/search?q=cache:...s&ct=clnk&cd=1



Rusty

On Thu, 10 Aug 2006 00:29:37 GMT, "Jim Oberg" wrote:

JimO: This is baffling -- Phil is a GOOD researcher/writer and
I can't understand why -- if this story is even true -- he would NEED to
do what is claimed.

And allegedly the "Columbia-The Final Voyage" thread on this group and
s.s.shuttle was started by Mr. Chien using the alias of "Ted Collins". The
first reply was from Boggs Space Books, telling "Mr. Collins" that they had
copies available signed by the author. I wonder what their take is on all
this? It's all very strange, and as you say, sad, if true.

The story was picked up by the AP-

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14276434/

Dale

On Thu, 10 Aug 2006 00:29:37 GMT, "Jim Oberg"
wrote:

JimO: This is baffling -- Phil is a GOOD researcher/writer and
I can't understand why -- if this story is even true -- he would NEED to
do what is claimed.

....Fake letters happen a lot more than the papers want to admit. Back
when I was an entertainment reporter for the Deadly Texan, we had this
one rather ugly bimbo who wrote and submitted her own fan mail through
proxies - read: she wrote the copy, and what few friends she had
re-wrote it in their own handwriting and mailed and/or hand delivered
it to the press room's front desk. While she never got caught during
the three years she was there plaguing our offices, quite a few people
got suspicious when it was the same five people dropping off fan mail
every couple of days, and out of the 20-25 letters there seemed to be
only about five sets of handwriting. They were a bit clever about it,
because they used different paper styles, different ink colors, and
some were even typewritten using different typewriters - none of them
were done on computer, apparently - but when you put all of the
letters together the fish smell became rather visible.

....The bitch somehow became an editor her last year, and the letters
sort of dried up shortly afterwards. It wasn't until about ten years
later that one of those friends had gotten ****ed off at her, and
confessed to another former Texan reporter of the scam. By then, there
wasn't jack **** anyone could do about it, but it did explain a lot.
Since then, I've learned that she went to work for the Orlando
Sentinel - you remember, the paper that plagiarized a LOT of the
Columbia Loss FAQ w/o giving proper credit? - for a few years before
resigning under some rather deplorable circumstances, and if my latest
update is correct, apparently disappeared in NOLA during Katrina. If
true, I sincerely hope her carcass didn't wind up choking some poor
crocodile.

OM
--
]=====================================[
] OMBlog - http://www.io.com/~o_m/omworld [
] Let's face it: Sometimes you *need* [
] an obnoxious opinion in your day! [
]=====================================[

On Thu, 10 Aug 2006 05:29:18 -0500, OM
wrote:

the fish smell became rather visible.

Visible? That must have been quite a stench

Dale

On Wed, 09 Aug 2006 23:23:58 -0700, Dale wrote:

On Thu, 10 Aug 2006 00:29:37 GMT, "Jim Oberg" wrote:

JimO: This is baffling -- Phil is a GOOD researcher/writer and
I can't understand why -- if this story is even true -- he would NEED to
do what is claimed.

And allegedly the "Columbia-The Final Voyage" thread on this group and
s.s.shuttle was started by Mr. Chien using the alias of "Ted Collins". The
first reply was from Boggs Space Books, telling "Mr. Collins" that they had
copies available signed by the author. I wonder what their take is on all
this? It's all very strange, and as you say, sad, if true.

....Heh, it just dawned on me - perhaps Phil was trying to start a "we
are all Phil Chien clones"conspiracy :-)

OM
--
]=====================================[
] OMBlog - http://www.io.com/~o_m/omworld [
] Let's face it: Sometimes you *need* [
] an obnoxious opinion in your day! [
]=====================================[

On Thu, 10 Aug 2006 05:29:18 -0500, in a place far, far away, OM
made the phosphor on my
monitor glow in such a way as to indicate that:

On Thu, 10 Aug 2006 00:29:37 GMT, "Jim Oberg"
wrote:

JimO: This is baffling -- Phil is a GOOD researcher/writer and
I can't understand why -- if this story is even true -- he would NEED to
do what is claimed.

...Fake letters happen a lot more than the papers want to admit. Back
when I was an entertainment reporter for the Deadly Texan, we had this
one rather ugly bimbo who wrote and submitted her own fan mail through
proxies - read: she wrote the copy, and what few friends she had
re-wrote it in their own handwriting and mailed and/or hand delivered
it to the press room's front desk. While she never got caught during
the three years she was there plaguing our offices, quite a few people
got suspicious when it was the same five people dropping off fan mail
every couple of days, and out of the 20-25 letters there seemed to be
only about five sets of handwriting. They were a bit clever about it,
because they used different paper styles, different ink colors, and
some were even typewritten using different typewriters - none of them
were done on computer, apparently - but when you put all of the
letters together the fish smell became rather visible.

There's been a lot of sock puppetry like this going on in the
blogosphere recenty (including by an LA Times business reporter).

In article ,
Rand Simberg wrote:
On Thu, 10 Aug 2006 05:29:18 -0500, in a place far, far away, OM
made the phosphor on my
monitor glow in such a way as to indicate that:

On Thu, 10 Aug 2006 00:29:37 GMT, "Jim Oberg"
wrote:

JimO: This is baffling -- Phil is a GOOD researcher/writer and
I can't understand why -- if this story is even true -- he would NEED to
do what is claimed.

...Fake letters happen a lot more than the papers want to admit. Back
when I was an entertainment reporter for the Deadly Texan, we had this
one rather ugly bimbo who wrote and submitted her own fan mail through
proxies - read: she wrote the copy, and what few friends she had
re-wrote it in their own handwriting and mailed and/or hand delivered
it to the press room's front desk. While she never got caught during
the three years she was there plaguing our offices, quite a few people
got suspicious when it was the same five people dropping off fan mail
every couple of days, and out of the 20-25 letters there seemed to be
only about five sets of handwriting. They were a bit clever about it,
because they used different paper styles, different ink colors, and
some were even typewritten using different typewriters - none of them
were done on computer, apparently - but when you put all of the
letters together the fish smell became rather visible.

There's been a lot of sock puppetry like this going on in the
blogosphere recenty (including by an LA Times business reporter).

For giggles, google "msscribe".

--
http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/immigrate/
http://www.livejournal.com/users/james_nicoll
http://www.cafepress.com/jdnicoll (For all your "The problem with
defending the English language [...]" T-shirt, cup and tote-bag needs)