IPA Challenges Forbes

The comment from "TruthBearer" started out this way.

"It's sad. Very sad, actually. You managed to take a Daniel Lyons Forbes article at face value.

You just assumed that Lyons' account of the O'Gara story was correct. Not bothering to actually look around and see, well, him and O'Gara are the only ones who look at it that way."

TruthBearer was referring to a post I had written about a Forbes.com article , The Attack of the Bloggers ( The article is now archived).  The article included a sidebar story about a journalist, Maureen O'Gara who was supposedly fired after bloggers went on a rampage over her story and demanded that the online publication remove her story. The article included a quote from the editor in chief defending his decision to not publish future articles from Ms. O'Gara.

"What are my options?We have criminal people who were taking us hostage, trying to destroy my business,"says Sys-Con Chief Fuat Kircaali

TruthBearer then directed me to a link with the headline IPA Lashes Out Against Forbes.com. The link is to a copy of a letter that the Internet Press Guild sent to Forbes concerning inaccuracies in their reporting.

"Some facts, which were publicly available, were omitted in the story or given a different connotation that misleads the readers. For example,

1) "Bloggers all but got O'Gara fired." In point of fact, the parties lobbying most heavily for the termination of her contract were not bloggers, but the editors of Sys-Con's own LinuxWorld Magazine. And the statement is doubly inaccurate, because bloggers couldn’t have gotten O'Gara "fired," since she was not an employee of Sys-Con Media. She was a freelancer, and a blogger herself.

2) The story also omits such aspects of O'Gara's reporting, which caused the editors to ask for her contract's termination.

These included such stalking behavior as describing the interior of Jones’ alleged apartment, publishing photographs of the exterior of her and her mother's alleged dwellings, casting aspersions on Jones' religious beliefs and referring to Ms. Jones in inflammatory terms such as 'a harridan'. Is it any wonder that the Sys-Con editors were concerned with being associated with this type of yellow journalism?"

TruthBearer was absolutely right. I took the Forbes.com article at face value. I will admit that when I read the sidebar I wasn't sure it passed the smell test. I was particularly amazed at an editor saying they would pull a story because of hackers.

However, I made the assumption that Forbes.com was printing accurate, reliable and truthful information. When you read the entire letter from the Internet Press Guild you get the impression that the writer, Daniel Lyons, is an incompetent nincompoop.

While the letter sites many inaccuracies in Lyons' article, it does not challenge the quote from the editor, nor does the editor quoted sign his name to the letter to Forbes.

I guess its time for me to actually pick up the phone and try to contact the editor. I will try to reach him today.

I tried to contact TruthBearer. Turns out the email submitted to the blog is a "faux email address."

Maybe its me, but when someone named TruthBearer writes me, I expect a truthful email address.