Well the hack of all hacks, eWeek's Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols, aka "King of the Freetards," turns out to be the gift that keeps on giving. Our FSJ Spotlight Team has turned up even more examples of reverse engineered stories, and we're only back to October. Good grief.
See this story about KDE which appeared with the byline of Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols on DesktopLinux.com, and this press release from the developers who make KDE.
Or compare this article about a KACE survey under the byline of Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols with this press release by a company called KACE. Complete sentences, lifted in whole.
Or compare this article about Red Hat published under the byline of Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols to this press release from Red Hat. Complete sentences lifted, word for word.
Or compare this story about an Everex computer under the byline of Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols and this story about the same computer but under the byline of Ben Hall on a website called The Green Lounge. Entire sentences, identical. Who knows which came first? To be sure, it may be that the other guy copied Vaughan-Nichols. Or maybe they both copied the same press release.
Or see this article about Ubuntu under a Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols byline, and this press release by Canonical. Whole sentences lifted.
Or compare this story about Novell's new version of SuSE Linux which bears a Vaughan-Nichols byline and this press release from Novell. Entire sentences lifted, word for word.
Namaste, Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols. I honor the place where the language of corporate press releases and the content of your articles become one. And as your wonderful online bio points out, it does appear that after all these years of writing about technology you just may have learned something along the way. Much love.
UPDATE: Readers, for a real howl, check out this piece where Steven J. Vaughan-Cut-and-Paste offers a little insight into how much he loves himself. Honestly, it's priceless.
Monday, December 10, 2007
More incidents of copying by Vaughan-Nichols. We're not kidding.
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38 comments:
Great blog!
good!!!!!!!
Okay, um, this is getting kindof, you know, boring? Like, I don't know who this Vaughn-nickles guy is, but, like, I don't really care, either? You used to be cool, Steve, but lately, um, with all of the ranting and the quotes and stuff, well, maybe, not so much...
Can we get back to the fun, witty stuff? Insider snarkiness is not fun. I mean, who cares?
Hey, go easy on him. It's a real life skill being able to cut and paste in linux. All those different keyboard short-cuts are a bugger to remember...
This is wonderful, FSJ. I mean, it's one thing to publish press releases verbatim. Lots of tech magazines do it. It's another thing altogether to put your byline on them. This guy has absolutely no shame.
The thing is, the writing is so bad that eWeek has to know what this tool is doing. It reflects so badly on them, I can't understand why they let him continue. I guess they just don't care how bad they look.
FSJ old boy...
You are gettin' it all wrong. You are gettin' it the wrong way around.
Vaughan-Nichols WROTE the press releases for these tech companies. So it is technically not copying. In that universe, if you wrote it, you can reuse it as much as you like without mention or crediting yourself.
ah hah!!!!
I used to work as an IT journalist (also film and TV) and although I would take facts and figures from press releases I would follow up with a call to the press office and arrange for a quote and more in depth background from the company concerned.
Cutting and pasting is not journalism.
Maybe Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols is merely showcasing his skills so that he can be Joe Biden's new speechwriter.
After all, Biden got caught plagiarizing speeches from Neal Kinnock, and now Biden is running for President again.
Hey Dan.
When are you going to show all the incidents of Dan Lyons rewriting PR for Forbes?
Also, when are you going to show how you copied your entire FSJ vernacular and basically everything else here from the Yahoo SCOX board?
Will Tim Ransom be receiving any royalty cheques for being your number one source of material?
I know you won't be publishing this comment, as the ones you wrote yourself are far less edifying. Which is a good thing. Right?
*chuckle*
I don't get the point here. Who cares about some Freetard columnist?
And, call me cynical, but isn't repackaging a press release pretty much what everybody does in the IT press? There's only so many deep-thinking essays one can write about paradigms being shifted and child-like enthusiasms being restored. (Dvorak hasn't figured this out yet.)
Journalists bagging on other journalists just isn't all that interesting.
SJVN's bio sez he's "ready to appreciate anything that would make my work life easier." Like cut-copy-paste, I guess. Or: what about ditching all that Unix crap and getting a Mac?
"My first programming language was IBM 360 JCL (Job Control Language)"
Umm.....JCL is not a "programming language" it is a job control language. You can't write programs in JCL, you use it to tell a mainframe how to run a program. JCL defines what resources a job needs (printers, input source, disk space requirements, processing priority, etc.).
So I guess this is consistant with this guy, he claims to have written programs with a language that isn't a programming language much like he claims to have written "articles" by copying press releases.
So apparently
Ooh, looks like SJVN has made an appearance! Watch out, FSJ, somebody's jealous.
My fave quote from the Linux-Watch self ass-kissing: "Once, I turned to writing," ...yeah, and then after that one time didn't work out, he turned to cutting and pasting.
And he calls himself a writer? What a moran. He really should let somebody edit his stuff at the very least. Typos and grammatical errors in long-posted, easily fixed bios? Geesh.
I read the Vaughan-Nichols self-love-fest, and the thing I liked best was that he didn't actually know the names of the computers he worked on. He blathers about Perkins-Elmer; it was Perkin-Elmer. He worked with an AT&T "B2" computer - that would be a "3-B2". If you're going to brag about your historical background in computing, at least know what the hell the things were called...
To the anonytard at 6:11 am-
Do you not understand the difference between rewriting, paraphrasing, or recasting and SVN's copying something word for word, naming himself as the author? Wake the hell up!
He immediately shredded any credibility he might have as a reporter and turned himself into a second-rate hack. He obviously has no notion of integrity, something that still counts in journalism.
Um, aside to Mark212: That's a really non-intelligent thing to write, saying that all IT journalists rewrite press releases. You have no idea what you're talking about. Typical generalization talk. We all use them as sources on a regular basis, certainly, because a lot of news starts there. But the vast majority of us do a great deal of interviewing and outside research that adds far more depth and quality to the finished product than a simple PR. Do some research instead of following this group of trolls like a sheep.
This is the dumbest non-funniest thing you've ever done on the blog - thus I brought it to SJV-N's attention. Here's his response.
Also I could very well produce evidence of all the times one Steve Lyons doing exactly the same thing. So this is just petty crap,
You've made yourself look lame beyond belief - I did like the PJ finger wagging drawing, but though she is ticked at Steve for supporting the Borg-Novell patent deal, even PJ thinks those postings were the lamest waste of time and space. Not that she reads this blog,on principle, you have to grab her head by the ears whip it in the direction it needs pointing at and hold there for a spell.(link to photo illustrating this idea withdrawn, not safe for work, children or ire of Linux community)
Namaste.
With karate I'll kick your ass
Here to Tiananmen Square.
Oh yeah, muthafucka,
I'm gonna kick your fuckin' derriere.
You broke the rules,
Now I'll pull out all your pubic hair,
You muthafucka.
You muthafucka.
Fake Steve betrayed me
And then he lied, tried to hide,
And I died deep inside
And you know the reason why
I'm gonna kick your ass
From here to right over there.
Oh yeah muthafucka,
I'm gonna kick your fuckin' derriere.
You broke the rules,
Now I'll pull out all your pubic hair,
You muthafucka.
You muthafucka.
It seems a little silly that someone who (granted, this is at first glance) seems to be trying to gain readership the way you seem to be (I believe the saying is "riding someones coattails"). Even if you do make it obvious that you are a fake.
Most of what you claim SjVN seems to be copying are press releases from the organizations who make the product, which seems perfectly acceptable, after all, isn't that what a press release is for? It doesn't seem like he is trying to hide what he is doing either.
I personally like it, because it means that all I have to do is look at one or two feeds and I get all the latest news on the releases of my favorite software. And this way I get my information directly from the source and can do my own research from there (because I'm not his lapdog, I'm not afraid to disagree with him).
hmm... reads like a bunch of 5 year olds in the school playground. Who needs MS FUD when you have clowns like this in self destruct mode. Grow up.
Out of curiosity, are you planning on doing this for all SJVN's articles back to 92? If so you may want to make a separate blog for that. Even your most avid fans probably don't care that much about SJVN.
It looks like FSJhatesSJVN.com is available.
That "Bio" stuff is absolutely hilarious. He took a bunch of random computer terms and formed his bio off of that to make himself look smart. Then he brags about how many computers he has.
"...I don't just use Linux in my 20-computer home office. Before I made my living from writing, I spent years as a NASA and Department of Defense contractor. In those jobs, I did it all: system analysis, programming, network administration, enterprise-level email administration, and more.."
Just priceless.
pwned
To Fake SJV-N: unfunny, lame, empty, not in character. Give up the handle to someone who has the talent.
Next time try posting as Fake Kevin Federline or Fake Robby Van Winkle.
k'net-
If eWeek wants to publish press releases, that's fine, but they should label them as such. Why in God's name should a reporter put his byline on the story?
It's wrong on two fronts: it's dishonest because he didn't write it, and it turns him into a ventriloquist's dummy, mouthing some company line. This is totally contrary to the whole notion of an independent press. By putting his byline on a press release, the reporter is abdicating his role.
What's really lame is this disingenuous explanation of what he does:
"Like all reporters, I write stories based on press releases. It's one of the things we do when we can't find someone at the company to tell us what's what with their company or group's latest news. And, I might add, more often than not, I then have the pleasure of listening to someone read to me from the press release.
Sometimes I make it clearer than others that I'm working from a press release. The key phrases to look for in such stories, both by me and other reporters, are "according to a company statement," "according to CEO Joe Cool of Joe's Camels," or, "In a statement, Joe's Camels claims that there are no such things as cancer causing camels."
Sure, if by "based on" he means "copied word for word without attribution." And I especially like the sentence "Sometimes I make it clearer than others that I'm working from a press release." As in, "Sometimes I make it look like I actually wrote something," and as if copying a press release constitutes actual "work." What a freaking joke!
But the real problem here is the editors, who are charged with maintaining the integrity of their publication. Where the hell are they?
from one of lastangelman's recent blogs:
"The albino ferret featured in my profile is Frederich "Freddie" Heimlich Kunreuther... He recently passed away after surviving a bad intestinal infection and a bad cold... We'll miss his happy joyful smile, his playfulness... and his French kisses.
French Kisses? I'm not even going there...
Have you even smelled the house of someone who owns ferrets? Ferret poo makes used cat litter smell like Chanel No. 5...
I teach tech writing in college, and I have to enter the fray here. Plagiarism is stealing, and it's one of the first things covered in any writing course. SJVN could just quote the press releases and cite them, thus saving readers the need to look at the original--that would be fine. But to insert the text as his own writing is pure plagiarism. Is this guy being paid to do this? He should be immediately dismissed, and his editors should write a nice, distancing disclaimer. ("Of course, if you are captured, we will disavow any knowledge of your existence.")
This is lame. Making a mountain out of a molehill. Yeah so he copied some press releases. Does that make him a lazy journalist? Yeah. Is it amusing to expose it. A bit. But this is way overdone.
On the other hand SVJN is far more knowledgeable about Linux than Dan Lyon. And he was not the one who got embarrassingly "snowed by SCO". Remember that one?
Sorry you are just not very funny. My advice to you is quit while you are still ahead.
This is kind of funny. We have a blogger whose entire schtick is built on the reputation of someone else getting all holier-than-thou about one relatively obscure journalist cutting and pasting from a few press releases.
Who appointed Fake Steve Jobs the arbiter of journalism ethics and objectivity?
Fake Steve Jobs accuses Vaughan-Nichols of journalistic sins, then his posts on the situation contain several inaccuracies, including getting Vaughan-Nichols’ name wrong. He talks about trying to get Vaughan-Nichols journalist license yanked, when no such license exists.
As a journalist, I’m certainly not defending cut-and-paste reporting. It’s lazy, and reputable news organizations, even those in the cesspool that is tech journalism, discourage or prohibit the practice.
But that doesn’t make it rare. I’d be willing to bet there are hundreds of journalists and bloggers do the very same thing. In fact, it seems that a good portion of the blogosphere was built upon the idea that the press releases from the bloggers’ favorite companies/products/politicians aren’t effusive enough. Half the bloggers out there should be on public relations payrolls.
So Fake Steve Jobs, you’ve exposed one of a legion of lazy journalists and bloggers who use the cut-and-paste function on their keyboards too frequently.
Congratulations. I hope you’re proud of yourself.
To anonymous @ 11:13 am-
You evidently don't understand the humor in seeing someone who appoints himself an advocate of a moral position, aligned with the Linux/Open Software zealots, turning around and lying or plagiarizing (claiming to have authored articles he did not). He was willing to spike his self-proclaimed integrity by reprinting press releases, and sticking his byline on them, for God's sake.
I agree that there are way too many bloggers who should be on PR departments' payroll (Scoble, perhaps?), but that doesn't make it right, and this is a particularly interesting case.
But again, my real problem is with the so-called editors. This guy's column appears under the masthead of a publication that ostensibly cares about its integrity. How can they condone this?
I'm not saying what the journalist in question did was right at all. If the reports here are accurate, it's lazy journalism.
Of course, I'm seeing several inaccuracies and examples of lazy "reporting" in Fake Steve Jobs' posts, so I'm not sure I can trust what he says.
People who live in glass houses and all that.
FSJ is outing one guy for a fairly standard, if ethically iffy, practice. If FSJ wants to start taking on press-release journalism, he's got a lot of work to do. Shooter, let me introduce you to a bunch of fish in a barrel.
This crusade smacks of a bit of a personal vendetta, and if that's the case, FSJ's outing of Vaughan-Nichols is just plain mean.
FSJ may want to take away Vaughan-Nichols' non-existent journalism license, but his a--hole license is in no danger.
Sorry, this is just to clarify that I inadvertently left my name off the post that showed up as "anonymous said" at 1:11 pm.
Since I find the world of technology (and in particular Silicon Valley) moderately absurd, I find myself using this blog more and more to learn about the strange goings on in said world. The humor is just a differentiating factor from other technology blogs. I think some of the most powerful pieces of work on this site are when FSJ's ranting and wit subside and some real, frank assessments of a situation emerge. These days, journalists at least in the United States are too often limp and pathetic, so it's refreshing to see someone take a stand every once in a while.
Kudos FSJ.
arrrrrrrgggggh!!!!
fsj, you knowz i lubz ya, wid da great beeg lub. you know i'm your most staunch supporter.
and while i don't agree with frigtards mark212 or lastangelman (study real journalism much, dik4z?), i have to say, puh-leez:
uncle! uncle! genug ist genug! we all give! everyone on the blog gives! we surrender. consider us poland and you're the wehrmacht!
yes, SJVN is a merciless hack! we agree! no more long listings of dual quotes 'tween his articles and the press releases. puh-leez! it's just gone on too long and no one really reads or cares about eWeek or freetard promoters in journalistic sheep's clothing. really — no one cares!
where the heck is that damn "Ed." to tell us enough?!
... (Ed. — i'm right here. enough, we get it, already ...)
thank gawd! oh, thank gawd you finally showed up! where the hell have you been?
... (Ed. — wading through the papers stacked on floors and boxes of old eWeek stuff that FSJ has been combing through like Captain freakin' Queeg looking for the damn strawberries ...)
please, fsj. bring the sexy back. we need it as a palette cleanser. please. puh-leez, fakey steve-o. i beg of you! in the name of this glorious blog and all that is holy! puh-leez! puh-uh-uh-uh-uh-leez! {sob!} no more! no-o-o-o mo-o-o-o-ore!!!! {sob! sputter! sob!...}
I don't give half a fuck where SJVN gets his stories from, I read www.linux-watch.com because he writes about what I would like to know about, I like his writing style and I, for the most part, share his oppinions.
As a sidenote: Having all comments screened by FSJ before being published? You afraid of what comments you may get Fake?
Ps. If anyone wants to bash my English, please do it in Norwegian so I can understand :P
The GOOD writers for computer publications take the press release nonsense as starting points for news stories that include vital content such as release dates, sizes and prices. That's real reporting, even when the result looks like a press release (done right).
He's so lazy he can't even stand up and get lunch
What a spaz Anonymous @ 6:32 AM is:
" what about ditching all that Unix crap and getting a Mac?"
Mac is based on Unix dumbass
http://www.apple.com/macosx/technology/unix.html
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