Pulitzer Prize-Winning Journalist Deceives the Blogosphere!

Imagine this. You have a blog up and running. Someone comes along and leaves a comment that criticizes and ridicules an idea or thought you posted. You log on under a pseudonym and defend yourself. You even go so far as to praise your real name/person while pretending to be someone else.

How about this scene: You leave a comment on another person's blog. A bit later you sign in as the pseudonym and praise the comment you had previously left.

What would your mother think of this kind of behavior?

I mentioned this premise to my wife and she didn't like it. Said it was "deceitful".

Well Patterico's Pontifications has unearthed someone who did just that. Not just any old run of the mill blogger like I am. An L.A. Times newspaperman and a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist. - quote - "Since at least 2004, (Michael) Hiltzik has left comments on the Internet under an invented pseudonym, at times explicitly pretending to be someone other than Michael Hiltzik." - end quote -

Patterico should not be slamming a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist!

Unless he really has something.

Which he does. In fact Patterico has much more than I post here including a web page that directly links Michael's name with the internet handle, Mikekoshi. (found through Google - Hiltzik Mikekoshi - (banzuke.com page)

People don't seem to realize that as they surf the internet they leave tracks. Michael Hiltzik left tracks of his name linked to the pseudonym "Mikekoshi".

- Quote - Hiltzik's IP address is the same as Mikekoshi's. Nobody else has commented here using that IP address. - end quote -

and concerning another of Hiltzik's nicknames, "Nofanofcablecos" Patterico has this:

- Quote - "His (Nofanofcablecos) IP address wasn't from the L.A. Times; but guess what? It was the same as Mikekoshi's other IP address - the one beginning with "70." No other commenter on my site has ever used that IP address other than Mikekoshi and Nofanofcablecos. And, just to nail it down completely, I have verified that this address is one of two IP addresses used by Nofanofcablecos at Independent Sources (the other one being the L.A. Times address already mentioned)." - end quote -

Nofanofcablecos referred to Michael Hiltzik in the third person and Hiltzik posted a denial to another commentor that he was Nofanofcablecos.

The Los Angeles Times has suspended Michael Hiltzik's Blog. Like the blog did it?

~~~~~~~~~~~

Patterico's conclusions are the same as mine. Most likely the same as yours (I hope).

Quote - Why does this matter - or does it? After all, I'm obviously not objecting to use of pseudonyms by bloggers and blog commenters. How could I be? I mean, you're reading a post by someone who calls himself "Patterico." And, while I made the decision to make my real name public long ago (it's Patrick Frey), many of my commenters use pseudonyms. So what's the big deal?

Here's the thing. I am actually a strong defender of people's right to comment anonymously, or pseudonymously. I myself was semi-pseudonymous for the first several months of this blog. But I don't think that commenters should use pseudonyms to pretend to be something or somebody they aren't.

I don't go around pretending to be someone else. I am accountable for what I say. If I were anonymous commenter "Patterico," defending the arguments and actions of well-known blogger "Patrick Frey," I wouldn't be surprised if people found that fact worth sharing. And as far as I know, my blog commenters are not going around pretending to be people they're not, commenting on themselves using pseudonyms. If I found out that they were doing that, I'd let 'em have it. - end quote -

Patterico and I do not call for the firing of Michael Hiltzik. I think a strong apology with complete admittance to all places he posted deceitfully is in order. It would be the adult thing to do.

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prying1 sez: What gets me about this deal is that Michael Hiltzik is a professional newsman. I could understand a kid doing it but an adult whose profession is "disseminating facts". Perhaps the problem starts in journalism schools where students are taught they can have a 'positive impact on the world' (read: press forth the liberal agenda) instead of being taught that their job will be to simply to tell who, what, when, where, why.


His actions only cause more harm to the MSM. The same MSM who claims blogs and bloggers are untrustworthy.

After all, They say, You really don't know who is posting what on the internet...


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