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?

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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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Don't Link People Away From Your Site!

Don't you hate it when you put a link on your blog page or website and in effect it drives people from your page to someone else's? Ever notice that some people have links that you click on and it opens a new browser window so your page is still up but just in the background?

Here is a simple html trick to make the link open in a new window.

Use - (space)target="_blank" - Just after the final URL quotemark put a space and place the command just before the ending elbow (>) in the link url. Don't forget the quotes around the word and the underscore line or it won't work. It will look like this:

- a href="place_url_here" target="_blank" -

of course the elbow thingy's go on each end.

It does help keep people from surfing away from your page.

Here is a working sample - For a great time Click Here! -


target="_blank"

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New Blog Advertisement Site

New spot to advertise your blog - It is a Million Pixel Advertisement Page for Bloggers Only! - Jump on board while there is lots of room! Click the above title.

OR!!! If you are as lazy as I am and don't want to raise the cursor that high CLICK THE LITTLE BOX BELOW! -

I will suggest that you put together a small banner (60 X 20) like this:

See if you can find my little advert on The Pixel Page!!!

P.S. I used Irfanview (another great FREE program) To make my little banner. I also used it for the big one at the top.

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BlogMad Goes WackyGremlins Did It Sez prying1

Quite a few people woke up this morning, jumped to their computers and started surfing the blogosphere. Looking for news and checking on friends. After logging on to BlogMad they most likely saw a notice saying: Database Corruption! If you have changed anything within the last 20 days, please be sure to re-apply those changes!

HUH?

It seems that during the night some goblins got into the mainframe and shook things up a bit. These goblins are not at all nice like the cute little elves that helped the cobbler and tailor with making shoes and clothing. These goblins like to change things around and make people mad. Some people lost credits, some lost a banner, some lost their ranking and some accounts had to start from scratch. And a whole bunch did not loose anything.

I had lost my saved credits, stats and ranking but had kept the banner.

One thing I like about the folks at BlogMad is they are up front. Not like the folks at some other websites (Think BIG auction site). On their FRONT PAGE yet is a letter explaining the problem. Although they did not mention gremlins.

Dear BlogMad Member,

The unforeseen has happened and we are sad to inform you that today (19 April 2006), the BlogMad database got corrupted. We have managed to salvage most of the user accounts and blogs registered on the system thanks to backups. We cannot apologize enough for this and we are making every effort for this never to happen again. This does however have a few ramifications:

1.) Credits. Your credits will now be skewed because of the loss of information. Some of you will find that your credits haven't changed, simply because your account wasn't corrupted. We will try and rectify as much of this as possible in the coming days.
2.) Blogs listed. Some or possibly all of your blogs will have been lost as well. Please re-add them and contact support@blogmad.net with any queries.
3.) Favorites. Again, some or all of your favorites will have been lost here. If you have deli.cio.us integration, your favorites will still be saved there. The possibility of an import tool will be investigated.

Even though BlogMad is still in Beta, we constantly strive to provide the best service we can and certain measures are being put into place as we speak to ensure that unforeseen problems like this don't occur in the future.

- End Quote -

Emails are being promptly answered. The chat board has a member directing people to the title page (above) and the service is wonderful. This is the way service websites should be handled.

The folks on the chatwindow had nothing better to do that to talk about the problem and the banter there was jovial and informative. After all, none of them (ok, me included!) are techies and have to do the work of fixing everything. They/We could just sit around in our pajamas and write wise witticisms to each other.

Quite a few in the chat window are already hurrahing the BlodMad tech support team for clearing up their accounts and they are finding themselves better off than before.

Altogether this hiccup (or was it a cough) at BlogMad has shown the people using the service that BlogMad is here to stay. It has been steadily growing and their service is great. Wonderful bloggers that are using the service and I've made quite a few friends from blog surfing through their site. The ratio is view one site, earn one credit. - Credits can be used to have others visit your site through blog surfing or to play games with a potential of winning more credits. -

They will soon be offering credits for sale and perhaps even an auction to purchase credits. It really is a great way to drive traffic to your blog.

Try it! You'll like it!

Click on the image above and sign up. It's FREEEE!


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Taxes

prying1 sez:

The first person that conceived the idea of taxes should have been tarred and feathered then boiled in oil then run out of town on a rail.

Update: It was suggested that the people in the next town he reaches have him walk the plank.

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Learning the Truth From Blog Chains

In my previous post Gentle Cricket left a link to The Only Republican in San Francisco (excellent site!) whose posting You need better sources, and better sources need you (II) led me to The Mudville Gazette whose article Headless in the Headlines tells of how the NY Times March 27th Story 30 Beheaded Bodies Found; Iraqi Death Squads Blamed was bogus! (- registration required to see the article. It is still up at this time with NO update or correction -)
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The previous paragraph is specifically designed for a particular left wingnut. He commented that he hated bloggers who gave nothing but a bunch of links in their first paragraph. This will give him something to direct his anger at instead of Bush and Rumsfeld. - p.s. Attn: particular left wingnut - please do not read this paragraph.
~~~~~
The Mudville Gazette reports the correction came in paragraph 17 of a Mar 29th Iraq news article. The first NY Times article (30 beheaded) is available for free with simple registration. The second (retraction in paragraph 17)is for paying customers only...



I know. This posting is a bit late. - It all happened over 15 days ago. I want to thank bloggers everyone because otherwise I would still have misinformation in my head. This does make me wonder how much other misinformation I still have in my head. - Don't worry. It doesn't hurt. I just don't like to be deceived. It seems the antiwar crowd does not mind deceiving people.

I remember hearing the blurb of the story on the radio news but did not, at that time, dig any deeper. I did not hear the radio news retract it. How many others heard no retraction and still think that 30 beheaded bodies were left laying by the side of the road in Iraq? News like this is bound to help instill the "We're losing" mentality that the Left wants to brainwash the U.S. (and the world) with.

Do they (lefties) care if it is a lie as long as it gets points for their side? Hmmmm... Let's see.

Mudville gives this quote from the Times showing it's retraction: - quote -
The police in western Baghdad discovered 14 bodies on Tuesday, all killed execution-style with gunshots to the head, apparently the latest victims of sectarian bloodletting. On Monday, Iraqi forces found 18 bodies near Baquba with similar wounds. Earlier reports of 30 beheaded bodies found in that area were wrong, the Interior Ministry official said. - end quote -

A comment from one of Mudville's readers: - quote -
Oh, ok, it is 32 bodies shot in the head, not 30 bodies beheaded. Whew! Thank god. I thought the conclusion that the Country is out of control was exagerrated. I am so glad to hear that it is shootings and not beheadings. Are you an idiot? What F*ing difference does it make? The Country is out of control.

Also, What happened to the "Crack" Iraqi Army that you and the other pentagon propagandists keep talking about? They are "afraid" to go retrieve the bodies?

You are more like Clinton than any democrat. Rather than looking at the point, you would rather argue about what the definition of "is" is.
Posted by Kevin at April 2, 2006 03:10 AM - end quote -

Please note that this is just one left leaning blogger. I will not say he is typical of ALL left leaning bloggers but it does illustrate my point... Also it does make me laugh that he uses Bill Clinton for the archetype.

Many Lefties do not care about the truth. All they want is their point of view to spread throughout the world.

Their concluding final ultimate purpose? TO WIN BACK POWER! To Win the Senate, Congress and the White House.

Should any American decide to vote for democrats this coming election please remember that you will not be getting what you hope for. They will lie to their base. They will lie to their voters. They will lie to themselves.

Does a person who is deceived know he is deceived? I didn't until I read Mudville's post.

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