Screw you Forbes

Dear editors of Forbes;

Go #)*(&@##*)@&@! yourselves.

Anyway, I would like to say first to the fun folks at Forbes I didn’t register to read the article where you’ve slammed my hobby.

Now Forbes Starts off this article on how bloggers are a wild lynch mob with the following section.

Please hold your irony till later.

But it turns out that scribe Nick Tracy of London was, in fact, a former stockbroker in Oregon named Timothy Miles--and Miles himself faces SEC charges that he took part in a pump-and-dumpstock scheme in 2000. He was tried in June and awaits a verdict. No matter:Circle Group stock fell below a dollar in a year of combat with Miles and the anonymous bashers on Yahoo (and after Nestlé dropped Z-Trim). Halpern's stake is down $75 million, and he blames Miles and his acolytes; he has sued for defamation. "Some of these bloggers have just one goal, and that is to do damage. It's evil," he says.

Ok... let’s take a step back here.

Stock scam in 2000
Vs
Blog post in 2004

This does not –directly- Imply he was wrong, doesn’t imply he was lying. It mearly brings up an old charge

Hmmmm defamatory conduct and slander from a news media outlet? That would never happen.

But Forbes magazine sadly –doesn’t- stop sticking the foot in the mouth there.

Often a bashing victim can't even figure out who his attacker is.

Because these sites don’t have registration (and user profiles), nor if the domain is a vanity domain are their webmasters in public record.

Oh wait… you mean a victim can’t figure out who his attacker is without doing –work-

Oh I’m sorry.

Much like the professional media has never printed false information and stood up for it.

Some companies now use blogs as a weapon, unleashing swarms of critics on their rivals. "I'd say 50% to 60% of attacks are sponsored by competitors," says Bruce Fischman, a lawyer in Miami for targets of online abuse.

I find this dubious from a traffic standpoint.

However if you own a multi-million dollar company please give me money If I abuse your competitors.

I will set up a list of companies I will gladly post negative comments on for 5 million dollars.

Oh wait… then I’d be like NBC never reporting on G.E

;-) But I’d admit I was a shill.

Thus they serve up vitriolic "content" without bearing any legal responsibility for ensuring it is fair or accurate

Do the words “absent malice” mean anything to you?

They should you are –a journalist-

A blog is no different then anyone saying anything. It’s just a different format. But you want to restrict free speech when your brethren can post something in the news that is “fake but accurate” with impunity

No wonder companies now live in fear of blogs. "A blogger can go out and make any statement about anybody, and you can't control it. That's a difficult thing,"says Steven Down, general manager of bike lock maker Kryptonite, owned by Ingersoll-Rand and based in Canton,Mass.

No wonder companies now live in fear of newspapers. "A newspaper can go out and make any statement about anybody, and you can't control it. That's a difficult thing,"says Steven Down, general manager of bike lock maker Kryptonite, owned by Ingersoll-Rand and based in Canton,Mass.

No wonder companies now live in fear of talk-radio. "A talker can go out and make any statement about anybody, and you can't control it. That's a difficult thing,"says Steven Down, general manager of bike lock maker Kryptonite, owned by Ingersoll-Rand and based in Canton,Mass.

No wonder companies now live in fear of people. "A person can go out and make any statement about anybody, and you can't control it. That's a difficult thing,"says Steven Down, general manager of bike lock maker Kryptonite, owned by Ingersoll-Rand and based in Canton,Mass.
Tell me how any of those 4 things are different. It is only different because what people once did in homes now is online, and easily accessible all over the world.

Even mighty Microsoft, for all its billions, dares not defy the blogosphere. In April gay bloggers attacked Microsoft over its failure to support a gay-rights bill in Washington State (the company is based near Seattle). "Dear Microsoft, You messed with the wrong faggots,"wrote John Aravosis, publisher of AmericaBlog, which threatened to oppose Microsoft's plans for a big campus expansion unless the company caved in. Microsoft reversed itself two weeks later, saying it supports gay-rights legislation after all. It says pressure from its own employees, not from bloggers, caused the change of heart.

Even mighty Microsoft, for all its billions, dares not defy the activits. In April gay activists attacked Microsoft over its failure to support a gay-rights bill in Washington State (the company is based near Seattle). "Dear Microsoft, You messed with the wrong faggots,"wrote John Aravosis, leader of AmericaBlog, which threatened to oppose Microsoft's plans for a big campus expansion unless the company caved in. Microsoft reversed itself two weeks later, saying it supports gay-rights legislation after all. It says pressure from its own employees, not from bloggers, caused the change of heart.

Again how is it different? In the case of the MS policy shift –though I don’t agree with John’s tone- what he did is no different at all then any gay rights group could have done.

But it wasn’t a group. It was a blogger and his readers, and their readers, and etc.

"Campaigns understand that there are some stories that regular reporters won't print. So they'll give those stories to the blogs," says Christian Grantham, a Democratic consultant in Washington who also blogs.

Because we know false stories never make it to the NYT or to CBS with the help of campaigners.

And you also notice –bloggers- ditched the girlfriend story quickly to.

When Hinderaker published an item saying left-wing bloggers should stop assaulting a White House reporter alleged to have worked as a gay prostitute, his blog brethren went on the assault, publishing his phone number at work and prompting a deluge of harassing phone calls and e-mails. "My secretary was crying" because callers kept swearing at her, he says. "Then we started getting calls at the house. My wife wanted to hire a bodyguard."

How about the gay activists who out people who were VERY forward in the gay prostitute charge

Hey guess what the Hindrocket would have gotten those same calls if a Journalist published it. And since as a prominent blogger he could very easily get shoe-horned into being a “Public figure” and thus that conduct can be deemed legal.

You can put a prom dress on a pig, but you can’t take it out.

Now back to the company who was “wronged” by a blogger. No one addressed the substance of what this blogger I never heard of said

But lets see –how- they responded to this.

Halpern had better luck, however, when he allied with Gayle Essary, who runs the FinancialWire online news service and had tangled with Miles, too. Halpern dug up details on Miles (his photo and Oregon driver's license; his links to a litany of questionable companies; his claim to be an ordained minister; his Web site that describes a mysterious crystal that contains a message from God) and fed them to Essary. Essary did 15 articles on Miles without citing Halpern as a source, and when Halpern heard from people asking about Miles' allegations against Circle Group, he referred them to FinancialWire, saying it had "exposed this guy a long time ago."

Any of those things relevant on what they were talking about

Nope… didn’t think so.

In the entire article that talks about blogs as slanderers the most important thing in the very lead of the article

“was their slander” and “was their libel”

Was never answered, no were the allegations even presented.

But I guess since Mr. Miles is a public figure he can’t sue forbes for libel

So again I say @(_#*@(#&@*(#!& U Forbes

Here are some other voices covering this soon to be blogswarm I am sure

( thanks to the brothers in the sandcrawlers for the hat tip)