Journalists, lies and message boards

The whole fictitious life on a message board thing is incomprehensible to me, too. But not unusual.

We had a situation on one of the Springsteen message boards the past few weeks where this guy was himself, whoever that is, but had changed all the things about himself. He was still married but said his wife had divorced him and didn't allow him to see his 11-year-old daughter hardly ever.

He also created an entire thing where he said he had brain cancer (twice!) and then the most egregious thing: He faked his own death, including buying a paid obit in the St. Pete Times. So people on the board organized a memorial baseball game and caps to memorialize him, bought him a brick at Citi Field and even did an entire memorial program for 2 hours, including a dedication on a live radio show.

The next day, after some investigating by those who didn't trust him on the board, it was revealed when they called his mother that he was alive and well! I'm guessing had he been in journalism, that might have been cause for some sort of discipline but I never cease to be amazed in this business.

 

No serious, self-respecting journalist would do this.

The closest they might come would be to comment anonymously, using a made-up handle, or, if they already have one, then, a different one, in order to do so regarding either their own stories, or anything else, as Michael Hiltzik did at the L.A. Times.

Even in that case, the misrepresentation/intentional deceit as far as who he was seemed questionable. Had Hiltzik been almost anyone else, he probably would have been fired, even though the facts as he discussed them, whether in his column, in his blog or in printed stories, were always consistent and accurate.

Hiltzik, however, was a high-profile, well-respected columnist, and is one of the smartest, best reporters around. Anyone watching/listening to him for even a brief time can quickly see why/how that is so.

So, he was probably given a bit of a pass, and merely disciplined as opposed to terminated, and was allowed to use his skills for the benefit of the Times' sports section -- instead of business or news -- for about 18 months as his reassignment "punishment."

Let's just say that sports was the beneficiary in that arrangement.

 

Ever.

 

Like spup, I am me whether I'm being loud and obnoxious here or loud and obnoxious in person. I couldn't keep up a fake persona if I wanted to...just not capable of it.

But I'm not sure that just having a fake persona on here WITHOUT commenting on yourself or your job would be anything worth worrying about. This place can be a very vindictive one, and I sometimes wish I could hold/had held more back of myself. So coming on here without saying who you are can be a way to release stress, whatever.

I think that's different than pretending to be someone else for the sole purpose of commenting on yours or your coworkers' work, however.

 

Wait, so this thread isn't about ijag? Kidding, of course.

I'm just lazy and I think it's too much work keeping up a fake persona. I'd rather not have to do all that work or think that much.

 

My online self is probably truer than my real-life self. My real-life self is smart enough to keep his mouth shut sometimes.

 

Probably the same thing that goes through the mind of losers who take message boards as anything more than a grain of salt or worse, forms their entire social circle around a message board.....

 

Oh, but I am not totally losing my mind - something like that did happen, to the point that there was a thread started by Moddy scolding someone about it?

That did happen, right?

 

No, you're totally losing your mind because you have it backasswards.

The founding of the "other" board --- and its predecessor, the other "other" board --- preceded the event you're referring to by 6 months.

 

Not sure about the others, but personally, I went with the anonymous handle because, when I started posting on this site about a year ago, I was going through some stressful times at the ol' newspaper shop and wanted to vent about it.

It was very interesting (and depressing) to find that similar shenanigans were going on at the workplaces of others who post on here. Again, the anonymous user names help people be more honest about what they post, not less.

I would guess that's true for most of us here -- including those whose SportsJournalists.com handle is, like ADodgen, based on their real name.

In other words ... sorry, I'm not really a member of Supergrass.

 

It's an interesting enough topic, but does anyone here really think that lipstix isn't already a poster here?

The whole post appears to be a passive aggressive attempt to discuss specific posters here.

Ironic that lipstix didn't have the guts to post this with more information and with their own handle.

 

Fixed