Note To Self: Don't Piss off Wired

If you are going to fake information and use the Internet as a tool for your deception - don't do it with a major technology magazine.   Worse yet, don't do it with a magazine filled with fairly playful technopundits.  Philip Chien did it and he was soundly and publicly busted.

From Wired:

An investigation traced the name and Hotmail account provided to a Usenet posting praising Chien's work. Wired News senior editor Kevin Poulsen then compared the IP address of the poster and Chien's computer and discovered they matched. An e-mail sent to Wired News from the Ted Collins account also originated with the same IP address.

Caught by an IP trace.  Holy GeekSquad!

Wired walks a tightrope, they are mainstream media - but they're our mainstream media.  They know that their credibility is highly scrutinized specifically because they do enjoy a high level of trust among technophiles. 

As mainstream media continues to become the seed for conversation and not the entire stream of information, it will find itself under more scrutiny.  This type of proactive fact-checking and immediate and unabashed reporting will become standard.

I'm sure that Chien didn't anticipate being caught by his own IP address though.

One other note: Being caught by your own IP address when crossed with AOL's recent dissemination of search logs should cause us all to pause and maybe look for more anonymous ways to use the Internet.  If this woman can be caught and confirmed to be many things she is not - what might you end up being that you are not?




Technorati Tags: AOL, Wired, mainstream media, accountability, IP

powered by performancing firefox