I Duped JD Lasica

"Veteran journalist" JD Lasica wrote about the Denounce/Pricekut/Tribune-goof story in an article entitled "I Duped the Chicago Tribune" in his New Media Musings blog yesterday.

Here's how JD starts:

I'm not a big fan of "spoof" news stories -- satire masquerading as news -- because so many people don't get them, and even intelligent people are flummoxed. Why, I'm not sure. If you believe everything you read on the Web, you deserve anything you get.

He goes on to assert that someone named Rick Ellis wrote my Denounce article. Here's JD:

Turns out Rick Ellis, managing editor of AllYourTV.com, devised a fictitious article four weeks ago on the Denounce Newswire. For some reason, the Trib writer and editors thought it was legit. Perhaps this graf should have clued them in:

Bezos said the best is yet to come with Pricekut, which, by the way, is protected by sixty-two patents pending, including the ability to reach out with one's hand and hold a mouse to click on it.

Who is Rick Ellis, and how did JD Lasica come to believe that he wrote something in Denounce? That's a new one.

And then JD finishes his article with this:

Brian Storms has all the details here.

JD, my name is Brian Dear, my blog is called "brianstorms" -- you know, it's a twist on brainstorms. If your name was "Brian" you'd know how many people misspell your name "Brain".

JD, I am the author and owner of Denounce. I don't even know a Rick Ellis.

I hope these facts reduce your flummoxity. :-)

I am curious: will JD Lasica now issue a correction of his own, followed by either modifying his blog, or deleting the 2/23/2004 story altogether? The whole world is watching . . .

Meanwhile . . .
The South by Southwest people are pondering the Big Issues, say, Pricekut spoofs and newspapers being duped. Yes, here's their 2/24 blog entry:

02/24/04
PRICEKUT FOOLS CHICAGO TRIBUNE

The question of the day for SXSW Interactive Festival speakers is as follows:

On February 21, the Chicago Tribune published a story about the emerging trend of social networks. The story included information on Amazon's new "Pricekut" service, a service that allows customers to meet each other while shopping. Only problem here is that Pricekut was a spoof put together by Brian Dear, who publishes the satirical website denounce.com. What do you make of this gaffe by Tribune? Is this reflective of the mainstream media's lack of understanding about new technology? Or, should we just attribute this mistake to the general problem of slopping reporting. Alternately, while the "Pricekut" story was a hoax, would a service like this make sense?

You know what? There's something seriously wrong with the SXSW Conference if the question of the day has to do with Pricekut and Denounce.com....

Tribune Issues Correction

The Chicago Tribune issued a correction today regarding the story on online social networks that appeared in last Saturday's paper, blogged here on Saturday. The article with the mention of Amazon's new Pricekut social network. The social network that doesn't actually exist, but was made up by yours truly for a satire piece in Denounce Newswire.

Not only did the Trib issue a correction, they made a correction in the online version of the article. It no longer mentions Amazon or Pricekut or includes the quotes from Tom Anderson of Myspace.

By the way, I was contacted by a New York Post reporter yesterday who said he was doing a story in today's edition on the Trib goof, but I haven't seen anything on the NYPost website yet. Maybe the NYPost editor nixed the artcle?

Also, another update: I heard back from Tom Anderson of Myspace again, and he confirmed that the reporter Kraig Kujawa contacted him. Anderson said this: "Kraig did send me some questions via email, and apparently I commented on his question about Amazon starting a friend network type service. I just don't remember it. I get interviewed quite a bit. :-)"

(Since the whole Pricekut thing has only been around for some three and a half weeks, it's interesting that he doesn't remember commenting on it to a reporter.)

But wait! There's more!: The weirdness continues here . . .