Irresponsible Windows Phone 7 rumor pays out

We called out two blogs called PPC Geeks and MobileTechWorld for printing an attribution-less trash piece of a rumor about Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 operating system. Fortunately for them and unfortunately for the world of responsible journalism, it paid off. Continue reading

TheStreet.com’s crappy tech ’exclusives’ in pictures

This is what we’re talking about.

Technologizer points out TheStreet.com’s abysmal history of using the headline keyword “exclusive” in place of “rumor” or “we sort of made this up.” TheStreet.com’s Scott Moritz‘s integrity is on the chopping block here. Continue reading

TechCrunch’s Arrington calls Brusilovsky’s laptop providers ‘the victims’

TechCrunch’s Michael Arrington mounted his high horse again today in a piece called “Why you should confess everything before you get caught.” In it, he calls out InfoWorld’s apology on account of one of its writers who misrepresented his identity.

As laughable as Arrington’s horn tooting was, he goes on to qualify his not disclosing the name of the company that traded former TechCrunch writer (not intern) Daniel Brusilovsky a laptop for press by saying they were “the victims of this whole thing.”

Allow us to get on our horse. Continue reading

Dubbed CrunchGate, 1938 Media asks which company traded laptop for press

TechCrunch fired one of its employees, 17-year-old Daniel Brusilovsky, earlier this month for accepting a MacBook Air from a company in exchange for a blog post. (We incorrectly referred to him, as too did TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington in his post, as an intern. Brusilovsky says he wasn’t.)

We called for TechCrunch to come clean on which company paid for press. Now, Loren Feldman of 1938 Media joins us in the hunt. His method is rather clever. Continue reading

‘At least three people’ tell NYT: E-books for iPad may be cheap

The New York Times is running a story about how most new books on Apple’s iPad may not average between $12.99 to $14.99 — that’s the price ceiling. This entire speculation about the Most Secretive Computer Company Ever is pegged to “at least three people with knowledge of the discussions.”

This phrase always kinda baffled us: “at least three people.” Aren’t they your sources, Motoko Rich? Like, don’t you know how many people told you that? Were you drunk? Unable to count to four?

The Gray Lady is on watch. We better see some cheap e-books next month, Mr. Rich.

Picture: Myuibe

WSJ calls Google Buzz

Props to the Wall Street Journal on calling Google Buzz (not by name).

A day before Google called its press minions to a quiet back alley in Mountain View, the WSJ published a story called “Gmail, too, seeks to rival Facebook.” Citing “people familiar with the matter,” WSJ described a new feature in Google’s mail client that “makes it easier for users of Gmail to view media and status updates shared online by their friends.”

Sure enough, Google announced and fired off its social networking feature, Google Buzz. Cred point goes to Rupert Murdoch‘s newest bastard child.

Google may be paying a lot to be iPhone’s search engine, and Apple may not be building a search engine

We haven’t posted in a week. I guess that means the blogosphere is done with stupid rumors, anonymous sources and inane claims. Job well done, guys! Let’s all go home.

Yeah, ok.

Time to sift through the bullshit we missed last week.

Target numero uno: “Google Paying Apple More Than $100 Million Annually For iPhone Search Deal.” Continue reading