SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Online technology publication Wired News removed three articles from its Web site Wednesday after editors couldn't confirm the authenticity of at least one source.
All three stories were written by freelancer Philip Chien, a Florida author and space enthusiast who quoted and cited Robert Ash. In the articles, published in June and July, Chien described Ash as a "space historian" and an "aeronautical engineer and amateur space historian."
There's more and it involves some sock puppetry.
Wired News editors were also suspicious about another of Chien's sources in the space industry, a man named Ted Collins. Editors traced Collins' ostensible Hotmail account to an Internet forum about the space shuttle, in which Collins praised Chien's book, "Columbia: Final Voyage."
"I've seen a bunch of Phil Chien's stories online and always enjoyed his insightful questions in the press conferences, but hadn't heard that he had written a book," the posting read. It included a link to Chien's Web site and inquired whether the accompanying CD-ROM would be available through Amazon.com.
In an explanation e-mailed to Wired News, Chien acknowledged he created the Ted Collins' Hotmail account and used it in an attempt to mislead editors. Chien said Collins died in 1997, but said he liked his quotes so much he wanted to use them posthumously in the past three months.
Hold on, this is just the tip of the iceberg.
In May 2005, Wired News acknowledged it could not verify the accuracy or authenticity of roughly 160 news stories by freelance journalist Michelle Delio of New York City. Editors said they could not prove the existence of more than 40 people quoted in Delio's articles, which covered subjects ranging from computer viruses to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
Just file this with all the other fake media stories.
And they wonder why we don't trust them. Sheesh.
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