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Honesty and Integrity Play Second Fiddle at The Pabster

By Mario Rodrigues

Date: March 15, 2002

the inquirer has reported on Tom's Hardware Guide's total dis-association of our very own Van Smith who use to work for The Pabster. This article is one of many that were authored by Van but now go under the pseudo name of - guess who - the 'THG Reporting Team'. The credit for this work which was written in February 2000 is now given to the 'current' editorial team. Van is not credited with anything. This one, and make sure you read the last paragraph, is credited to an unknown 'Udo Schroeder', doesn't tie in too well with Van's comments about being an American Indian!  

It's a sad day for IT journalism when author's credits can now be removed, buried, and replaced by a 'deliberate' click of a mouse, and the credit that should rightly go to the author is dishonestly passed on to someone else. It's bad enough that stolen stories get republished as original work, but this is far far worse. It's so crass and so unbelievably unprofessional. It also reeks of sour grapes. If there were ten commandments for journalists, this would be near the top of what not to do. Could you ever imagine the articles that the inquirer's Mike Magee wrote at The Register being credited to the current editorial team? Of course not, it would cause an uproar. This sad incident has to be seen in the same light.

Now that THG and The Register are working closer together, we can only hope that the editorial team at the Register have sufficient sense and influence to be able to change THG's dishonorable conduct so that the truth is known. If not, we can all look forward to the day when Mike Magee is shown the same disrespect.        

It should be an inalienable right that credit be given to those who have work published. Today's episode is a sad indictment at the current level of journalistic spin. Because of their influence, THG should be setting a far better example to others in the hardware community. Today, their credibility has fallen to new depths. To resurrect Van at THG, send your comments here and here. Let's see if THG or the Register have a conscience to do what is right. AMDZone's comments can be read here.

It just got worse, I've just checked the links for this story. Both the 'THG Reporting Team' and 'Udo Schroeder' pseudo names have now been removed from Van's articles, unfortunately, they still don't have the decency to apologize for their conduct and to give Van the recognition that he has earned and deserves [ed: the bylines have been completely removed]. Come on Tom, would you be a happy bunny if all the articles that you had written had had your credits removed? Have you totally forgotten the Hippocratic oath that guided your medical career, or did you leave that behind? You have a duty to your readership and your business partners to explain the dishonesty at your site, and show Van the professional courtesy of crediting his articles.
 

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