Microsoft blogger: ‘My toolbar vanished too!’ | The Register Earlier today I wrote a post on Andrew Orlowski of The Register regarding his credibility, or lack thereof, regarding a recent article that he wrote on IE7. My post was more along the line of how can you trust this guy after a previous hatchet job that he got wrong on the Media Center PC.
It looks like things may be going from bad to worse with Orlowski. He now has a post out with an alleged email from Robert Scoble regarding problems with IE7. The problem. Scoble says he never sent this email, that it’s fabricated.
Now getting a source who gives you bad information is one thing, but making up emails is something else entirely. If I were the Register I’d investigate this and if it turns out Orlowski fabricated an email then he should be fired.
Robert Scoble is someone I’ve found to be honest, open and transparent even to a fault sometimes. Orlowski’s credibility, on the other hand, leaves much to be desired. To make up an email and publish it as someones is pretty bad if as it appears, this is what Orlowski has done.
Orlowski goes on to make this issue with Scoble personal saying, “Is this the end of the road for Scoble’s Redmond adventure? Will professionals handle these situations from now on? The fellow seems to have no shortage of enemies on the campus, ranging from PR staff to technical liaisons, and this gives them plenty more ammunition. It’s not the first time Scoble’s indiscretions have got his colleagues into trouble. Or even the second. Bullying small web publications, while maintaining an elaborate fiction, is a new step for the blogger however, and in our experience Microsoft’s PR professionals have never resorted to bullying.”
This is not professional journalism and smacks of a writer with an agenda and does undermine the credibility of The Register in a huge way.