Posted on 05/10/2005 9:14:35 AM PDT by ShadowAce
Well, the last day has certainly been an interesting one. First off, I'd like to thank all the people who wrote such kind words of support, both here and on Slashdot. Taking a tough moral stand is made a lot easier when you've got so many people giving you a little push from behind.
The good news is, the right thing happened in the end. Sys-con Media listened to what I and my fellow editors, their advertisers and the readership was saying, and made the correct decision. Maureen O'Gara's bylined material will no longer appear anywhere in the Sys-con universe of sites or publications. We have received this commitment in writing from Fuat Kircaali, the publisher. Checking around the web sites this morning, I can see that her material is already almost entirely gone, I assume the remainder will dribble out over the next few days.
Now we can return to producing a world-class web site and print magazine, with the kind of editorial control that we think is critical. You showed your support for our position, I hope you'll be equally kind to us with your readership.
Overdue Obligatory Personal Note: 6 days after surgery, neck is still a little sore and the occasional Percocet is still required, but I'm feeling surprisingly good. I may ask if I can drive to my High School reunion (my 25th) on Friday. Some of my fingers are still numb, but less so every day, so I'm hopeful things will work out well.
can we get a little background on this O'Gara person and what she did/said or didn't do/didn't say?
Couldn't have happened to a nicer person. That hag has been spread-eagled (golden-eagled?) over her newsdesk for Darl McBride and SCO since their BS lawsuit was filed.
Snooping into Pamela Jones' personal phone records, religeous beliefs and putting her mother's address information in print on the internet was wrong on any level.
Not sure how I got on your MS bashing ping list, but please take me off.
She has been a HUGE supporter of SCO in its lawsuits against IBM and other open source/linux users, but thinly disguised as objective journalism. Due to this support, she has also been a philosphical opponent of Pamela Jones, the owner, editor, etc of Groklaw.
Late last week, Maureen O'Gara published a screed on PJ, giving out her address, age, model car she drives, photos of her house, her mother's address, and various other bits of juicy information of any wannabe stalkers out there.
and as a result, got fired, hence the article you pinged us on?
Done.
it was probably big news for the people deeply involved in the IBM/SCO/Linux world. It has an impact in the rest of the computing world, to a point, but since a bunch of us out here are either on windows or OS X, it might not have been as big of a news item.
I'm pretty sure she's "freelance." She does have her own web site. But she's been "fired" from Sys-con Media publications, anyway.
Mr Turner, among others, IIRC, threatened to resign if O'Gara was not removed: she has published outright falsehoods (that the linux kernel contained MS IP and was going to be rewritten in order to remove it), and has served as a cheerleader at SCO conference calls. The "expose" of Pamela Jones was the final straw, evidently. This has been a long time coming.
Thank you.
Whatever. If I want to read about "tech issues", MS bashing, and the like, I'll go to C|Net.
Didn't get any last night, eh?
I got plenty, I don't need it from you.
It's about time. What she's done makes Dan Rather look like an honest journalist.
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