For the sixth time in three months, AOL Patch has put out false and/or misleading information about Talk of the Sound or me, Robert Cox, the Managing Editor. They have stolen content from Talk of the Sound, lied about it, made defamatory statements to the press and now run a an story about a community project in which I am intimately involved and for which Talk of the Sound is the media partner where my role is not mentioned nor my site identified as the media partner.
Even after they were made aware that the story was erroneous, and said they would remove it, they left it anyway because, the editor later said in an email, the women featured in the story posted a comment corroborating my complaint. Got that? Because the subject of story acknowledge my role in a comment that contradicted the original article Patch decided that was good enough.
Same for another story last month that was purportedly about the local Chamber of Commerce web site (which I created and now manage). After I pointed out again today that they had published a story in November where the confused author had written about an online directory called ChamberofCommerce.com thinking it was the actual Chamber of Commerce of New Rochelle web site — even calling it the Chamber of Commerce of New Rochelle web site but linking to ChamberofCommerce.com — the editor responded by simply substituting the hyperlink from ChamberofCommerce.com to newrochellechamber.org. The article is still describing ChamberofCommerce.com but calling it the Chamber of Commerce of New Rochelle web site. A quick visit to ChamberofCommerce.com will make clear how careless they have been with this story even AFTER they “corrected” the story.
At some point this sort of thing goes from a few sloppy errors to a calculated and deliberate effort to harm an entrenched hyper-local new site. The one constant has been Hudson Valley Editor Katie O’Connor who was “downsized” out of her editorial position at Gannett, apparently with good reason.
The short version of my response to their duplicity can be found by clicking the image link above where a local graphic designer has created a series of satirical Patch logos suitable for all occasions. I hope other operators of hyper-local sites will find them useful as they contend with the evil behavior of AOL Patch.
The long version follows below…
Talk of the Sound was first to report that AOL’s Patch.com was coming to New Rochelle back in early August.
Back then I wrote:
… more media coverage of New Rochelle is always good so I, for one welcome them. So much so that I applied for the position of writing a weekly column about New Rochelle for them. Looking over their ABOUT US page I can see a few names I know and respect.
When Regional Editor Katie O’Connor invited me to have coffee and chat I agreed. Knowing what I know now about her I would have never done that and would warn the world that Ms. O’Connor’s idea of an off-the-record conversation is very different from every other journalist I have ever met. She can best be described as a liar, a fraud, a hack, a snake, a weasel….take your pick. My advice, steer clear of her at all costs.
New Rochelle Patch launched on Thursday September 23, 2010.
It was not even a day before AOL Patch was plagiarizing content from Talk of the Sound and otherwise “repurposing” news and information from Talk of the Sound.
Rather than acknowledge the theft, O’Connor issued two false public statements including “Allison Esposito, did not plagiarize anything from Mr. Cox’s blog in any form.. The objects in question — police generated mug shots — are publicly available and any similarity to Mr. Cox’s presentation of those public images is purely coincidental. Linking mug shots together in Photoshop (in this case, apparently doing nothing more than placing three similar sized objects in a row) is standard operating procedure for news organizations everywhere.”
After stealing from the site, then lying about repeatedly, Brian Farnham, O’Connor’s boss stepped in and issued his own statement admitting the theft, “The image she posted was, in fact, a download of the composite image you made from the police mug shots. I sincerely apologize for this unattributed and unauthorized use of your image.”
I was content to drop the issue since Allison Esposito was fired even though O’Connor never retracted her previous, false and defamatory statements nor did AOL Patch ever publish any sort of explanation or apology on their own site. Yet last month, after the Online News Association conference, Farnham sought to trivialize the incident in an interview with Online Journalism Review saying “in one case (New Rochelle Patch] the plagiarism was in copying a photo-collaged image of public-domain police mugshots without crediting the blogger who made the collage. Again — flat-out wrong, no excuses. But the editor was working hard and going too fast and got sloppy.”
On OJR, in my public response to the publication of the interview I noted “the issue was not simply that a local Patch editor lifted material from Talk of the Sound but that after I informed her and her boss, AOL issued official statements not just denying that the image had been plagiarized but made numerous, knowingly false statements about me personally, accusing me of lying and attributing various nefarious motives to my “lying”. Further, that AOL Patch never published any sort of correction, attribution or apologize on their own site.” I also noted “Farnham says about another plagiarism incident in California, ‘we immediately apologized, corrected the record, and ended our relationship with the freelancer.’ With Talk of the Sound, they lied about it for four days, issued two officials statements accusing me of lying, failed to correct the record and continue to employ the regional editor responsible.”
Michael Woyton replaced Alison Esposito as the editor of New Rochelle Patch in October. I have made an effort not to be critical of New Rochelle Patch since he took over from Esposito. When there have been errors I have left them alone. When they ran a story with a glaring and rather stupid error — claiming that “http://www.chamberofcommerce.com/” is the New Rochelle Chamber’s web site — I sent him a “heads up” email rather than make a public issue of it. I am going to make an issue of it now.
The article is about how to use the Chamber of Commerce of New Rochelle web site to find places to shop.
The author writes (emphasis added):
My kids have had their lists all ready to go for about two weeks now, and I have an idea of what to get a few people on my list, but where do I go to get it?
Before I head out the door, I like to have a plan in mind, and I really like to support New Rochelle shop owners. So the first thing I do is go on line to check out what information the New Rochelle Chamber of Commerce has to offer.
Here’s what I found. If you go here you will find a detailed list by category. That’s right. Eliminate the guesswork, and find the best deals.
You want toy stores? Clothing? Discount stores? Department stores? You’ll find a full list, at your fingertips.
Happy shopping!
The word “here” has a hyperlink to http://www.chamberofcommerce.com/.
Just one problem. The Chamber of Commerce of New Rochelle web site is http://www.newrochellechamber.org/
I should know. I manage their web domain, their email and created their web site, Facebook page, Twitter account and all the rest. There is no such store directory in the site.
How dumb is this? The author indicates that she has been using this site over and over again and yet still failed to noted that what she is linking to is clearly not the Not-For-Profit Chamber of Commerce of New Rochelle but rather a commercial enterprise, a business directory, and has nothing to do with New Rochelle. It is basically an online yellow pages.
Even though New Rochelle Patch has known about this for weeks the article remains on line as of this moment.
Early this morning, New Rochelle Patch published yet another completely erroneous story that related to me. This is a story about a project to take thousands of photographs in the City of New Rochelle on one day — October 10, 2010. I have been intimately involved in this project since its inception six months ago. In the New Rochelle Patch I have been all but written out of the story despite playing a significant role.
I fired off an email to Woyton at 6:53 AM:
Michael,
This story is NOT REMOTELY ACCURATE and I am not very happy about it. I played a significant role in this project as the people copied on this email can attest.
http://newrochelle.patch.com/articles/a-day-in-the-life-of-new-rochelle
You should call me THIS MORNING and in the meantime take this story down IMMEDIATELY
If this bullshit is not addressed first thing this morning you can expect a firm response from me by the end of the day that will flay you and this writer.
Really, this is quite disgraceful.
Robert Cox
Managing Editor
New Rochelle’s Talk of the Sound
To his credit, and unlike his predecessor, he called me just a few minutes later.
After expressing the many reasons why the story was inaccurate he appeared convinced and said he would take down the story. He asked me to send him an email so that he could share the information I had provided him with the author. A slightly redacted version appears below:
Michael,
Karen was the catalyst for the 10-10-10 project. This is her baby and deserves a great deal of credit and praise for her effort.
The story published today, however, is beyond misleading in putting forward that idea that I played no role whatsoever.
To the best of my knowledge the first thing Karen did with her idea was contact me. That was back in May or June of 2010. As has been the case in the past when Karen has had an idea for a story or a project she has come to me for input. She is, after all, a regular contributor to Talk of the Sound. I made a number of suggestions about the business and organization side. It is my view that I played a non-trivial role in taking the idea from concept to execution.
Talk of the Sound is and has been all along the media partner for the project. It says so right on the 10-10-10 site.
Karen was a bit overwhelmed by the idea of getting photographers for the project. I gave her strategy on how to do that starting with developing a smaller core group at first, developing specifications for the project (what to shoot, when, how, etc.). I got her started by referring Jennifer ______ to her as a member of the core group. Jen brought in at least one other person to the core group. I also developed the roll out strategy to build interest in recruiting photographers and used my site and radio show towards that end — the idea was to spring it on people about a month before and then build excited among those interested in photography as the big day approached. That seems to have worked since close to 50 photographers signed up — most in the final month.
The book referenced by the writer — New Rochelle: A Portrait of a City — is a book that I gave to Karen. I spoke about it on the radio with Len Paduano the former Mayor of New Rochelle and discussed the book with Karen and how it did and did not apply to the 10-10-10 project (for example that the Finn book is b/w and mostly buildings without people; 10-10-10, I felt needed to have lots of people)
When Valerie Gomez contacted me because she had recently left her job at Regal Cinemas I asked her if she would get involved as the marketing person for this project. Valerie has a number of contacts in New Rochelle within the public relations and marketing community. One of those is Eli Gordon at the Chamber of Commerce. Valerie is someone I have known all my life and was a very good fit for this project. She agreed and began work on this effort.
At the same time I was working with Cynthia Lobo on her judicial campaign. Cynthia is the president of the Chamber of Commerce. I approached Cynthia and asked for her support for this project
It was my effort with Cynthia and Valerie in contacting Eli at my direction that got the Chamber of Commerce involved. I knew the CoC was looking for ways to revitalize the Chamber and this seemed like a good fit.
It was Cynthia who had the idea for using the chamber as a legal vehicle to gather and distribute funds to various charitable organizations in New Rochelle. This includes the Boys and Girls Club, the YMCA, Hope Soup kitchen, and the New Rochelle Fund for Excellence. Actually the fund for excellence was my idea and I’m the one who approached Al [board member]. Anthony ______ is the person who, at my request, contacted a member of the board of the Boys and Girls Club. I worked with Cynthia and Eli. Cynthia on her campaign and Eli and Cynthia on the CoC web site which I developed for them along with the rest of their social media strategy.
I don’t know that Valerie contacted “countless officials and businesses” in the city. She may have but that would be news to me. I would be surprised because that was not the strategy — it was to work through the CoC and have then do that However, she may well have had discussions of which I am not aware.
The primary focus was on the chamber since the summer. Valerie made contact with Eli at my request; she attended a meeting with myself Eli and Cynthia. The matter was brought to the chamber board at my request by Cynthia. The exact nature of the role of the chamber at this point is not fully determined although they have endorsed the project and are allowing us to use the chamber’s name. There are complex legal issues involved here that still need to be resolved.
As far as marketing the project. Talk to the Sound is the official media partner for this project. The articles on the 10-10-10 project have either been written by Karen or myself. I make the decision to promote and feature stories and have done that in this case. Karen’s appearances on WVOX and have been on my show at my request. In fact Karen was reluctant to come on the radio. I persuaded her that it was necessary to help promote the project. To provide assurance to her, Jen _______ came with Karen but was asked by me not to speak on-air so as to let Karen take center stage.
The article says that Cynthia Lobo felt that it was important that the proceeds be divided up among the less fortunate. She certainly did but this is something I had raised with Karen in our very first call 6-7 months ago. I felt it was critical that the project not been seen as commercial but rather a way to support the community and what better way to do that that help kids. I stressed in the very beginning and stressed consistently throughout that a focus needed to be on making this project ultimately about delivering support for disadvantaged children within the community. Cynthia endorsed this idea wholeheartedly and reached out to Jeff at the YMCA and the folks at the Hope Soup Kitchen.
This is not to say that no one else did anything.
Quite the contrary Karen has done a remarkable amount of work. This is her idea. She is the catalyst. Without her there would be no project. However it’s always been clear that in our discussing this project but I would take care of the business/marketing/PR side of the project and Karen would handle the content side of the project.
Valerie has done work, Cynthia has done work, Eli has, John Hessel has, Jennifer ____ as the core team of photographers has, The photographers have and from reading the story I gather that the writer has been involved in the photo selection process as well. Many people have done work on this project. Among those people is me. I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that I’m one of them and played a central role in certain aspects of this project. You would not know that from reading the story.
My problem with this story is that it’s written as if I had nothing at all to do with this and just that my website happened to be one place that Karen used to promote the project. This is entirely inaccurate. Although it was not my idea. I certainly played an important role and continue to play a role in taking this from concept to execution. A reader of the story published today would think that I had nothing at all to do with this project which is most certainly not the case.
I would be more than curious to know how the writer came to the idea that Valerie Gomez’s involvement or Cynthia Lobo’s involvement or the chamber’s involvement or for that matter Talk of the Sound’s involvement or WVOX’s involvement came about solely through Karen’s effort as the article conveys. I’m also concerned that for competitive reasons New Rochelle Patch has left me out of the story and minimized the role of my website and my radio show and my role in leveraging my contacts within the city. I find it hard to believe that Karen, Cynthia, Eli or Valerie would have failed to mention my role in this project.
Again to be clear this is Karen’s idea she has done the vast majority of the hard work and she deserves a great deal of credit. I believe John, her husband, has likely done quite a bit. I myself have sought to give her that credit but to write a story in which I am completely written out of it is wrong on many levels. I’m not someone who runs around town attempting to take credit for other people’s work or even to demand that I always be placed front and center. In certain cases such as the preliminary efforts on the 50th anniversary of the Lincoln case I have intentionally sought to remain in the background out of fear that my role would provide a pretext for some in the community to kill an idea solely because it was my idea or because I was involved in a prominent way I’ll be damned however if I am going to sit by and allow a story to be put out there that portrays my role as de minimus or less.
I have copied the people mentioned above on this e-mail so that you can independently confirm that I did a little bit more than nothing on this project. If there is some dispute about my role and effort I would like to hear it.
Otherwise, I think the story should be pulled and either made right or abandoned.
I would note that this is the SECOND story which references the Chamber of Commerce which has information in it that is so wrong as to remove the underpinning of the story. The other being an article about what a great resource the New Rochelle Chamber of Commerce was for a woman who had recently moved to New Rochelle. Having developed the CoC web site I knew that what this writer was describing did not exist; clicking the link showed she had been using a sort of yellow pages directory called “ChamberofCommerce.com” or something like that which had absolutely nothing to do with New Rochelle or its Chamber of Commerce.
Sincerely
Robert Cox
Managing Editor
New Rochelle’s Talk of the Sound
By 9 AM, the story was still on the site. I sent Michael a note. By 11 AM it was still there. By 12:30 PM it was there causing me to send this note and post this article.
Michael,
About five hours ago you told me you were pulling the 10-10-10 story. You also asked me to send you an email on what I had told you have the telephone at about 7 AM so you could share it with the writer.
I did send you what you requested but you did not do what you said. That is always going to be a problem when I carry out my end of a bargain and someone else does not carry out their end.
The story is STILL online and I am not happy about it. At this point it is evident that you have purposely left displayed on you site a story that you know to be wrong. I can now see that even the person featured in the article, Karen Hessel, is addressing this issue as well [in the comments section]. I have copied in all interested parties. I am not clear what else you would need to know the story is wrong.
This is the sixth time in 3 months that Patch has put out false or misleading information that bears on me — the plagiarism of my image, two false press statements that defamed me, the incorrect info about a site I created for the Chamber of Commerce, a misleading statement by Brian Farnham to the Online Journalism Review about the plagiarism issue and now this 10-10-10 story.
I will now proceed as previously indicated:
“If this bullshit is not addressed first thing this morning you can expect a firm response from me by the end of the day that will flay you and this writer.”
What is particularly troublesome about this is that I have made an effort NOT to be critical of your site since you took over from Alison. I have ignored errors and otherwise left you and the site alone. When you ran a story with a glaring and rather stupid error — claiming that “http://www.chamberofcommerce.com/” is the New Rochelle Chamber’s web site — I gave you a heads up rather than embarrass you by pointing out on my site. Other errors I have just ignored.
Amazingly, this wrong article is STILL online.
http://newrochelle.patch.com/articles/holiday-deals-in-our-own-backyard
The article is about how to use the Chamber of Commerce of New Rochelle web site to find places to shop.
“My kids have had their lists all ready to go for about two weeks now, and I have an idea of what to get a few people on my list, but where do I go to get it?
Before I head out the door, I like to have a plan in mind, and I really like to support New Rochelle shop owners. So the first thing I do is go on line to check out what information the New Rochelle Chamber of Commerce has to offer.Here’s what I found. If you go here you will find a detailed list by category. That’s right. Eliminate the guesswork, and find the best deals.
You want toy stores? Clothing? Discount stores? Department stores? You’ll find a full list, at your fingertips.
Happy shopping!”
Only problem is that the web site the writer has been using is NOT the New Rochelle Chamber web site. I should know since I created the Chamber’s web site What is incredible is that the writer suggests that she has been using this site over and over again and yet never noticed that the site she linked is quite clearly a commercial enterprise, a business directory, and has nothing to do with New Rochelle or the Chamber of Commerce of New Rochelle.
Your site continues to promote in an article a version of an online yellow pages calling itself “ChamberofCommerce.com”. Even though you have known about it for weeks it remains, inaccurately describing that site as the Chamber of Commerce of New Rochelle site.
The Executive Director and President of the Chamber of Commerce are copied on this email so perhaps they can express their view on your continuing to display this article which directs your readers to some spam-like online directory but describes the site as being the New Rochelle Chamber site. To me, you are damaging their reputation. If I were they I would demand the story be removed and/or a correction issued. It’s their problem so I will leave it for them to deal with that issue as they see fit
In my response, I intend to address the broader issue of a pattern of behavior here that raises serious questions not just about how New Rochelle Patch has operated but what appears to be a willful effort at the regional level to knowingly disseminate false and/or misleading information as part of a strategy to compete with entrenched local competition.
Sincerely,
Robert Cox
Managing Editor
New Rochelle’s Talk of the Sound
It is still there now 7 hours after Woyton said he would take the story down. This post is my response to both the original inaccurate article and Woyton failing to do as he said he would — take down the story. At this point, the damage is done. The wrong story is out there and has presumably been picked up by Google, Google News, Topix and whatever other aggregators grabs their content.
UPDATE: Michael Woyton, the editor of New Rochelle Patch, sent an email this afternoon to say he is reneging on his previous statement at 7 AM that he would remove the article. Another liar! He should fit right in over there at AOL Patch.
Woyton also wrote to say he was correcting the erroneous Chamber of Commerce story. A note at the top of the story now reads “CORRECTION: A previous version of this article incorrectly linked to chamberofcommerce.com instead of the New Rochelle Chamber of Commerce. Patch regrets the error.”
You really have to wonder how brain-dead these people at Patch can be. The issue was not that the link was wrong — the issue is that article was about a completely different organization. The article still says “I really like to support New Rochelle shop owners. So the first thing I do is go on line to check out what information the New Rochelle Chamber of Commerce has to offer. Here’s what I found. If you go here you will find a detailed list by category. That’s right. Eliminate the guesswork, and find the best deals. You want toy stores? Clothing? Discount stores? Department stores? You’ll find a full list, at your fingertips.”
chamberofcommerce.com does offer all that; newrochellechamber.org does not. The entire article is about a woman named Taryn Grimes-Herbert, another interloping transplant, using a commercial on-line directory called “chamberofcommerce.com” to find local merchants in New Rochelle. She is too dim-witted to have realized that the site she has been using is NOT the New Rochelle Chamber’s web site. Fine. She made a goof. It happens. But here Woyton knows that the story is wrong but somehow figures keeping all of the the same words and linking to a different site, the site of the non-profit newrochellechamber.org, a site which does not offer any sort of merchant directory, somehow corrects the story at all. It does not even make sense.
If this is level of reporting skill they are accumulating, its no wonder the people AOL Patch is hiring are Laid-Off Journos.
