Forbes' Fake Reporter is Fake Steve Jobs

As the New York Times, followed by just about everyone else is reporting this morning, the Fake Steve Jobs is in fact Dan Lyons, who wrote a notorious cover article in Forbes Magazine likening bloggers to lynch mobs and placing a significant nail into the coffin of Forbes as a credible news magazine.

It turns out that Lyons is going to write a book on his experience. I imagine it will go down on the great annals of book-writing history with Jason Blair's "Burning down my Master's House," which explained how a reporter lied and plagiarized during his tenure at the New York Times, or maybe it should be likened to Clifford Irving's hoax biography of Howard Hughes.

Anyone who wants to write a best-seller knows that controversy sells and the more outrageous it is, the more it sells.  Throw in a famous person's name, like Steve Jobs, and it sells even more. Lyons will get his time on the talk shows for a while before he'll fall into the oblivion he so rightly deserves or so I would like to think.

Lyons, I am sure, will attempt to debunk blogging.  In fact, he is more likely to debunk himself by missing a key point to why blogging is working so well.  It is transparent. Lyons is not.

Like Blair and Irving, he does have a contrivance going.  I hope he enjoys his time strutting and fretting on the stage before he and his book become yesterday's news.

Comments

[Jim Forbes]

Shel,
you couldn't be more wrong in your conclusions on Dan Lyons future.
Technology has taken it self too seriously for too long. Satire is not only needed, it's a sign of healthy emotional maturity--something that's been missing in the Valley for as long as I was around it directly and on its periphery indirectly.
Oh, and Lyon's writing about anonymous commercial blogging in Forbes is probably what led hmi to do Fake Steve. And he coujldn't have picked a better target unless it was the maker of fake Kings, Regis McKenna.
FSJ was sound fun and yes he took shots at people. but that's life in the fast lane. If the subjects of his barbs can't take the heat they shouldn't put themselves under the concentrated rays of a magnifying glass.
Oh, I've known who Fake Steve was for over a year and never once felt he stepped over significant lines.
Be well Shel,

Jim Forbes

[Denise Shiffman]

I have to agree with Jim. It wasn't long before everyone knew this blog was pure fiction. I don't like that he used anonymity to attack people, but satire of celebrity execs isn't new. Blogs are no longer pure web logs. They represent someone's voice and that can be in any form they choose. For a fiction writer, in a way it was authentic...