Crackpot drops lawsuit after PR flacks fail to save the day; other Sunday reading
Stuart Pivar, the New York businessman who sued science blogger PZ Myers for a Dr. Evil-esque 15 million dollars has dropped said lawsuit, which is good news for Myers, aka Pharyngula, and the rest of the science blogging world. A hearty round of applause to Seed Media Group, owner of ScienceBlogs.com, for standing behind Myers on this ridiculous matter.
Pivar’s suit, which was for a bad review by Myers on Pivar’s pseudoscientific book Lifecode, did have a couple interesting offshoots. The main one is this - Pivar has horrible taste in PR firms. The flacks he chose - Matthew Rich Group / Planet PR - jumped into the fray to try and build Pivar’s case by cut and pasting the same message in comments of just about any blog that mentioned the Pivar lawsuit, including at Shakesville:
As an attorney I can tell you Pivar has every right to sue PZ Meyer and he may well prevail. And by the way, shame on PZ for trying to censor an interesting, if unconventional theory, in science community. www.aninconvenienttheory.com shows part of the book in question and it seems of interest to this non-scientist.
Good work by Scientific American’s Christopher Mims for connecting on the dots to show that it was Matthew Rich himself who was spamming blog posts to try and lend credence to Pivar’s silly claims. So remember, when you absolutely, positively want a PR job done half-assed, give Matthew Rich and Planet PR a call.
Oh, and another offshoot of the lawsuit? Do a Google search on the term “Classic Crackpot” and find out.
Other Sunday reading
–WKW
September 2nd, 2007 at 8:17 am
On the Chupacabra “story”
“Phylis Canion lived in Africa for four years. She’s been a hunter all her life and has the mounted heads of a zebra and other exotic animals in her house to prove it.”
With those type of solid credentials, I’m sure she would know a Chupacabra when she saw one, Bill.
September 2nd, 2007 at 8:47 am
I would like to add another comment to your fine blogz here, Bill’k.
I am glad to know that at least one other person in the world gets just how pathetic journalism in the US has become. My wife has to hear far too often my bitching on the subject.
And I have noticed that my revulsion to American media is turning me very jaded, to the point where I was inclined to cheer for East Carolina the other night against Virginia Tech.
I know, it’s horrible. And nothing at all against VT, which is a fine institution, nor all of these kids at that school who more than deserve some good things to happen for them. It’s just because the media was harping on it so much, that it just compelled me in the other direction.
By the way, did you hear about the lady in Texas who found a Chupacabra?
September 2nd, 2007 at 9:08 am
Are you having trouble commenting on certain posts? My wife pointed out some posts it’s impossible to comment on. I probably need to get that checked at some point.
The Chupacabra thing just killed me. I could live with it as “news of the odd”, but everyone gave it huge priority and ran it as a “science” story. Journalism is officially dead.
And I get your point with the VT thing. People got murdered. Yet a football game is supposed to heal wounds. How nice it must feel to have been the East Carolina squad. Weird.
–WKW
September 2nd, 2007 at 11:02 am
“Are you having trouble commenting on certain posts?”
There have been a couple of posts where there is no comment link. The first one I noticed was the post where you claimed you were not gay. I thought maybe that was intentional, since you did not no doubt hundreds of jilted ex-lovers nay saying your post.
But then the Chupacabra story did not have a comment link either.
And East Carolina, by trying to beat “America’s Team” Virginia Tech, they were professing to support mass murder. Somebody should boycott something.
September 2nd, 2007 at 11:05 am
^^ I thought maybe that was intentional, since you did want hundreds of jilted ex-lovers nay saying your post.
I lobe ohw I profreed aftre I pots somthang.