http://blog.secondlife.com/2008/01/08/new-policy-regarding-in-world-banks/

Marsellus Wallace
I’m such a pain in the ass I hear. I should just go away. lol (inside joke)

Marsellus Wallace
Uri, you’re my hero! lol

I am not ragging on the Herald in the least bit. I am ragging on the writer for not checking the facts. How is Uri to know if you did your job thoroughly or not? If it is a summary of message board posts, then it should have been written as such, otherwise your simply making news of hearsay which is not news. It is gossip and thats what the tabloids are for. Do your own investigation and your own story instead of reposting the forums.

Look, I’m not going to go back and forth with you anymore about this. As a consumer and member of the Second Life community I think it’s my right to ask the questions I have. You can learn to deal with it and move on. I’ve made my point, others have seen my point, if you can’t then that’s your problem not mine. You remind of me the former leaders of the SSG…

Marsellus Wallace
Fughedaboudit!!!!

And it isn’t an “insult” because I’m not playing a mafia/dissing/etc. game with you. I just don’t see your point, and it seems to me you just have time on your hands to go and rag on the Herald lately and I’m not sure what your real beef is.

1. Do you have money invested in Ginko?
2. Are you related to Ginko in any way?
3. Is there something about the Ginko set-up — anonymous avatars whose locations are not known, providing huge payouts and interest rates with no public and known means of continuing to make good on that investment — that doesn’t screech PONZI to you?
4. Many people have decided to be contrarian about Ginko because they hate Anshe. Is that what your issue is?
5. The story appears to be a summary of the forums. *Shrugs*. So? That’s all it looks like realy, except for some analysis here and there, which is marked as such, not as some kind of “investigative journalism.”
6. You could ask Uri and others, but I don’t see why they are “lazy glory hounds” here. It’s just a recap of what the community is thinking; Anshe is making accusations big-time; Ginko isn’t supplying any hard info; people are upset. What’s incorrect about that?
7. There’s no bias that I can see in this story that is merely a recap of forums. Forums might be biased, Anshe might be biased, Ginko might be biased, but a story describing a chorus of biased people is merely that, not itself biased. Or is that distinction lost on you?
8. What is the real reason for your shit-stirring, Marcellus? I’m still puzzled by this.

You need to more thoroughly read these stories. I am not saying every story is like this. However these interviews you speak of, do you really ever see the other side being interviewed to give their side? It’s rare. Uri knows this, me and him have talked about this before. I think you’re taking my comments as an insult since you wrote this, that is not the case.

I am not insulting you or even the story, I am just requesting information that so far no one can or has provided. It’s all hearsay that was written to look mostly like fact. I mean if you go by that we might as well say this story is the real Ponzi scam since the information I am asking for can’t be provided which is the basis for AC’s accusation.

IT IS A BOLD ACCUSATION AND BEFORE IT IS PUBLISHED IN A MAINSTREAM NEWS SITE LIKE THIS THE FACTS SHOULD BE CHECKED AS YOU COULD HURT BUSINESS FOR POSSIBLY INNOCENT PARTIES.

Was AC contacted for her opinion? Yes or no? Going by message board forums is not fact checking or even journalism. That’s taking someone else’s comments on a forum and writing them up as if you interviewed them. Fughedaboutit! That’s not how journalism works.

So what journalists dont always reveal sources? Journalists get proof from their source usually and have some form of eithics. I guarantee you would not read about someones accusations as big as this without some form of proof being made or some Libel/Slander lawsuit being formed or an attempt to get all parties thoughts involved. Was it you that said leave it to the comments to finish the story or the herald publishes stories to get comments to further the story.. Why do the people reading the story have to finish the story for you? That is what is off the map.

The herald will publish pretty much anything that’s sent to it. There have been times that I have sent stories to Uri with the promise that he would not reveal who sent it or certain aspects. Like the time he published a yahoo print screen with my yahoo ID on it after I told him not to and I simply sent it to him as proof I was not lying about a story tip I gave him.

As for the FBI, go back and reread my comment and then answer your own question. It was an interesting point I brought up and they are the only ones besides maybe a lawyer that could answer those questions I proposed which are obviously on peoples minds.

My point to all this is, instead of trying to be a lazy glory hound, try getting all the facts and then bask in the glory. For all the work of gathering forum posts, you could have contacted the parties involved in the meantime.

Want me to write a story up about you? Want me to not check all the facts? Want me to just go by other people’s hearsay? I guarantee you wouldn’t like it and would throw a fit. I can if you like though.. Test me. Ask Uri, you’re about to bite off more than you can chew and if you think Uri will come to your aid, you are seriously mistaken. He’ll publish the story if it’s juicy enough. =)

No I am not threatening you. I never threaten. I am simply trying to make my point. I do beleive you have some thoughtful insight on issues and thoroughly explain yourself in most cases. But a lot of what you do is biased and full of your own opinion versus the relative facts of the story. Which of course is why you’re reacting the way you are in regards to my comments. You’re taking them personally.

Keep in mind, I simply asked if AC was contacted. Not this big of a deal really to warrent that long of a rant by Prok. One good rant deserves another though I guess. Oh well…. Prok, do you at least acknowledge what I am trying to say? We can agree to disagree, but have my made my point at least?

Marsellus Wallace

P.S. Monty, there is a difference between your schooling/scholar work with Uri and the Herald. A big difference.

So often what people in a story mean by “check the facts” is “write them up to portray me more favourably”. I think you sound like a great newspaper editor, Marsellus, go for it and start your own? Or crank in the comments on this one, which is a lot easier.

I think actually I see a lot of interviews with people in the Herald. I imagine there’s only so much they can spend on something that comes after not only RL but SL.

I fail to see where you really are finding any facts that weren’t checked in any stories lately, anyway. Everybody has talked about how this Ginko thing shows all the signs of being a Ponzi, and they call lit that, in either direct or indirect forms. Why, you don’t think it is?

Why should the Herald being going to interview FBI agents? That seems off the map to me.

You seem very sure that no one went to AC, or that there is no tie to AC. How do you know? And reporters don’t reveal their sources, and often find other ways of citing information on background. Ever think about that?

I can’t see what you feel is wrong in particularly this Ginko story. These are all statements on the forums, for better or worse, rounded up from the forums.

Perhaps it’s only the headline that seems over the top, ascribing to Anshe that she says “this is a Ponzi scheme”. Guni has said she didn’t go that far, raising questions about how it MIGHT be, but not CALLING it that. SO it would be worth going back to read the forums to see how much that’s the case — but in that case, the headline has been too compressed and maybe even misleading, but there’s nothing in the story quoting her falsely or anything like that.

I wonder somedays why I am defending the Herald, but…it’s all we have.