Where has Bill Hobbs gone?
Published by Kieren 2 years, 2 months ago in Internet, Journalism, TechnologyIt was nearly two months ago now that reporter Kevin Murphy decided enough was enough and outed “Steve Forrest”, the author of biased blog Free2Innovate, as Bill Hobbs, a right-wing PR man who gets paid to anonymously push companies’ agendas.
Kev’s piece - in which he suggested that VeriSign might be the company picking up the tab - was soon followed by lawyer and ICANN observer Brett Fausett concluding the same along with a picture of the man but, being a lawyer, avoiding any accusation that he was paid by VeriSign.
And this was swiftly followed by my blog posting in which I went further and suggested that he was being paid by VeriSign (but then this is because about 6 months ago I compiled some stats on Forrest’s bias which provided an intriguing 99 percent pro-VeriSign bias so I *knew* I was on safe ground).
So what?
Well it would seem that the postings - although they were never followed up by the mainstream media - had some kind of impact because the previously prolific Mr Forrest has not put up a single post since 25 July.
And where is the man behind the mask, Mr Bill Hobbs? Well, according to his blog, at Fall Creek Falls State Park sat taking snaps of waterfalls, occasionally taking time out to x-ray his face. Perhaps he’s on some voyage of inner discovery.
But this is good news for this blogger - it leaves the way clear for me to report exactly what VeriSign wants people to think. So come on VeriSign, email me everything you have, you can be certain I’ll give it a public airing.
Technorati Tags: Forrest, Free2Innovate, Hobbs, VeriSign, ICANN
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Just so y’all know, I’m not saying VeriSign was paying Forrest or Hobbs.
I’m keeping an open mind.
It’s certainly possible for a reader to infer that he could be, because I mentioned the longstanding rumor that he was a VeriSign stooge and the fact that he invariably spouts the VeriSign party line.
However, I do also say that “I have no evidence that he’s being paid by anybody for Free2Innovate.”
Which is true. I don’t.
If I did, I would have reported it, rather than blogging it.
LOL. You coward Kev.
We’ve both stated quite clearly that we have no evidence that Hobbs was being paid by VeriSign but have pointed out why we believe that there is a strong likelihood for reasons we have outlined.
That’s “fair comment” under UK law and since UK law is far stricter than US law in making accusations, there really isn’t an issue here. Besides if VeriSign or Hobbs took out a defamation lawsuit in the US, the discovery period would prove far too embarassing.
We are only talking about a blog after all.
Kieren
Not worried about the law, just credibility.
No Steve Forrest Sightings Since The “Outing”…
In doing a bit of Googling around the web I ran across something very interesting. And certainly something I do not remember seeing at BillHobbs.com. Last summer several bloggers discovered (they think) that a blogger by the name of “Steve……