[SIGCIS-Members] Re Ayyadurai: Lay public more sophisticated than ABC News?

[Thomas Haigh]

Thanks Paul,

 

As I noted in a comment earlier today on the latest techdirt article
(https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20140907/06302728447/huffington-post-fina
lly-removes-most-articles-about-fake-email-inventor-meanwhile-ayyadurai-thre
atens-to-sue-his-critics.shtml#comments):

 

News of Ayyadurai's wedding seem to clear up the "why now" question raised
by some commentators. Ayyadurai apparently wanted the Huffington Post and
other recent stories to amplify his claims before the inevitable surge in
press coverage he could count on as a participant in a celebrity wedding.

Despite the Huffington Post retractions (made on his wedding day) this
strategy seems to be working. The same pattern is taking place as with the
2012 wave of stories. Enough inaccurate material stays online to help dupe
the next wave of bottom-feeding bloggers. For example, Time never retracted
its credulous online interview with Ayyadurai from 2011
<http://techland.time.com/2011/11/15/the-man-who-invented-email/> and until
this afternoon the Huffington Post still has the Chopra blog post from 2013
<https://web.archive.org/web/20130901004812/http:/www.huffingtonpost.com/dee
pak-chopra/email-invention_b_3840956.html>  that escaped the initial purge.
Those both slipped under the radar when they appeared, as did a concerted
effort to write Ayyadurai into various obscure Wikipedia pages. It's only
when Ayyadurai gets high profile coverage (the 2012 print article in the
Washington Post, the recent epic Huffington Post series) that anyone bothers
to push back.

Celebrity gossip bloggers are doing an even worse job than personal
technology bloggers of evaluating his claims. Here are a few from today's
coverage:
Mail Online:
<http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2747398/Fran-Drescher-weds-sci
entist-partner-Shiva-Ayyadurai.html#ixzz3Ck0gqH32>  "The pair met early last
year when Dr. Ayyadurai - who owns the patent to email and is often credited
as the inventor of the electronic mail system amid some controversy - was
giving a talk at an event hosted by Deepak Chopra." 
CBS News:
<http://www.cbsnews.com/news/fran-drescher-marries-dr-shiva-ayyadurai/>
"Ayyadurai, who holds the patent for inventing email, met Drescher a year
ago at an event hosted by Deepak Chopra." 
ABC News:
<http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/fran-drescher-marries-email-inventor-sh
iva-ayyadurai/story?id=25344611>  "Drescher married the scientist, who is
widely credited with having invented email -- at their home. Ayyadurai
currently teaches at MIT and was profiled in 2011 in Time magazine for being
the first person to hold a copyright for 'EMAIL'" 
People Magazine:
<http://www.people.com/article/fran-drescher-marries-shiva-ayyadura>
"Ayyadurai, 50, who holds the patent for creating email, met Drescher, 56, a
little over a year ago when he gave a talk at an event hosted by Deepak
Chopra, according to an interview he did with the Huffington Post." The HP
news article it links to
<http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/08/29/shiva-ayyadurai-fran-drescher_n_57
35896.html>  is still up, and claims that "In August 1982, the U.S.
government accepted a patent for an electronic intra-office messaging system
called "email" from then-teenager V.A. Shiva Ayyadurai." 

It is almost as if the whole thing is a post-modern performance art stunt
designed to highlight the failings of online media. A few minutes with
Google would reveal that he does not currently teach at MIT, that he was not
granted a patent on email in 1982, and that he is credited as inventor of
email primarily by his friends, family members, and business partners. I
have updated my online evaluation of Ayyadurai
<http://www.sigcis.org/ayyadurai> 's claims with a one paragraph summary at
the beginning, but do not expect it to make much difference.

 

Paul asked whether we are "reaching the point that the average citizen is
better informed, and more interested in truth, than the average mass media
reporter?" In a way, yes. However I don't think we were dealing with mass
media's A team here. Whoever pulls together minor league celebrity surprise
wedding coverage for People's blog on a Sunday night is not going to start
second guessing the press release and Twitter boasts from the happy couple.
For example, People's story is credited to Gabrielle Olya who according to
Linked In <https://www.linkedin.com/in/gabrielleolya>  is currently employed
as a freelance PR assistant with the USC School of Pharmacy as well as a
"Staff Writer-Reporter" for People Magazine where her duties include
"Fact-checking" and "Assist with research." She "Loves celebs, fashion,
cupcakes & trashy TV." Nothing wrong with those things, but she's not
necessarily a reporter attuned to the difference between copyright and
patents.

 

The errors are then syndicated and/or copied to a hundred other places.
However, I do wonder if this might turn out to be another overreach by
Ayyadurai. Over the next few days the story might attract actual
journalists, who could find the "Guy inexplicably yet persistently pretends
to have invented email, gets fake facts repeated by dozens of major media
brands" angle more exciting than the "1990s sitcom star finds love" story.

 

Best wishes,


Tom

 

 

From: members-bounces at sigcis.org [mailto:members-bounces at sigcis.org] On
Behalf Of Paul McJones
Sent: Monday, September 08, 2014 8:47 PM
To: sigcis
Subject: [SIGCIS-Members] Re Ayyadurai: Lay public more sophisticated than
ABC News?

 

I just googled for "Ayyadurai" and came across an ABC News story:

 

Fran Drescher Marries Email Inventor Shiva Ayyadurai

Michael Rothman via Good Morning America

http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/fran-drescher-marries-email-inventor-shi
va-ayyadurai/story?id=25344611

 

The amazing thing is that while the writer falls hook-line-and-sinker for
Ayyadurai's propaganda ("Drescher married the scientist, who is widely
credited with having invented email -- at their home and the bride wore
Badgley Mischka, People magazine reported."), the commenters are almost
uniformly very savvy, pointing out that coining the name "EMAIL" is not the
same as inventing email, mentioning Ray Tomlinson, and putting the Al Gore
incident into proper perspective.

 

Are we reaching the point that the average citizen is better informed, and
more interested in truth, than the average mass media reporter?

 

 

Paul McJones

 

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