Many initial reports said that the Wall Street Journal "uncovered my ruse" - not true. I approached them to break the story (as reported by both me and WSJ - where does the press get this stuff?!?) since the myth of my christmas lights webcam had gotten outa control and I wanted to end it. And Paul Mclellan corrected the evening AP story the very next morning with his own press release that said "my words were misconstrued to mean something entirely different" when the AP quoted him saying Alek was "unethical" and Paul continues on to say "I sincerely appreciate his intent of spreading Christmas cheer!" So I'd encourage you to read my side of the story and then form your own opinion.
This page was being updated periodically, and as noted in several
places below, did seem to influence some of the reporting.
I got a number of Emails from people (even those who initially wrote to
express their displeasure) who read this media update page and said
they were now upset with the press for poor (and biased) reporting.
I also had several
folks ask me what the media "tornado" was like before the hoax was
revealed, so click here to read all about that.
And while some
folks have postulated that I'm surfing every web site on the Internet
to see what they are saying about me, all I did was look at my
web server logs, which indicate which sites were sending traffic here.
2004_12_27_noonish:
After several days of discussions (and fact-checking) Charles Forelle informs
me that the WSJ article will probably run in the online edition in a few hours.
He says he'll be contacting some of
the media folks who originally ran the story for comment. I explain that
I will also inform media contacts that I have dealt with that
"something" is coming and to check my web site for details,
I don't have a pre-made list, so I start working through 'em ...
I also update the web page to say "major announcement coming soon"
2004_12_27_1419:
The Denver Channel ABC-7 posts a story with a major
factual error (see 2004_12_27_1600 update below). Note that the creation
time is 1402, but I start seeing inbound traffic at 1419, so that's must
have been when it was posted. Unfortunately, this
is the story picked up by many media outlets since it is the first
to go out on the AP Wire. I had provided them with an early
copy of my hoax statement per their request -
read about that exchange and
Wayne Harrison's role.
In hindsight, this was a mistake (regardless of their subsequent coverage)
because I should have waited for the WSJ story to go live ... which was
my response to the rest of the media. I'm a geek, not a PR guy,
so my boo-boo ... I'll know better if there is a next time!
BTW, I never kept a copy of the original 1402 article, so while they
updated it several times subsequently, I wonder what additional mistakes
were in this version compared to the 1552 update that I talk about below.
I've heard people say that one motto of the press is
"don't worry about being right, just be first with the story" - ABC-7
never did get it right IMHO even though they were reading this page.
2004_12_27_1423:
The Wall Street Journal reports
High-Tech Holiday Light Display Draws Everyone But the Skeptics.
I had no idea how Charles would write it and being a nit-picker, I
look it over closely ... it's bulletproof - nice job! BTW, note the
"Nancy D. Holt contributed to this article" at the end - took me about
a week to figure out what her contribution was (Charles would not say), but
Email me if you think you know! ;-)
2004_12_27_1430:
Alek posts his public statement on the hoax and adds
the word HOAX to the various christmas web pages to clearly identify that is
what it is.
2004_12_27_1600:
The Denver Channel ABC-7 has a story that is getting distributed nationally.
Since they took me up in their helicopter, they are understandably upset
about this turn of events, but I would
encourage you to read my words
and form your own opinion about the situation.
They also have a major factual inaccuracy in their
1552 updated version: the Wall Street Journal did
NOT "uncover the ruse" (ABC-7's words) nor did
"Lafeyette Man's Ruse Unravels After Reporter Visit" (ABC-7's sub-headline)
- I approached Charles Forelle at the WSJ with the REAL story ... I wonder if they
read Charles' story (paints a much more accurate picture IMHO) or even
my hoax announcement which
I Emailed to them at 12:53
and BTW, it's Alek, not Alex!
I'm real curious to see what the Boulder Daily Camera (who wrote the
original article that was picked up) writes about me as I just concluded
that interview with the same reporter - I guess we'll see tomorrow!
2004_12_27_1600: ABC-7 is running an
online "vote" where they ask "Are you mad to find out the Christmas
lights were faked" - current numbers are 412/81% "No, because it's funny"
and 98/19% "Yes, becuse he duped me" ... I'd encourage you to read the
what is talked about above, form your own opinion, and cast your vote!
2004_12_27_1618:
Slashdot story goes live - they link to the ABC-7 story (which paints
me in bit of a negative light and has a major factual error) and while there
are a lotta "atta-boy" comments, definitely some negative ones - I wonder if
the fact that the article link is to the ABC-7 story has some bearing on what
people thought about it - power of the press to influence!
2004_12_27_1815: This is funny!
ABC-7 issues an on-air correction on the 6:00 News ... and says "and when we asked why,
the owner, Alek(!) Komarnitsky, did not respond" ... well gosh guys,
have you read this page?
And don't forget those Emails we had
over 5 hours ago. I appreciated that your anchor emphasized
the "K" in Alek on the air - glad you got my correction above ...
you might update the online story currently time-stamped at 3:52! ;-)
Finally, why didn't you mention
your own online poll numbers, which currently say 1,121/83% thought I was Funny.
2004_12_27_1822:
The Fark guys jump in with some hilarious commentary -
these guys link to my statement (which includes a reference to the
excellent WSJ article) so they are looking at what is the most
factual reporting on the story.
2004_12_27_2000: Boy, all sorts of media attention
as can be expected ... and BTW, I called back
every media inquiry - wish I had some PR Flaks to screen the tough ones.
It will be VERY interesting to see how the various
stories come out ... but I'm glad to see that according the
Channel-7 poll (keep this one going guys!), over 80% of people still think
I'm funny ... and if there is any doubt,
check
out what the guys over at FARK have to say who think I'm 110% funny.
And just for grins, the
christmas lights webcam HOAX is
now active - take it for a spin! ;-)
2004_12_27_2230:
The AP correction has gone out (Seattle PI
version - hi Mom and Dad!) and here's the CNN version. The AP was not too happy with me
when we talked - livid would probably describe it ;-). Colleen Slevin has
one major gaff as she quotes Paul McLellan from Service Lighting as
saying I'm "unethical" - by the next morning,
Paul has issued his
own press release where he says "my words were misconstrued."
She are also states I got "'pennies'" for each hit on the ads" ... while
technically true, it gives the impression that I got pennies for
each of those bazillions of hits on the web site - not true - the 'pennies'
(and that is really what it is) is only if people clicked on the ads, which is (of course) completely optional.
And a slight addition (but not correction - it was accurate) is that yes,
one of my responses to my "Email Santa" page said "ALWAYS TELL THE TRUTH" ...
but be sure to read the
full context of what was said. We talked about all this on the phone,
so while I guess Colleen Slevin did tell the truth in her story, it gave
misleading insinuations in my opinion - oh well, she was upset, so perhaps
not surprising she wrote it that way.
2004_12_27_2230:
9News made some slight alterations to the AP Story (I talked to them
also and they weren't too happy with me either!) and provided a
pretty decent on-the-air correction also -
nice job guys!
Unfortunately, they aren't running a "Was Alek naughty or nice poll?", but
my "funny rating" continues to climb over at Channel-7 to 84% - BTW,
I haven't voted in case you are wondering!
Among the 100+ media outlets all linking so far (mostly AP story, but a
handful of original writing/edits), I happened to see
this one from KTRE Channel 9 in Texas which indicates that the media is watching
my updates to this site - thanx guys for getting the name right.
2004_12_28_0213:
Angela Gunn from USA Today writes a lengthy article - pretty accurate
and adds some good details and commentary ... not only are these guys
up late, but they provide a sense of humor! ;-)
2004_12_28_0700: I picked up this morning's
Boulder Daily Camera - recall they originally wrote the story that
was picked up nationally, so they could have an axe to grind here.
Story is well done (*^%$! registration required)
but they also quote Paul McLellan saying I was "unethical" ... which
Paul's press release a
few hours later says "my words were misconstrued" - my guess is the BDC
just picked up the AP "fact" (plus the pennies per hit insinuation) ... yet
another example of how incorrect stuff can spread.
I love this quote "People may say, 'This guy is the biggest turd around ... But I was just extending the hoax for the sake of Christmas cheer'" ... which
is EXACTLY what I said to the reporter - nice job! Got an Email that some
sort of segment about my hoax was just shown on Good Morning America
and later heard it was on the Today show.
NPR Morning Edition (originally mistakenly listed by Alek as All Things Considered - see 2004_12_29_0846 update below) did a short 30 second blurb on it
Finally, I have turned on the webcam on so people can play with the lights ...
and even though the sun is coming up, it looks pretty dark at my house! ;-)
2004_12_28_0802:
Channel-7 updates their online story and it just gets funnier!
Looks like the only change is to spell my name correctly, but they continue to
report a major factual error that I was uncovered by the Wall Street
Journal, not that I approached them ... even though pretty much all
other media releases have this part right ... and ironically,
they report that fact correctly on their
on-the-air correction two hours earlier on the morning news.
I DO appreciate the fact that they are still running their online poll
which shows that 84% (2,910 votes) of people
think I'm funny!
2004_12_28_0816:
CNN.Com
is running the AP Correction and is using the
geek picture shot by Richard M. Hackett/Longmont Daily Times-Call.
2004_12_28_0911:
Front page of MSNBC.Com
Also hearing that Fox News is running some sort of segment on National TV.
Their web site
story says "Turns out he was nice --- and naughty" - good humor! ;-)
2004_12_28_0925:
The Denver Channel 7 updates their story again - man these guys just
can't get it right!
They did remove the "after reporter visit" from the
sub headline so that it now only reads "Lafayette Man's Ruse unravels" ...
can I suggest "Lafayette Man exposes hoax to the WSJ."
They also changed the wording from "He continued with his story until a Wall Street Journal reporter visited his home and uncovered the ruse" to
"He continued with his story until a Wall Street Journal reporter began investigating and confirmed the ruse." Hey guys, I KNOW you are reading this page ...
so repeat after me, I CONTACTED THE WSJ - your first
story has already been repeated everywhere - do the
"right" thing and send out another correction ... and maybe I'll watch
your 6:00 News tonight to see if you have anything more to say on this story.
Heck, if I were you, I'd yuk it up a bit and say "we will NEVER take
Alek Komarnitsky up in our helicopter again!" ;-)
And I noticed you removed the link from your article to my web site ...
wouldn't want anyone to wander over here to hear the other side of the story?
But I really do appreciate you keeping the "what do you think of Alek?" poll
and I'm up to 3,188 votes with 84% of people who think I'm funny!
2004_12_28_0935:
Paul McLellan is mentioned in several articles - he writes to me:
"I was interviewed yesterday to give my opinion on your website, due to
one of our ads being displayed on your site. Although I mentioned that
it was not something I would have done myself, I have absolutely no hard
feelings at all against Alek. I can appreciate his intent of spreading
Christmas cheer!
-Paul McLellan (General Manager) ServiceLighting.com"
And if you think I'm making this up,
go look at his
own web page that corrects the media story.
Yep - I made a few $$$ from the Google Ads on the site, but did
nothing wrong ... and I'll again invite the media to contact them
for the exact numbers (I can not release) and you'll see that I
would have been a LOT better off taking that $10,000
offer from the local radio station.
BTW, I'm considering donating my entire monthly Adsense earning to
Celiac Research (my kids have this) but am
concerned that if I do this, people will say I have something to hide which
I do not. Heck, I've been running Google Adsense on most of the pages
on my web site since 2003 -
read my two cents here - never thought
it was really such a big deal.
2004_12_28_1059:
Google DID look into the matter (I Emailed 'em last night - Press continues
to be welcome to contact 'em)
and they respond (case #18704719) to me with this Email:
"Hello Alek,
Thank you for your email. We appreciate your concern to remain compliant
with our program policies.
I have reviewed the page in question and I can confirm that inclusion of
the paragraph about Google AdSense is not in violation of our program
guidelines and Terms and Conditions.
We very much appreciate your continued compliance with our policies.
Please feel free to reply to this email if you have additional questions
or concerns.
Sincerely,
Mike
The Google AdSense Team"
- thanx "Big G" - and I also asked 'em for a statement from Sergey! ;-)
2004_12_28_1130:
Fox News
now has the story on their main page. Charles checks in to see how
I'm doing and mentions that this is currently the third most clicked
on story at
The Wall Street Journal Web Site
2004_12_28_1200:
WSJ.com online stats show this is currently the most popular story!
2004_12_28_1230:
CNN.Com online stats show this story is currently the second most popular story and
fith most popular story on FoxNews.Com.
2004_12_28_1250: Now on front page of CBSNews.Com - someone tell
Dave Letterman that I have a
MajorGeeks.Com T-shirt just for him! ;-)
2004_12_28_1330: I forgot to look, but the
Longmont Daily Times_Call has a great article by Melanie Sidwell.
This very nice lady did an excellent job
both in terms of accuracy and completeness - some information here not
in other press stories including interviews with other people.
BTW, it's their photographer, Richard Hackett, who shot the
geek picture that goes around the world
- nice job!
2004_12_28_1420: Well dang,
those ABC Channel-7 guys are at it again - just updated their story.
Lets see what they changed this time.
First, they changed the sub-headline from "Lafayette Man's Ruse unravels"
to "Lafayette Man Admits He Lied About Internet Control" ... OK, that's
pretty harsh guys, but at least you are no longer inaccurately reporting
that it unraveled on me. But wait a minute, in the text, you still say
"He continued with his story until a Wall Street Journal reporter began
investigating and confirmed the ruse" ... and while I guess it is factually
true that the WSJ investigated, it was AFTER I called him and said it is a hoax.
And I like this addition in paragragh 4 "and that he had lied about the
Internet hookup" - heck, lets pile it on guys!
And here is a TOPPER - they have added at the end of the story
"On Tuesday, Komarnitsky was busy keeping
track of all the Web sites that covered the story of his hoax"
so I'm glad to see that you have been reading all my updates here;
you are welcome to link to this page for those viewers who want
to read those 'em.
I actually have gotten quite the chuckle following your continual
updates - and am surprised
you guys keep changing your story so
the big bad ABC TV station can beat up on the little guy.
I'm looking forward to your next update! ;-)
2004_12_28_1930:
Noticed that
Paul McLellan at
ServiceLighting.com has updated his Press Release page with a more
complete rebuttal which includes "It seems as though my words were
misconstrued to mean something entirely different than what I was
actually saying.
I have absolutely no hard feelings at all against Alek.
I sincerely appreciate his intent of spreading Christmas cheer!
I have since been in discussion with Alek and we have mutually come to the
conclusion that this whole thing has been blown out of proportion."
2004_12_28_2000: Web traffic is starting to decay
as my story moves off the main pages of wsj.com, cnn.com, msnbc.com,
foxnews.com, etc. ... so (thankfully) my 15 minutes of fame is starting to fade.
Among various interviews, I had a good time doing a live show with the
folks at 6PR in Perth, Australia -
I actually talked to them last week (and another station down there;
small world, eh?!?) and they thought the hoax was quite funny -
they said they are past of ABC ... but were quick to point out that
it was Australian Broadcasting Corporation, but affiliated with
ABC Channel-7. The international press has actually been slower to pick
up the story (compared to two weeks ago) but I'm starting to see
some of this - first significant site is the
The Sun
from the UK - they wrote their own story and got the facts right
(although I'm puzzled by the "still photos taken from three different
angles" comment - they we were all shot from the same spot)
plus tossed in a few choice word like "joker" and "cheeky" - good
for them!
2004_12_28_2100: MuseumOfHoaxes.Com has a nice writeup
about the whole thing - ironically, they wonder if the "revelation of the hoax is itself a hoax" - as I noted in the Epilogue of my writeup, Charles Forelle from the Wall Street Journal wondered too - good job
both of you!
2004_12_29_0336: Wil Harris from the UK Inquirer wrote a decent summary of the hoax;
he had previousely written about the
halloween
and christmas webcams.
Wil even comments
about this media page - "in some kind of perverse trophy cabinet, he
has been rating reports based on their accuracy" - so I will (of course!)
comment on Wil's story First, I don't consider it a "trophy cabinet" but
simply a means for me to comment on the media - something that I bet the
media is not used to. The only inaccuracy I see in Wil's story is that
since the webcam has been "operational" since 2002, this would be the
third year rather than the reported "two years" (EDIT: but argueabley this
is just terminology, since the duration is two years) and I appreciate
the "technology is ... pretty cool ... damn impressive coding."
Wil's last paragraph talks about "INQ's policy of honest reporting" and
asks the question if doing a hoax like this was appropriate - good commentary
that I'd recommend you check out. BTW, I have Emailed Wil with an invite
to comment on my comments here (I will post unchanged) ... and I also hope
there is no hard feelings as I've enjoyed his funny writing style in the past.
2004_12_29_0700:
Google News shows 352 results for Komarnitsky so it's gotten around,
but most of these are re-prints of the AP article. I'm seeing some original
writing, especially overnight from the overseas crowd.
No idea what this
Japanse site is saying ... but they reference the WSJ article.
UK News Telegraph has nice little blurb with great headline "Christmas webcam hoaxer sees the light" - nice job Catherine Elsworth.
Heise from Germany weighs in
(Google translation)
and while I'm not sure I have the translation correct (recall that I had
a pop-up in German that ended up "Alek welcomes Christmas Lights Ventilators" - I meant to say Fans!) it looks like they are first publication to mention
the existance of other online hoaxes - two classic examples - they are
still operational - are the
Subservient Chicken from Burger King and Beer.Com's Virtual Bartender both of which allow you to tell a chicken and a "chick"
(try naked on the last one - hilarious!) to "do" things ... but (and keep this
a secret), they are hoaxes too! ;-)
2004_12_29_0846: Just got an Email from RussellO who writes
"Since it seems that you are into getting all of your facts straight,
I just wanted to let you know that the NPR blurb (12/28) was from the
'Morning Edition' program. 'All Things Considered' is their evening program.
Just a comment from a radio geek who doesn't own a TV
Keep up the media commentary-- IMHO, TV news is just crap that people watch
like zombies, and the local schlocks are the worst. Personally, I think
that a story about your lights has way more value for the dollar
spent (helicopter time is admittedly expensive) than chasing some ass
down the freeway for 3 hours!" ... and you better believe I appreciate
the correction which I have noted above in the 2004_12_28_0700 entry - thanx Russell!
2004_12_29_1300: Just noticed this story from the Poynter Institute.
Pretty complete writeup that provides some helpful links - says I might be a
last minute contender for
the top 10 Net Hoaxes/Urban Legends of 2004 - ummmmm ... seems odd one could
publish such a list before the end of the year, but hey, that would be cool.
The guys over at Acurazine have probably the shortest story about it,
but also pretty funny for geeks like it - simply reads:
this guys owns *
Yet another Japanese site - anyone have an online language translator?
And after 2 days, it looks like the probably close to final numbers on the
ABC-7 online poll which asked "Are you mad to find out the
Christmas lights were faked?" is 3,519 (84%) of people said "No, because
it's funny" and 665 (16%) said "Yes, because he duped me"
2004_12_29_1700:
I finally got a chance to look at the
web server logs and have
updated my
Slashdot Effect Analysis page. Fark was king of the hill this time, but
Slashdot didn't have a link directly to my site, so it's not a fair comparison.
I also talk about how it turns out that if you want to know if a story is
coming your way from sites such as Slashdot, Fark, or even the
Wall Street Journal & New York Times, it's possible to do so without
much effort.
2004_12_30_1000: After waking up before dawn, I went back
to my bed, and then spent some time with my 6-year old son ... was absolutely
great just hanging out with him. We had talked about the christmas lights
hoax a few days ago, but I asked him again how he felt about people
thinking they were changing the lights, but not really - he said "but they
had fun on the In-ter-net" ... and then I said a few people were angry about it
and he replied "but it wasn't mean" ... and I asked him if he was angry
with daddy for what he did ... and he said "No, I love you daddy"
I'm not an emotional guy, but this just brought tears to my eyes
and is doing so again as I write this. So while 5-10% of incoming Emails
have been nasty-grams about the hoax that "sting" a bit, Dirk says I'm
OK and that means so much more to me.
2004_12_30_1100: Fortunately Dirk "recharged" me,
because I just read
David Pogue's New York Times article titled "A Sneaky Gimmick" where he takes me to
task for the Christmas Lights Hoax and closes with "I'm really peeved.
I consider Komarnitsky a glorified liar, a shameless media hound who tried
to make a buck (via Web site ads) from people's trusting nature" - OUCH!
First, I think David is right when he writes that a lot of the media is
"so embarrassed to have fallen for the hoax" ... but it was
it good clean fun, with only a few bruised ego's.
I'm assuming the "buck" comment probably stems from the Dec 27th
evening AP story that quoted Paul McLellan as saying I was "unethical" ...
only problem is, the very next morning,
Paul issued a
press release saying he was "misconstrued" and that basically I'm
not such a bad guy after all. Google responded later that same
morning saying I was on the up-and-up ... and I've written freely
and openly about the Google Ads (I did nothing wrong) ... and have stated
that the total income is quite a bit less than the $10,000
that Alice 105.9 offered me on the air a while back - so do you really
think I did it for the money? But this is all old news
from 2 days ago, so I'm surprised David didn't discover this when
he was researching his article. By the way, those Alice 105.9 guys
contacted me today writing
"You GOT US!!! Saw that your Christmas Lights thing was all a big silly
joke. We're SUCKERS!! And, we even offered you big money!!"
and they want me on their show next week - they have a sense of humor! ;-)
David should know that I can't disclose the exact
Google revenue due to their terms and conditions,
but hey David, you are a reporter for the big bad NY Times,
so call up Google, point 'em to this page, and I'll again state
that they have my permission to release the numbers to the media!
Interesting that David complains about my ads - lets take a look
at the NYT site ... whereas I had a single ad block across the top,
I count no less than 3 ad blocks on David's NYT blog page. And oh yeah,
want to look at
David's previous NYT article about me - go ahead, click on that link,
OOOPS ... registration required ... and does the NY Times REALLY need
to know my household income?!? Please note no registration required
at komar.org and (ADDED) nor do I set cookies on your browser ... unlike
David's NYT blog which sets no less than 7 cookies on your browser - the
RMID one doesn't expire
for a year - wonder what they are tracking? I have Emailed David with an invite
to comment on my comments here (I will post unchanged) ... and if Google
will provide him (or ANY media person) the dollar numbers I've made with
Adsense this month, I will post it here for all to see. And tell 'ya
what David, if you CAN get the Google numbers, then if the Alice 105.9 guys
again offer me $$$ on the air on Monday, I'll have it donated to your
favorite charity.
2004_12_30_1430:
I mentioned two days ago the really good story from Melanie Sidwell
of the Longmont Daily Times-Call, which I think is second to the WSJ
in terms of accuracy and completeness.
Their web site doesn't keep archival online copies, but
I got permission to place it here.
BTW, this story went EVERYWHERE - among various place I heard
it made it was the Queen Mary2 in the middle of the Caribbean (thanx
StephanieW) and GeorgeB wrote how he heard about it on a 200 foot
ship in Galapagos Islands, 600 miles off the coast of Ecuador and one of
the more remote spots on the globe.
2004_12_30_1630:
I thought my 15 minutes of fame
were over (believe me, I can't wait), and lo' and behold, two
interviews go live withen 10 minutes of each other. First one is
Chris Bromley over
at UGoto and he asked a lot of good tough questions, but I try to
power through all of 'em as best as possible. You can comment on the
article, so toss your two cents in - good or bad.
And for some comedy, the
local Boulder Weekly interviewed THE HULK - the
Big Green Guy has incredibly strong answers! ;-)
I believe the Hulk was only in the Boulder Weekly once (not "many a time")
and they were little rough on ABC-7 ... and if
Air Tracker 7 shows up over the house, I'll keep the HULK inside
because the pilot was actually a darn nice guy.
2004_12_31_2000: JeffC wrote after reading the
New York Times report to say
"I don't see it that way at all. Alek did offer an amazing light display
for internet veiwers to appreciate. 17,000 lights and the power to light
them doesn't come cheap.(Alek: my power bill which came two weeks later
was an all-time record.) ... Along with the labor to string them.
(Alek: myself and my family strung 'em and we work for free! ;-)
People enjoyed them; and I appreciate the technical skills and comedy involved. Movies use animation to show things that aren't so. And consider my revision of the NY Times quote above:
'I.m really peeved. I consider corporations glorified liars, shamelessly endeavoring to make a buck from people's pursuit of the Santa Claus myth.'
What Alek did was harmless. And quite funny. My 2 Cents" Thanx for
all the Emails and in between taking my 17,000 lights down tomorrow (those
are real), I hope to get some time to respond to folks who have written me
and update the
publically seeable messages. I have had several requests to leave
the webcam operational on the web site (DanM says Jan 6/7 is
Orthodox Christmas), so sure, I can do that.
Happy New Year to all!
2005_01_02_2100: KSDK from St. Louis writes a short piece that
compares my christmas lights to an April Fool's Day prank.
I sent their news room a short
note this morning mentioning that they have my name spelled "Komarnitzky"
and that "Finally, the Wall Street Journal busted the clever prank" isn't
quite how it happened - don't know if they update online stories; but I'll
check again tomorrow to see if fixed - it wasn't. There are others like this -
and they have created/update time/date stamps, so I assume they are
updateable, and I saw ABC-7 go through several iterations as noted above.
Yea, print stuff is hard to correct, but you'd think online would be easy
if the media cared (?)
BTW, for those people who still think the 17,000 christmas lights themselves
were fake - maybe they were ... since I took 'em all down on the 1st.
With help from the rest of the family, we got it done in about 6 hours;
although they basement is pretty messy. And today, I made my annual trip to
various stores buying lights at 75% off -
I picked up a bunch, so I'll be
ready for 2005!
Finally, I'm up to January 1st in
responding
to people who have written me ... thanx for all the nice notes.
2005_01_03_0930:
Talked to the Alice 105.9 guys again - recall
this radio station offered me $10,000 back
in mid-December to put an ad up for them on my website/house.
I turned them down (and would
have even if it had not been a hoax) since it didn't seem right to me to do.
They yucked it up a bit on the air today (good humor), although it seemed
like one of 'em was disappointed
that I did a hoax on the day of the Lord's birthday - I said I steer clear
of the religious aspects. I asked them if the earlier $10,000 offer
was real (i.e. it wasn't a hoax!), and they said yes, so I ended up
suggesting they donate that $10,000 to their Tsunami Relief Fund
in my name ... but one DJ said no way in my name ... so since one of
the DJ's had earlier mentioned his teen-age kid, I said donate it
in his name. A co-worker of mine confirmed they air'ed the entire exchange.
I just replied back to "Tracy the Producer" that I've added this note,
so I hope she'll respond with what they will do - they seemed like
good guys, so maybe they'll ante up to benefit people affected by
the terrible tragedy on the other side of the world. Update: They never
responded - should I be surprised?!? ;-)
2005_01_03_2130: I publically show
a sampling of Emails
that I have received about the hoax. This page also includes a link
to a forum discussion
where the general sentiment was hilarious and another one where people
didn't think it was so funny. I'm a geek, not a PR Hack, but figured it was
appropriate to show both viewpoints.
I see that the ABC7 guys have now added that second link to
their poll results page - thanx for
reading my stuff guys ... and nice work going to the effort to get
a TinyURL for it. I'm glad to see that despite that, their numbers show
that 84% (3,662 votes) of people still thought it was funny despite
the poll being in the middle of their negative story. I wonder
if they ever considered linking to
that Email page where
there's a lot more for their viewers to read both sides of the story?
2005_01_05_1500:
I wandered back over to
David
Pogue's New York Times blog and noticed his January 4th, 2005 post
about how he is was excited to get the latest quarterly issue of Cinefex, which
is dedicated to movie special-effect technology and he says
"To see how it's harnessed to create the magic in movies is, to me,
irresistible" ... and I agree ... even thought we both know that
they aren't real. And while the "special effects" on my
christmas lights webcam certainly aren't Hollywood material, he did
say in his earlier post that it brought some enjoyment to his family.
While David and I may not see eye-to-eye on that, I actually think
we would probably like each other otherwise. His blog is darn good (I've added
it to my bookmarks) and he is much more hands-on that most - heck, he put
togather "a DVD of our year's home movies"
(with music and credit - see his Jan 5th post) - that's a lotta work.
He's also the primary author of the
"Missing Manual" books (good stuff!) and among other things, is a member
of the International Brotherhood of Magicians. So I'm sure he's done
quite a few tricks/hoaxes in his lifetime and is great fun at
a party. Regardless of any hard feelings, if he's ever out here in
Colorado, he (and his family) are invited over for beers & burgers
on my "monster" BBQ Grill ... ;-)
2005_01_05_2100:
Time Magazine voted President George Bush their 2004 "Man of the Year" ... but
I understand that "Bloggers" were a close runner-up. While this blog
won't win any literary awards,
the January 10th, 2005 issue of Time Magazine includes a quote
from me on the same page as George
(scanned in image) that says
"I figured I could provide some holiday cheer to folks"
which sums it up well ... and they even correctly provide the
www.komar.org attribution right after AP, NYT, CNN, and Reuters -
how cool is that! ;-)
2005_01_05_2200: My 15 minutes of fame is just about over.
It's been an interesting rocket-ride and if
nothing else, I succeeded in
providing some christmas cheer
and then subsequently
a good chuckle
to a lot of folks. My life is returning to normal (recall Wednesday is
trash day and it's my job to take out the garbage) and I've neglected my
family quite a bit during this whole affair, so I look forward to
going back to being a husband, father ...
and a geek! ;-)
2005_01_23_2100: I was playing poker with the neighborhood
guys Friday night and Don (husband/father of Traci/Jordan who were
quoted in the original December 14th, 2004 article
that went (inter)national) and lives across the street) gave me
permission to post his off-the-cuff comment which was:
"Alek has more Christmas Spirit in his little finger than most people have.
He spends tons of time every year putting up lights for people and I
think it is great!"
2005_01_26_0900:
Sherrie Gossett from
Accuracy in Media
writes a good piece titled
The Great Media
Fact-checking Hoax.
Her main point is summarized at the end:
"Perhaps the greatest hoax is that the media are engaged in
meticulous fact-checking of all their reporting"
and she uses this page (i.e. the reporting of the hoax itself) as an example.
She talks about the ABC-7 guys and
here's the full story on what they knew when.
In my case, it was all good clean fun, and the media tornado just picked
up and ran with the story. But there are folks with neferious intent that
the media fails to do journalism 101 (or worse) - the most
spectacular recent example being
RatherGate - more
info via Google.
Even worse in that case was that it was fairly obvious within a day or
so that the letter was typed up by Burkett using default settings in
Microsoft Word - i.e. it was a really crappy forgery (heck, I spent a LOT
more time on the technical details of my hoax!) - and yet, CBS took it hook,
line, and sinker ... and then CBS/Rather stonewalled for over a week before
admitting they goofed. You be the judge if this was just poor fact
checking or something worse.
2005_04_01: I have gotten tons of Emails the first 3 months
of 2005 saying I should do it for REAL (i.e. really let people on the
Internet turn my christmas lights on & off) so as of April 1st, I've
updated my christmas 2005
page with info on that!
