Saturday, January 3, 2004

Dept. of Hissy Fits Hampton Court Blogger Pulls Plug on blog In what appears to be a spiteful fit, JohnB, the blogger who was investigating the Hampton Court Ghost, has taken down his blog, leaving only a photograph and a rant directed at "the media." The study reported on here was concluded by the end of 2003 and written up by 1 January 2004. The media was invited, through a PR Agency - to discuss how the report of the study could be used by them. Though this invitation has been viewed by thousands in the media, there was no response. The report was therefore released at 7pm GMT 2 January to those who had contributed in some way to the weblog of the study and the offer to the media revoked. The weblog is now closed. I was thinking that this had been a serious inquiry, but this turn of events is making me think that JohnB was nothing but a publicity hound. Otherwise, why take down the blog? If nothing else, it's a terrible disservice to his readers. Not all of us are "the media," after all. I guess if you aren't an employee of a newspaper, magazine or television news organization, JohnB doesn't give a flying fark about you. It's especially spiteful since he promised to post his findings on the blog and then a day later, pulls the whole thing down. Makes you wonder if he's just a fraud, looking for some publicity. UPDATE: JohnB emailed his report to me and it was, as promised, a thorough and skeptical inquiry. I'd like to publish his findings, but it's clear that he doesn't wish to share them with the public at this time. He may be cranky, but he is no fraud. (January 5, 2003) 12:16:26 PM     leave/read comments []