4 ms·

This is a very limited apology. He was in the news for pretending to be a journalist while researching a startup, sure, but that was merely weird (you might eve

This is a very limited apology. He was in the news for pretending to be a journalist while researching a startup, sure, but that was merely weird (you might even call it "scrappy," like some of the stories you hear about other startups doing slightly dishonest stuff early on). But that story had plenty of other examples of Guo doing really weird stuff, like getting free air travel and product samples by claiming he was going to write about companies. He vaguely alludes to that in the blog post, but it's a weird omission not to address that. A simple "These stories are all wrong" or even "I was broke and really intended to write about those guys, but it was still the wrong decision" would be fine. http://www.betabeat.com/2011/09/27/jerry-guo-newsweek-grouper-fareed-zakaria/ http://www.betabeat.com/2011/09/27/jerry-guo-newsweek-groupe...

HardyLeung 15y ago
I agree. This is really a damage control to his own reputation. I don't find the apology sincere at all, given the extent and duration of his dishonesty.
- jerryguo 15y ago
  Jerry here. Here's the statement I gave to Gawker about the Newsweek complaints: As for the letters of complaint, Guo tells us they "stem from the fact a) I just didn't end up writing about some of the places I stayed, because they sucked and I wasn't about to portray them as anything else and b) Daily Beast and Newsweek merged last winter, and I left pretty quickly after that, so with a lead time of several weeks / months, those stories just didn't get written." Here's a statement from Fareed Zakaria, the editor of Newsweek on our editorial policy: Mr. Zakaria emailed Betabeat to explain the change. The Good Life, he said, was “an effort to provide a service for our readers and attract new advertisers. It is quite common in that world for reporters to, say, go to a special tasting at a new restaurant or attend a weekend retreat at a new hotel. I relaxed our rules on this stuff for those two pages.
  - rwolf 15y ago
    The rest of that Zakaria quote (taken from http://www.betabeat.com/2011/09/27/jerry-guo-newsweek-grouper-fareed-zakaria/2/ http://www.betabeat.com/2011/09/27/jerry-guo-newsweek-groupe...): ...In retrospect, it was a mistake—my mistake—and I regret it. We should not have been in the business of covering luxury goods—that world is so different from the traditional world of news reporting. I was always uncomfortable with it but was trying to help to help[sic] the magazine survive through tough economic times.

HardyLeung 15y ago

I agree. This is really a damage control to his own reputation. I don't find the apology sincere at all, given the extent and duration of his dishonesty.

jerryguo 15y ago
Jerry here. Here's the statement I gave to Gawker about the Newsweek complaints: As for the letters of complaint, Guo tells us they "stem from the fact a) I just didn't end up writing about some of the places I stayed, because they sucked and I wasn't about to portray them as anything else and b) Daily Beast and Newsweek merged last winter, and I left pretty quickly after that, so with a lead time of several weeks / months, those stories just didn't get written." Here's a statement from Fareed Zakaria, the editor of Newsweek on our editorial policy: Mr. Zakaria emailed Betabeat to explain the change. The Good Life, he said, was “an effort to provide a service for our readers and attract new advertisers. It is quite common in that world for reporters to, say, go to a special tasting at a new restaurant or attend a weekend retreat at a new hotel. I relaxed our rules on this stuff for those two pages.
- rwolf 15y ago
  The rest of that Zakaria quote (taken from http://www.betabeat.com/2011/09/27/jerry-guo-newsweek-grouper-fareed-zakaria/2/ http://www.betabeat.com/2011/09/27/jerry-guo-newsweek-groupe...): ...In retrospect, it was a mistake—my mistake—and I regret it. We should not have been in the business of covering luxury goods—that world is so different from the traditional world of news reporting. I was always uncomfortable with it but was trying to help to help[sic] the magazine survive through tough economic times.