nick sylvester = maker upper

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xposted from elsewhere. I am not speaking for Nick - I've only met him three or four times, and we barely crossed paths at Pitchfork - but this is infuriating. And one of the many reasons I refuse to get my financial well-being tied up in writing.

This is exactly the scenario that played out when Steve Martin (Nasty Little Man) went after Brent DiCrescenzo's Beastie Boys review at Pitchfork: an established (and aging) industry peer sees a young cub juggling knives - which we all do to get people to look at us - but instead of smiling knowingly at the bravado - "Hey, I'm on this kid's radar, cute" - Lookner grabs one by the handle and jabs it into his forehead Munich-style.

Lookner is a fellow Harvard alum, and a tiring L.A. comedy writer from the dire MAD TV/mid-90s SNL eras. He was a big part of The Man Show. You will find him falling off the edge of a bar with Jay Mohr on most Wednesday nights. Check out Mohr's Gasping for Airtime insight into this meathead frat-boy clique's pathetic insubstantiality.

Fuck 'em if they can't take a joke.

Chris Ott
Editor in Chief
SPIN Magazine

― Chris Ott (Chris Ott), Thursday, 2 March 2006 13:05 (twenty years ago)

lol

― ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, Thursday, 2 March 2006 13:11 (twenty years ago)

maybe stay on ur own instead of 'fratboy' cheap shots & playing captain save-a-hack?

― ,,,,,,,,,,,,,, Thursday, 2 March 2006 13:17 (twenty years ago)

classic that nick only got suspended. very impressive, Voice!

― don weiner (don weiner), Thursday, 2 March 2006 13:58 (twenty years ago)

Oh my god I don't believe we just brought up Brent's piece as a comparison to this.

― Eppy (Eppy), Thursday, 2 March 2006 14:13 (twenty years ago)

personally, I defend the right of anyone to get pissed off if they have quotes attributed to them that they did not say, no matter how lame the person is, unless it's clearly a joke, which this wasn't. But I do think it's silly to think this will hurt his career, I mean, maybe if he wanted to write for The New York Times or something, but like Pitchfork could care? Or any number of outlets. The New Yorker Shouts and Murmors section would be a perfect home for him. If they can have Sasha Frere Jones talking about Mariah Carey, they can have Nick's trash talking. Better then jokes about old books I ain't ever read.

― Dan Selzer (Dan Selzer), Thursday, 2 March 2006 14:19 (twenty years ago)

There are plenty of great writers able to scoot from satire to straight reporting. I mean, in a sense Christgau does it, Dan Savage does it, Neil Pollack has done it, Tom Wolfe has done it, and so on. I say, ethics aside, if you're going to make something up, make something up about made-up people. Don't make something up about real, living, breathing people unless you know they're cool with it.

Ethics not aside, if you're going to make something up, just write a book or something. It's called "fiction," and a lot of people like it.

― Josh in Chicago (Josh in Chicago), Thursday, 2 March 2006 14:22 (twenty years ago)

Nice, Ott.

I feel bad for Sylvester, hopefully this mess will blow over.

Also could Eppy stop posting to this thread. Or be castrated. Or at least stop talking about "we" as though he is more than one lonely person.

― Hairy Asshurt (Toaster), Thursday, 2 March 2006 14:23 (twenty years ago)

I think you are mis-guessing what I was going to say about it, but OK.

― Eppy (Eppy), Thursday, 2 March 2006 14:25 (twenty years ago)

I'm glad you're willing to defend that right Dan, given that most people don't like lies being told about them, let alone having lies published for millions of people to read.

This isn't a instance of journalistic ethics that Nick Sylvester didn't learn at j-school or the tutelage of an editor. It's pretty basic morals. If you need to be told that lying is wrong, you've got problems that need more than a suspension. Which is why any editor who hires Nick from here on out will have a credibility problem to contend with. I'm sure Nick's a nice guy, but he just took a long piss into the wind without a clean towel in view.

FWIW, Ruth Shalit hasn't had a byline in years.

― don weiner (don weiner), Thursday, 2 March 2006 14:31 (twenty years ago)

any edtior who hires a guy known for treating rappers like anonymous shit to their faces while fawning over weirdo rock bands had a credibility problem to begin with

― ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, Thursday, 2 March 2006 14:34 (twenty years ago)

I think you are mis-guessing what I was going to say about it, but OK.

-- Eppy (epp...), March 2nd, 2006.

I don't feel I should devote my time here on this thread to guessing what you are gonna say.

Say it or get off the can.

― Hairy Asshurt (Toaster), Thursday, 2 March 2006 14:38 (twenty years ago)

don weiner otm -- words i've never said before.

wtf at all this 'fact-checker' shit? just do it right the first time, you lazy so-and-sos.

― The Man Without Shadow (Enrique), Thursday, 2 March 2006 14:41 (twenty years ago)

i blame the readers for believing him

― ,,,,,,,,,,,, Thursday, 2 March 2006 14:43 (twenty years ago)

the other night i was at a bar in paris talking to some swedish girls that were too tall and good-looking for me. we started talking about shows in paris and music news etc and, like most conversations about music with people my age, avoided mentioning pitchfork for as long as possible. when it finally happened (talking about new knife album), one of them said, "oh. yah. like, mah friend was in nyoo york and mett neek sylvestre."

NICK LIE ALL YOU WANT YOU ARE INTERNATIONAL GONZO MUSIC SEX SYMBOL!!

― poortheatre (poortheatre), Thursday, 2 March 2006 14:51 (twenty years ago)

I'm curious about ,,,,,'s comments about Nick treating rappers like "anonymous shit", as some rock-band friends of mine had a similar experience. sylvester's very short article on them was riddled with small mistakes. nothing earth-shattering, but about one inaccuracy per line. he got song titles wrong, an album title wrong, the band's label wrong, identified the drummer as the singer, misattributed quotes from people in the band, and quoted lyrics inaccurately. again, nothing of terrible importance but it was kind of laughable.

― Fritz Wollner (Fritz), Thursday, 2 March 2006 14:57 (twenty years ago)

wtf at all this 'fact-checker' shit? just do it right the first time, you lazy so-and-sos.

newspapers should have fact-checkers. ostensibly, newspapers report news, and for a paper (even an alt-weekly) to lay off its fact-checkers is very irresponsible. i totally agree that ~~journalists~~ people who write for newspapers have an unspoken oath to get their facts straight, but the factchecking department should always be on guard to cover the newspaper's ass.

― jbr, Thursday, 2 March 2006 14:58 (twenty years ago)

"caring" isn't the vicefork WAY

― jbr, Thursday, 2 March 2006 15:00 (twenty years ago)

it's not a newspaper, it's the village voice. there isn't much objection along NYT lines, because the story is trivial, but he obviously fucked up -- and the question is WHY BOTHER MAKING IT UP? i can't imagine fact-checkers would get into this kind of territory anyway -- maybe on the new yorker, but generally?

xpost

― The Man Without Shadow (Enrique), Thursday, 2 March 2006 15:01 (twenty years ago)

it's not a newspaper, it's the village voice.

it is a newspaper, in that it often publshes news features.

― Autonomous University of Zacatecas (Jody Beth Rosen), Thursday, 2 March 2006 15:03 (twenty years ago)

yeah why would anybody care about blatant lying in the voice-

In its March 30 issue, The Village Voice broke a shocking story connecting the growth of US-aided Muslim militance in Afghanistan with the February bombing of the World Trade Center.

(...)

In March of this year, the Village Voice broke exclusive new details of a special IBM wartime subsidiary set up in Poland by IBM's New York headquarters shortly after Hitler's 1939 invasion.

(...)

First, there was the story the Village Voice broke about the Mayor's aides allegedly offering a $144,000/year job to former City Councilman Thomas Ognibene in order not to run against Mayor Bloomberg in the GOP primary.

- its not a serious paper or anything

― ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, Thursday, 2 March 2006 15:08 (twenty years ago)

he should have added a disclaimer like he did on his fake Voice blog:

"Disclaimer: With the exception of the MP3 and verifiable band bio, this entire entry is probably made up."

― scott seward (scott seward), Thursday, 2 March 2006 15:09 (twenty years ago)

fritz i dont doubt he treats rock bands like anonymous shit too but he also seems to engage with their music more readily when it comes to actually posting seriously - maybe i just notice the rap shit more cuz its this smarmy harvard grad acting like a dick to ppl from my city

― ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, Thursday, 2 March 2006 15:11 (twenty years ago)

ott joins the jackass parade.

instead of smiling knowingly at the bravado - "Hey, I'm on this kid's radar, cute"

how would you feel if a big newspaper printed a story saying you were in new york when you weren't? how would your wife + family feel?

― vahid (vahid), Thursday, 2 March 2006 15:24 (twenty years ago)

"how would your wife + family feel?"

it wouldn't work. they would hear me snoring on the couch.

― scott seward (scott seward), Thursday, 2 March 2006 15:27 (twenty years ago)

Then your boys could come up and dance and sing and jump on your tummy.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 2 March 2006 15:27 (twenty years ago)

Happy Birthday, Ned!

― scott seward (scott seward), Thursday, 2 March 2006 15:32 (twenty years ago)

:-D

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 2 March 2006 15:34 (twenty years ago)

Jimmy is 8 years old and a third-generation heroin addict, a precocious little boy with sandy hair, velvety brown eyes and needle marks freckling the baby-smooth skin of his thin brown arms.
He nestles in a large, beige reclining chair in the living room of his comfortably furnished home in Southeast Washington. There is an almost cherubic expression on his small, round face as he talks about life -- clothes, money, the Baltimore Orioles and heroin. He has been an addict since the age of 5. His hands are clasped behind his head, fancy running shoes adorn his feet, and a striped Izod T-shirt hangs over his thin frame. "Bad, ain't it," he boasts to a reporter visiting recently. "I got me six of these."

― ,,,,,,,,,,, Thursday, 2 March 2006 15:37 (twenty years ago)

I was waiting for someone to get all Janet Cooke on this thread.

― Whiney G. Weingarten (whineyg), Thursday, 2 March 2006 15:39 (twenty years ago)

yeah but that made-up story cast important light on an real life community epidemic instead of being some smug po-mo loser dicking around nyc scenester bullshit & using newspapers as his own narcissistic playground

― ,,,,,,,,,,,,, Thursday, 2 March 2006 15:44 (twenty years ago)

also janet cooke didnt think black ppl using & selling drugs was hilarious or cute

― ,,,,,,,,,, Thursday, 2 March 2006 15:45 (twenty years ago)

RIFF: JIMMY YOU USE HEROIN ALOT HUH

JIMMY: YES I AM ADDICTED TO IT

RIFF: WOULD YOU SAY YOU ARE "CUCKOO" FOR IT

JIMMY: ...

― ,,,,,,,,,,, Thursday, 2 March 2006 15:46 (twenty years ago)

haha ts: nick sylvester makes up/changes details in fluffpiece about picking up chix vs. nancy grace makes up/changes details in (career making) story about murder of her fiance.

― j blount (papa la bas), Thursday, 2 March 2006 15:47 (twenty years ago)

Holy schadenfreude, Batman.

You know you've hit bottom when Tom Smith is lecturing you about ethics.

― Edward III (edward iii), Thursday, 2 March 2006 15:48 (twenty years ago)

for me the fact that its a fluff piece makes it worse, not better

― ,,,,,,,,,,,,,, Thursday, 2 March 2006 15:49 (twenty years ago)

whoa, i wonder if tom smith knows nancy grace!

― hstencil (hstencil), Thursday, 2 March 2006 15:53 (twenty years ago)

Smith once wrote a piece about scoring with one of the chicks from Frightwig. So he & Slyvester are kindred spirits, in a sense.

― Edward III (edward iii), Thursday, 2 March 2006 15:57 (twenty years ago)

2) fluffpiece/lifestyle feature 'journalist' fate (neil strauss, tom junod, richard meltzer) - positive: nothing negative happens to yr career. negative: this means you're still a fluffpiece/lifestyle feature 'journalist'. positive: except now you're better paid. negative: you become an even bigger asshole.

― j blount (papa la bas), Thursday, 2 March 2006 16:02 (twenty years ago)

i wonder if sylvester has even been to a kill whitey party like he says?!

― gear (gear), Thursday, 2 March 2006 16:02 (twenty years ago)

ok that was probably true

― gear (gear), Thursday, 2 March 2006 16:02 (twenty years ago)

and sylvester should take comfort in that there's two things that can happen to him now -
1) 'serious' journalist fate (janet cooke, ruth shalit, stephen glass) - no longer work in journalism, get better paying, more prestigious job instead (ok, i guess it could be argued cooke made a lateral move after the post)(note: ignore possibility of consequences if your name is mike barnicle, rick bragg, joe klein).
2) fluffpiece/lifestyle feature 'journalist' fate (neil strauss, tom junod, richard meltzer) - positive: nothing negative happens to yr career. negative: this means you're still a fluffpiece/lifestyle feature 'journalist'. positive: except now you're better paid. negative: you become an even bigger asshole.

Janet Cooke worked at a department store for like 20 years or something!

― Whiney G. Weingarten (whineyg), Thursday, 2 March 2006 16:05 (twenty years ago)

Nothing much here except:

Also: Yes, yes, we know about that essentially useless Editor’s Note. More on that TK later.

Hmmm.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 2 March 2006 16:07 (twenty years ago)

They asked for and paid for a Nick Sylvester piece, and they got one. Unless the editor specifically said "hey, this is going on the front page under the general news and editorial section" it's possible (probable?) Nick didn't know what he was supposed to turn in. With things the way they are (I'm still amazed the Riff Raff column exists, and I like a reasonable portion of Nick's stuff) it's not surprising that he could make the front page with a parody article.

Is there anything Nick's written for the voice that hasn't had some sort of parody disclaimer or was at least written in the guise of being a gossipy music article?

― mike h. (mike h.), Thursday, 2 March 2006 16:07 (twenty years ago)

I love Situationism as much as the next guy (if the next Guy is Debord; get it? get it?) but, for instance, the same Voice issue has a Sylvester story entitled "E-thics" (oof). It's about viral marketing schemes. I would like to be able to take the facts that Nick cites (e.g., that the "Mothers Against Noise" joke was bankrolled by Universal) seriously. Sadly, I can't.

― Never Work (joseph cotten), Thursday, 2 March 2006 16:08 (twenty years ago)

I love Situationism as much as the next guy (if the next Guy is Debord; get it? get it?)

I am going to steal the fuck out of that.

Isn't it pronounced "Gee" though?

― Whiney G. Weingarten (whineyg), Thursday, 2 March 2006 16:10 (twenty years ago)

Trife, you shoukd get a VV blog where you write like you write on ILX

― Raymond Cummings (Raymond Cummings), Thursday, 2 March 2006 16:10 (twenty years ago)

like i said whiney - lateral move!

― j blount (papa la bas), Thursday, 2 March 2006 16:10 (twenty years ago)

hey JB are you asserting that Sylvester has the writing chops of any of those other writers? because that's kind of a mitigating factor when it comes to taking comfort.

― don weiner (don weiner), Thursday, 2 March 2006 16:11 (twenty years ago)

what the fuck has this got to do with situationism?

― The Man Without Shadow (Enrique), Thursday, 2 March 2006 16:12 (twenty years ago)

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