nick sylvester = maker upper

xpost much luv jess

I want to know whether the VV commissioned a piece from NS (his choice of topic), or this particular type of story.

Thanks.

i assumed it might be guilt by association with you too, jess. though thankfully you aren't insane.

a big stack of Juggs magazine isn't a fact-checking dept.

unfortunately for everybody I think this qualifies as "living the dream"

i was referring to when you took offense with ethan pointing out the obv. re: nick.

xpost

i don't think they commission pieces from him, as he's on staff. that said, the blogger who is quoted heavily in the piece is claiming that she pitched them this very piece back in january.

NEW YORK The Village Voice suspended one of its editors
after he admitted fabricating material for this week's cover story,
a look at ``The Secret Society of Pickup Artists.''
The weekly alternative newspaper published an editor's note on
its Web site Wednesday night announcing the suspension of senior
associate editor Nick Sylvester.
In an article about the effect that Neil Strauss's book, ``The
Game,'' has had on the singles scene, Sylvester closed with a
description of a night in which he and three television writers
from Los Angeles tested strategies for picking up women at a
Manhattan bar.
``That scene,'' the Voice wrote, ``never happened.''
It attached a note from Sylvester, in which he said the account
was ``a composite of specific anecdotes'' shared by two of the
alleged participants. One of the people supposedly present, the
comedy writer Steve Lookner, wasn't involved at all, Sylvester
acknowledged.
``I deeply regret this misinformation, and I apologize to
Lookner for his distress, which I certainly never intended,''
Sylvester wrote.
Voice Managing Editor Doug Simmons said the paper was still
reviewing the accuracy of the rest of the story and planned to
publish a second statement in its next edition.
Simmons declined to comment further on the matter. He said
Sylvester, who also writes for the online music magazine Pitchfork,
joined the Voice staff in 2005.
Attempts to reach Sylvester were not immediately successful. He
did not return an e-mail message sent to him at Pitchfork Media.
Sylvester predominantly wrote music reviews for the Voice. His
few full-length feature articles included several interviews with
characters who told somewhat fantastical stories.
In an August story about cheating on college campuses, Sylvester
described interviewing a student who spent $500,000 to have a
multiplication table tattooed over his entire body; a Harvard
Medical School graduate who cheated with Morse code; a Boston
College junior named Simeon Criz who cheated using a specially
designed deck of playing cards; and a Manhattan doctor named Noam
Feldstein who delivers ``a hundred newborn babies each day.''
Boston College said it had no record of a student named Simeon
Criz. The board that licenses doctors in New York said it had no
record of a physician named Noam Feldstein.
Founded in 1955, the Voice covers arts, entertainment and news
with an irreverent bent that often stretches the conventions that
govern most big-city newspapers. Its staffers have won three
Pulitzer prizes.