Larvatus Prodeo

Apparently it’s now the question on everyone’s lips – apropos of the Keith Windschuttle Quadrant hoax. “Sharon Gould” was the pseudonym used by a hoaxer who submitted an egregious article embodying “outrageous propositions” about GM research and splicing human genes into food to Windschuttle, which he published. Crikey revealed the hoax. Don Arthur, writing at Troppo, doesn’t know the answer to the question of the moment, but he links to some people who have some ideas, and has done a bit of googling off his own bat. Both Jason Soon and Nexus6 believe they have identified Katherine Wilson as the hoaxer. I offer no opinion on the matter.

But I wanted to clarify something – in comments at Troppo, mel wrote:

I wonder if Wilson tipped Mark Bahnisch off about the hoax …..? AFAIK he was the first blogger to flag the issue.

Aside from – as appears to be his wont – making false and self-serving statements regarding moderation on this blog and throwing in a bit of personal abuse for good measure – never a good start – mel is committing a post hoc ergo propter hoc fallacy, which abounds these days. I posted about the Crikey story because I happened to be online when I received the Crikey email. That’s all. That was the first I’d heard of it. I don’t read Quadrant as a rule, and I’m actually not all that exercised about this whole affair.

My post is pretty neutral about the issue, and really just explains what occurred, and points people to Margaret Simons’ story. Since then, because there’s been a fair bit of interest, I’ve been updating it regularly with new links as they come to hand.

In any event, Kath Wilson and LP didn’t part on excellent terms, to put it gracefully – as is well known, she requested that all posts and comments she’d made here be removed, something we weren’t at all happy with. I don’t believe I’ve had any contact with her since early in 2007. In any case, we don’t know Wilson was the hoaxer.

I apologise for bothering folks with this, but since I have a new computer, my Troppo password hasn’t stuck, and the new password feature isn’t working for me, and I can’t register a new commenting account with the same email. But I did want to set the record straight on this one.

Incidentally, I think this whole affair has brought out both the best and the worst of the blogosphere. But I might wait until some more water has passed under the bridge to expand on that comment.

Update: Katherine Wilson has been revealed to be the hoaxer, and Margaret Simons examines the sequence of events, with something of a focus on the journos v. bloggers angle.