With yet another cover story on the same subject in 30 days (same story, but no new information), The Chronicle's anti-Internet story "Web 2.0 defamation lawsuits multiply" attempts to show how the promise of Web 2.0 has turned into a nightmare -- psst, it has not -- and why you should stick to buying print editions. Or whatever. (We tend to tune out when an article uses "Web 2.0" in its title.)
And at the center of this debate? Yelp. Chron writer Deborah Gage tells us about Yvonne Wong, a pediatric dentist in Foster City, who sued Yelp and a reviewer over a post griping about her allegedly crap services. Anyway, it seems the article in question futzes with accuracy in a few parts. (Just like us Web 2.0 bottom dwellers!) Namely, that said review was removed after the lawsuit came down. (It was not.) Also, the Chron article uses Andrew Keen, author of the comical book, "The Cult of the Amateur: How Today's Internet is Killing Our Culture," as a source. To which we say, yes, getting old sucks, Keen.
We asked Yelp CEO Jeremy Stoppelman for his thoughts on yesterday's Chron article. He tells SFist, "the quality of the Chronicle's reporting is rapidly deteriorating, but sadly for SF citizens their megaphone is still on." Ouch.
We would ask the Chron to opine -- because SFist is tirelessly fair, balanced -- but they refuse to communicate via email. Alas.