The anonymous blogger who assumed the persona of Apple CEO Steve Jobs in his blog, “The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs,” has been unmasked by The New York Times’ Brad Stone.
Daniel Lyons, a senior editor at Forbes magazine (aka: Fake Steve), responds, “Now you’ve ruined the mystery of Fake Steve, robbing thousands of people around the world of their sense of childlike wonder. Hope you feel good about yourself, you mangina.”
Lyons writes, “What’s next for FSJ? Well, I’m taking a few days off to sit in a lake and do some yoga and meditation and non-thinking. Then I’m coming back next week, badder than ever, with a new sponsor — my homeboys at Forbes.com. Turns out they’ve been reading FSJ and liking it too. Who knew?
Fake Steve’s full post is here.
Stone reports, “Though many speculators have guessed Fake Steve was an Apple insider, Mr. Lyons says he has never interviewed Mr. Jobs nor written a story about the company. ‘I have zero sources inside Apple,’ he said. ‘I had to go out and get books and biographies to learn about a lot of the back story.'”
Stone reports, “Forbes had planned to move the Secret Diary to Forbes.com in September, although it may now accelerate the move.”
Stone reports, “As for Mr. Jobs himself — the real one — he did not seem all that interested when told the identity of his online doppelganger. He said in an instant message conversation that he had no interest in reading Mr. Lyons’s novel.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Note: Back on May 30, 2007, at The Wall Street Journal’s D: All Things Digital conference, the real Steve Jobs said, “I have read a few of the Fake Steve Jobs things recently, and I think they’re pretty funny, but I don’t know who it is.”
Forbes has osted an audio interview with Lyons discussing Fake Steve here.
Congrats, Brad, you win a cookie.
who gives one…
Dang that sucks.
leave it to the scummy media to F*ckup something good. Sheesh.
Brad Stone is a dick.
No, he’s a mangina.
It’s fake. The Real Fake Steve Jobs is yet to be unmasked. In my world, at least.
that sucks, hope the blog can continue on, but it just won’t be the same 🙁
My concern about the identiy of Fake Steve Jobs ranks up there with when Barry B*ndsterone breaks Aaron’s record: zero.
I am coming back soon…
DAMN you Brad
Those goes my lively, innocent adolescenthood…
Let it go Daniel.
You could never measure up to the anonymous FS enough for me. Every article penned by you from now on will feel like Christmas morning and I already know what I’m getting.
You don’t know the fake Steve Jobs, I do.
He would have gotten away with it, too, if it weren’t for those meddling kids and that dog!
I am Fake Brad Stone.
Look at me……
BrassHole. To think he could have extorted and interview and preserved the secret. But nooo….
Ah well, so much for the Andy Inatko (or however you spell it) theory.
I was Peter’s Son.
Once.
Remember when MDN used to put pictures relating to the story where the obligatory iPhone and Mac ads are? As I clicked the RSS link, I had a slight expectation to see a photo or Mr. Lyons, but knew it wouldn’t happen.
Not that I care about this story one bit, but the novelty of it would realized easier if there was a photo of the subject, next to the byline.
Maybe I’ll start a site called http://www.fakemacdailynews.com/
And Santa Claus is Bill Gates, at least he is to Dean Singleton.
kind of sad
FSJ’s good writing better continue!
That better be a VERY STALE cookie he wins. With a bit of botchulism. Basically killed the party just because he could.
Really kind of a sad day for the NYT. Next up, a serious hard-hitting investigation of Santa Claus. Publics right to know, ya know.
Brad Stone better start running, a la “The Bourne Ultimatum,” before the powers that be go after him.
A word to the wise: If a secret agent/assassin tells you to wait in a little room to save your life, you better wait in that little room!
Brad Stone should be really proud of himself now. In my books, he just won the award for “Biggest Dick Of The Year”.
Congrats, Brad. Dick.
Oh for crying out loud! Why did they have to ruin all the fun?! It was -spose- to be a mystery! ugh… i’ll have to find something else to read now that I know who this guy is… -_-
Whoever read the NY Slimes deserves it!
Brad Stone: c*nt.