Hey Times, The Bill for Doing Your Reporting For You Will Be in the Mail
Breaking our promise already, sorta. We don't want to cover this, but we can't ignore it. Welcome to the party, NYT; headline says it all.
The Resume Mocked 'Round the World [The New York Times]
UPDATE 3:19 p.m. Oct. 21: Oh look, Michael J. de la Merced's story made it into the Times print edition. But with the guts cut out -- what little there were in the first place, anyway. This part makes us want to ram an airplane into an apartment building:
The Internet scrutiny also raised questions about some of Mr. Vayner's claims in his résumé, including assertions that he ran his own charity and investment firm.
There have also been questions over whether he copied sections of a self-published book, "Women's Silent Tears: A Unique Gendered Perspective on the Holocaust," from Web sites.
Mr. Vayner, 23, contends that both the charity and investment firm are legitimate. And the accusations about his book, he said, were based on an earlier draft that has since been changed.
Oh! Well then! Mr. Vayner contends, does he? Then everything must be A-okay. You keep doing that tough reporting, Michael J. de la Merced.
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Read more: aleksey vayner, new york times, plagiarism, Yale
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October 20th, 2006 at 8:23 pm
What a tool, he really should’ve been expelled.
October 20th, 2006 at 8:31 pm
His left arm looks HUGE compared to his right.
October 20th, 2006 at 8:42 pm
Is the Taliban guy still at Yale? If so, they should make this Vayner character room with him. You know how much Afghans and Russians just love each other.
:)
October 20th, 2006 at 9:09 pm
o_O You’re right. I didn’t even notice his arm. I spent a while staring at it, but I can’t figure out how the camera angle did it.
October 20th, 2006 at 9:35 pm
If Yale does not expel him, I will lose all respect for this university. He has violated so many rules: fraud, plagiarism. He is not worthy of a Yale degree and if he does get one, the university is a fake.
October 21st, 2006 at 8:30 am
The NYT should at least have attributed and named IvyGate or any of the other blogs from which they got the “details” for their article.
October 21st, 2006 at 8:39 am
Looks like they’ve changed the headline to “A Student’s Video Résumé Gets Attention (Some of It Unwanted).” I kinda like the word “mocked” better.
I like how they defend him based on the fact that the plagiarized portions of the book are from an “earlier version.” Apparently plagiarism is ok as long as it’s in an “earlier version.” Paging Jayson Blair!
I also like the following two sentences: “Nearly all the feats in the video are his, he said, and they are real. But he says he is not certain that the skiing segment actually shows him.” So in other words, not all the feats in the video are his, and the skiing segment doesn’t actually show him, right?
And they say that both the charity and the investment fund are legit. What information is there to back that up?
October 21st, 2006 at 8:43 am
Oh, wait, the article I was referring to wasn’t the Dealbook posting, but this piece, that I believe appears in the printed in NYT today:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/21/business/21bank.html?ex=1319083200&en=0ace4a1b18aa80f5&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss
October 21st, 2006 at 8:43 am
Why didn’t the Times give IvyGate some attribution for your reporting? Can you tell us if the Times even interviewed IvyGate blog?
More of my thoughts on the matter: http://utubeblog.wordpress.com/2006/10/21/yale-student-aleksey-vayner-speaks-to-times-about-video/
October 21st, 2006 at 2:16 pm
why did the NY Times article be so lenient on this guy? They didn’t mention anything about exposing his fraud and his plagerism. His trying to cheat his way to the top by lying, and the other potential felonies.
October 21st, 2006 at 3:25 pm
This story is just weird. It reads like a damage control press release from a PR firm. I would love to hear from the NYTimes ombudsman about this.
October 21st, 2006 at 5:10 pm
Typical lazy journalism.. There must be two sides to every story, and they both must be quoted fairly, right? Because the truth is exactly in the middle, right?
Coming up next: the Earth controversy: round or flat? We’ll give both sides the opportunity to give their views.
October 22nd, 2006 at 2:16 am
re: left arm > right arm
My guess would be that someone took a picture of a printed photograph, and the camera was at a slight angle.
October 22nd, 2006 at 4:25 pm
Not sure if this has been revealed already, but he claims in his cover letter to have a CFP certification. Well a quick search on the CFP website shows they have no record that an “Aleksey Vayner” has a CFP certification.
October 22nd, 2006 at 8:51 pm
the new yorker kaavya’d ivygate also — check it out http://www.newyorker.com/talk/content/articles/061023ta_talk_mcgrath
October 23rd, 2006 at 12:41 pm
How can the university be convinced not to give him a degree?? There is no way someone who committed charity fraud and plagerism should be allowed to get a Yale degree. This just looks bad for the rest of us.
October 23rd, 2006 at 1:41 pm
At the end of the day, Aleksey is a true Ivy Leaguer. Half the Ivy League alumni I know are legitimately intelligent; the other half are simply great at packaging themselves.
Dave
http://www.eprep.com
October 23rd, 2006 at 8:36 pm
reminds me of Walter Mitty:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Secret_Life_of_Walter_Mitty
October 24th, 2006 at 12:19 pm
Actually, one could posit that it looks like he did a shitty job of packaging himself. If he had done a good job, he’d be interviewing with UBS right now, wouldn’t he?
October 24th, 2006 at 7:13 pm
Just to let you know, the story (video minus plagiaeism - news to me!) made it to Financial Times edition on Monday in an article by Lucy Kellaway. She is usually tongue in cheek reporter of corporate excesses and human foibles.
October 25th, 2006 at 11:19 am
Do as Gawker suggest and just start sourcing the NYTs as “a newspaper.”
October 25th, 2006 at 12:00 pm
Vayner is either a delusional sociopath or a brilliant mastermind of satire and social engineering. It’s Gordon Gecko meets Tony Robbins meets Borat. Who will eventually claim Aleksey’s soul? Time will tell…
October 27th, 2006 at 6:38 am
A guy like Vayner attended my high school. He wore a big gold rope necklace, pristine Member’s Only jacket and drove a red Firebird with a personalized license showing his name. Telling tall tales about all kinds of bullshit, he became very annoying and by the end of the year no one liked him.