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Who Reads This Shit Anyway? Diary of a so-called "rock star."

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Official Tim Napalm (aka Tim Stegall) Profile

Tim Napalm aka Tim stegall


Last Updated: 11/22/2009

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Gender: Male
Status: Single
Age: 44
Sign: Virgo

City: Phoenix
State: Arizona
Country: US
Signup Date: 2/23/2008

Who Gives Kudos:

(Order of t.. (1)
Friday, November 06, 2009 

Current mood:really don't want it, really don't need it....
Category: Life

Jesus, I'm dead?! That's news to me....


By now, some of you have probably read about how I helped dispel the Chuck Biscuits death rumors that were choking the internet a week ago Thursday. Some of you may have even followed my posts (here, there, and this one, too) as I made some attempt to stem the tide of misinformation as it was rapidly spiraling on the web. The whole story is fascinating, especially as it points out some of the more serious flaws in modern journalism and the internet's power.

Basically, a rock critic and blogger named James Greene, Jr., was the subject of a nasty practical joke, preying on his love of the D.O.A./Black Flag/Circle Jerks/Danzig/Social Distortion drum dynamo. Someone had been emailing Greene for months, posing either as Chuck or his wife, claiming Chuck was dying of throat cancer. The punch line, delivered in the form of a phony email from Chuck's family claiming he'd passed Oct. 24, had some decidedly unfunny consequences.

Once Greene posted this obituary for Biscuits, it's shocking how viral it went. More shocking was how quickly it was picked up by mainstream media, including NPR and the NME (although they quickly retracted their item once the truth was out, posting this, instead). This modest blog post was accepted as the gospel truth on Biscuits' death, with no one asking the family for confirmation, it seems.

I first got word of the possibility of Biscuits' death when a pal asked what I'd heard about it. He then turned around and asked punk artist Bad Otis Link, a former business partner of Biscuits' in the '80s, who shot back that he'd received an email from Biscuits just the night before. My pal then mentioned that Otis had just gotten off the phone with Biscuits' older brother, Bob Montgomery, and the family had not been notified. That's when I got suspicious.

I quickly added Otis on Facebook and began reposting his own status-messages-cum-bulletins refuting the rumors. (Sample, spelling and grammar Otis' own: "Otis Link CHUCK BISCUITS!!!! Not True to me until the dead guy sings!
I cant keep up with the calls and the emails, here is what I know.
Chuck sent me an email last night at 11:55 DEAD MEN DONT EMAIL!
I talked with Bob, chucks brother today, Chucks family has not been notified of a death. Normally they are told if their brother or son is sick or dead.
A rumor started in august about cancer, Chuck was fine then too.") Pretty soon, another mutual friend of mine and DOA leader Joey Shithead confirmed he'd just gotten off the phone with Shithead, who had just gotten off the phone with an irritated and confused Biscuits. (I love the Biscuits quote Otis relayed to us: "This is fucking retarded!") I simply passed the news along as I got it, knowing the lies were upsetting a lot of people. It all climaxed with a note from Bob Montgomery's wife, Tabitha, personally thanking me for helping get the truth out there and offering confirmation that Bob had spoken with a very much alive-and-well Chuck Biscuits.

In all honesty, I am as surprised I was a source for the truth as I'm sure James Greene, Jr., was in inadvertantly being a source for the misinformation. (As can be seen in his follow-up blog, Greene was quite embarassed and humiliated in accidentally originating the story.) I'm glad I could help, but I was merely being a good journalist.

Some serious lessons can be learned from this incident, ones which could be taught in journalism classes. For one, why did mainstream news outlets take the word of a blogger at face value and not contact the family of Chuck Biscuits himself in reporting this "news?" Nor even contact perhaps a publicist for one of the many bands Biscuits had passed through, especially Danzig, which was a successful act during Biscuits' time therein? I know I was taught you need solid confirmation and a few quotes from relevant parties before you dare go to press with a story like that. Verily, can anyone imagine the grief the Montgomery family was put through that day, never mind Chuck Biscuits' many fans who went public in celebrating him in his "death?"

I can't completely throw stones. I will admit, in the past, to hastily perpetrating rumors in MySpace bulletins and the like. Hence, when Lux Interior died, I made sure to get solid word before absolutely announcing his death. The internet is a very powerful tool. As this illustrates, news can spread at lightning speed because of the 'net. This is very good thing. But any good thing can be abused and misused. Who knows what scruples, if any, the originating pranksters have. They probably didn't care that a whole lot of people could be hurt in the process when they sent James Greene, Jr., those communiques from "Chuck." They just wanted to make him look foolish, for whatever reason. Equally uncool.

Greene isn't to be pilloried for this. He had no idea what would result from what had been intended as a tribute to a hero he'd thought dead. Thankfully, the internet was used to get the truth out there as quickly as it had spread the lie. Unfortunately, many who use the medium would rather abuse the internet than use it. I don't see that changing anytime soon.

Here's a good example of what would have been lost, had Chuck Biscuits actually passed: Vintage DOA with "World War 3," featuring a 13-year-old Biscuits detonating his drumkit like the bastard punk rock spawn of Keith Moon. Enjoy!
Currently listening:
Where The Action Is! Los Angeles Nuggets 1965-1968
By Various Artists
Release date: 2009-09-22
4:02 AM
 
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the Samhain Kid

 
all true stuff. the internets could be so useful but so harmful at the same time.

goddamn, DOA is (STILL!) awesome.

 
Posted by the Samhain Kid on Friday, November 06, 2009 - 11:53 PM
[Reply to this] 
michael

 
The problem is essentially that figures like Chuck Biscuits as well as the very dead Lux Interior, and Dewey Martin of Buffalo Springfield don't have publicists at their beck and call ready to announce their deaths to the public, and they don't exactly show up regularly in the celebrity media if at all,  thus sources like bloggers and Internet forum posts are relied upon by the media at large. In Biscuits' case this turned out to be a hoax, obviously, in the cases of Lux and Dewey the death stories turned out to be true. In such cases, the reliable sources would be people who obviously knew, i.e. Martin's death being announced by Rodney Bingenheimer and Richie Furay. In reporting Biscuits' erroneous death the media should obviously have sought confirmation first from those who knew Chuck well rather than an obscure blogger.
 
Posted by michael on Tuesday, November 10, 2009 - 6:12 PM
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