In November of 2001, Nicole Bellamy was a producer for ZDNet (not a journalist), who was tasked by management to write a piece on supposed recent technology innovations in Linux security. She was provided a press release from a company and comments from a supposed expert.

She wrote the piece as instructed but was not given the proper resources, did not have training or experience as a journalist at the time and ultimately published an article that was little more than a rehashing of the press release with little independent verification.

As one of many responders to her piece, I added the article and rebuttal to the Errata site and moved on. Years later, Bellamy contacted Attrition asking for us to consider removing it.

Attrition engaged in lengthy correspondence with a third-party that had more knowledge of ZDNet Australia at the time this occurred. Attrition was able to independently corroborate Bellamy's explanation for the piece -- that she was not in fact hired as a journalist, and was only engaged in writing news articles due to staffing shortfalls at the time.

Due to the third-party being a respected journalist and someone that has demonstrated integrity in journalism, along with Bellamy's polite request and detailed explanation, the material has been removed. As best Attrition can tell, this was a single incident early in her career.


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