Post by Anthony on Apr 1, 2014 16:24:50 GMT -5
I don't care if you like/hate Lady Gaga. I don't care if you run a site about hating her (the only Gaga-hate site I don't care for is that deluded pro-Madonna Paws Down tumblr page).
It's about time the Examiner trolls are becoming exposed. Mainly because most Gaga haters post false information backed up by websites that are not credible or stuff that they made up. Here on this site, I make sure everything has a source. And most members provide a source. Here's another:
Lady Gaga’s Biggest Haters Won’t Reveal Who They Are, Or Go Away
It's about time the Examiner trolls are becoming exposed. Mainly because most Gaga haters post false information backed up by websites that are not credible or stuff that they made up. Here on this site, I make sure everything has a source. And most members provide a source. Here's another:
Lady Gaga’s Biggest Haters Won’t Reveal Who They Are, Or Go Away
Meet “Angela Cheng” and “Sabrina O’Connor.”
Twitter: @angelacheng91
Twitter: @sabrinaoconnor9
They were writers for Examiner.com, a news and entertainment website that says it has “100,000 contributors,” from 2012 to early 2014. They mainly wrote negative stuff about pop divas:
Lots of takedowns, particularly about Lady Gaga:
Tons of mean stuff about Lady Gaga.
Some of the Cheng stories were cited by credible outlets, including the New York Post, Business Insider, and New York Magazine.
Cheng once said the "top reason to dislike Madonna" was because "she helped encourage the spread of AIDS."
With her outrageous headlines, questionable data, and harsh tone, Cheng in particular soon became a object of fascination for online fan communities like ONTD and ATRL.
And she’s become a meme of sorts.
angelacheng.tumblr.com
Perez Hilton has publicly cheered on Cheng’s work.
Perez Hilton@PerezHilton Follow
@angelacheng91 Thank you for all the amazing work you did this year! xoxo
Cheng wrote a post on Jan. 1, 2014, reporting rumors that Billboard editorial director Bill Werde was about to be fired.
In the post, which has since been deleted from Examiner.com but lives on in full on ONTD, Cheng alleged that changes to the Billboard chart were carried out to help mask Lady Gaga’s lackluster sales. Cheng quoted a “music industry insider” who told her, “The charts are not based on actual success anymore; they are allegedly based on how much Bill Werde likes the song.”
A week later it was announced that Janice Min, the editor credited with turning Billboard’s sister publication The Hollywood Reporter around, would be in charge of Billboard, starting immediately.
Werde dismissed Cheng’s report on Twitter:
Anthony Facts@Anthagiox Follow
Like clockwork, up pops the articles saying @bwerde was fired for being a "shady Gaga fan". Bye.
2:41 AM - 8 Jan 14
Reply Retweet Favorite
Bill Werde@bwerde Follow
@anthagiox hah. A certain subset of ppl will never let logic or reason interfere with an opinion.
And although her post has since been removed, Cheng took the announcement of Min’s hiring as a vindication:
Angela Cheng@AngelaCheng91 Follow
I received legal threats for telling the truth. Nobody believed me, but now, t.co/7eLWHY4CNK. Either way, let's all wish him success.
On March 31, a spokesperson for Billboard parent company Guggenheim Media Entertainment Group issued a statement to BuzzFeed, confirming that Werde had not in fact been fired.
“Bill has not been fired, he continues to work at Guggenheim Media. The accusations are false and untrue.”
It’s worth nothing that in November 2013, fans revealed that Cheng’s author photo was from this Flickr account and most likely not actually her. It soon changed to the image above. One commenter also alleged that O’Connor and Cheng are the same person:
The other names on this list are all bylines from Examiner.com, and all show a similar writing style and range of topics — they all do a lot of Gaga hating.
On Jan. 8, 2014, BuzzFeed requested a comment from Examiner.com about the work of these two writers. That afternoon, both of their archives were completely removed:
Justin Jimenez from Examiner.com told BuzzFeed that the two writers are “no longer are affiliated with Examiner.com, as of January 3” — one day after O’Connor’s last post. With regards to their accounts being cleared, Jimenez said that it’s against company policy to talk about relationships with individual writers, but did say that account removals are most likely due to a “terms of use violation” which could include “false or defamatory statements, abusive language, or plagiarism.”
As he explains in a Tumblr post he published after being contacted by BuzzFeed, Werde himself tried to verify Cheng’s identity and asked his friends at Examiner’s parent company to look into her posts.
“In Cheng’s bio on Examiner.com, which I can no longer find on site, she listed herself as ‘a recent Communication Media Studies graduate of the University of Oklahoma,’ and ‘the school newspaper’s pop music writer,’” he wrote. “But a University of Oklahoma representative told me on the phone in January that there had been no “Angela Cheng” to enroll or graduate within any timeframe that could reasonably be construed as “recent.” Similarly, no one at the school paper, The Oklahoma Daily, could find any record of an Angela Cheng contributing.”
After seeing that her articles had been removed, Cheng announced on Twitter that she had plans for a new site:
Angela Cheng@AngelaCheng91 Follow
To all my fans: I have decided to start my own website. Stay tuned!
11:25 AM - 8 Jan 14
Reply Retweet Favorite
BuzzFeed requested comment from Cheng several times though Twitter and then email. Before the launch of her new site, she responded.
She denied being the same person as Sabrina O’Connor outright: “LOL — I am not Sabrina O’Connor. I did use a Flickr picture at first because I am afraid of crazy people recognizing or stalking me. However, I was forced to take that one down and put the current one up.” She added that her new site would be a place for more “positive articles.”
BuzzFeed then asked Cheng, in an email, about this January tweet, where she seemingly outed herself as a fictional person:
Angela Cheng@AngelaCheng91 Follow
Preventing someone from taking their life last evening made my career as "Angela Cheng" worth every bit.
4:02 PM - 14 Jan 14
Reply Retweet Favorite
The email was returned by an automated message, saying her Gmail account had been shut down.
Cheng’s new site, launched a week later and called PopMusicGadfly, has posted more of the same negative Gaga coverage that ran on the Examiner.
Cheng's new site, launched a week later and called PopMusicGadfly, has posted more of the same negative Gaga coverage that ran on the Examiner.
Via popmusicgadfly.com
In the meantime, a new Examiner critic named Amira Hassan has popped up to fill the Gaga-hating void left by Cheng.
The articles in tone and diction sound a lot like ones written by Cheng, and Hasan’s backstory or being a jailed Iranian pop music critic is bizarre.
Another Examiner columnist, Jim Strzalkowski, also sounds a lot a lot like Cheng.
Via examiner.com
But in an email, he denied being involved in the Cheng persona: “It really is not me.”
It’s been rumored that Perez Hilton is the person behind Angela Cheng.
But Perez denies this. “I’m already busy enough being Perez,” he said in an email. “Don’t have time for any other alter egos. I’m not Angela. Sorry to burst any conspiracy theory bubbles.”
CORRECTION: The parent company of Billboard is Guggenheim Media Entertainment Group. An earlier version of this item misstated the company’s name. (3/31/14)
Twitter: @angelacheng91
Twitter: @sabrinaoconnor9
They were writers for Examiner.com, a news and entertainment website that says it has “100,000 contributors,” from 2012 to early 2014. They mainly wrote negative stuff about pop divas:
Lots of takedowns, particularly about Lady Gaga:
Tons of mean stuff about Lady Gaga.
Some of the Cheng stories were cited by credible outlets, including the New York Post, Business Insider, and New York Magazine.
Cheng once said the "top reason to dislike Madonna" was because "she helped encourage the spread of AIDS."
With her outrageous headlines, questionable data, and harsh tone, Cheng in particular soon became a object of fascination for online fan communities like ONTD and ATRL.
And she’s become a meme of sorts.
angelacheng.tumblr.com
Perez Hilton has publicly cheered on Cheng’s work.
Perez Hilton@PerezHilton Follow
@angelacheng91 Thank you for all the amazing work you did this year! xoxo
Cheng wrote a post on Jan. 1, 2014, reporting rumors that Billboard editorial director Bill Werde was about to be fired.
In the post, which has since been deleted from Examiner.com but lives on in full on ONTD, Cheng alleged that changes to the Billboard chart were carried out to help mask Lady Gaga’s lackluster sales. Cheng quoted a “music industry insider” who told her, “The charts are not based on actual success anymore; they are allegedly based on how much Bill Werde likes the song.”
A week later it was announced that Janice Min, the editor credited with turning Billboard’s sister publication The Hollywood Reporter around, would be in charge of Billboard, starting immediately.
Werde dismissed Cheng’s report on Twitter:
Anthony Facts@Anthagiox Follow
Like clockwork, up pops the articles saying @bwerde was fired for being a "shady Gaga fan". Bye.
2:41 AM - 8 Jan 14
Reply Retweet Favorite
Bill Werde@bwerde Follow
@anthagiox hah. A certain subset of ppl will never let logic or reason interfere with an opinion.
And although her post has since been removed, Cheng took the announcement of Min’s hiring as a vindication:
Angela Cheng@AngelaCheng91 Follow
I received legal threats for telling the truth. Nobody believed me, but now, t.co/7eLWHY4CNK. Either way, let's all wish him success.
On March 31, a spokesperson for Billboard parent company Guggenheim Media Entertainment Group issued a statement to BuzzFeed, confirming that Werde had not in fact been fired.
“Bill has not been fired, he continues to work at Guggenheim Media. The accusations are false and untrue.”
It’s worth nothing that in November 2013, fans revealed that Cheng’s author photo was from this Flickr account and most likely not actually her. It soon changed to the image above. One commenter also alleged that O’Connor and Cheng are the same person:
The other names on this list are all bylines from Examiner.com, and all show a similar writing style and range of topics — they all do a lot of Gaga hating.
On Jan. 8, 2014, BuzzFeed requested a comment from Examiner.com about the work of these two writers. That afternoon, both of their archives were completely removed:
Justin Jimenez from Examiner.com told BuzzFeed that the two writers are “no longer are affiliated with Examiner.com, as of January 3” — one day after O’Connor’s last post. With regards to their accounts being cleared, Jimenez said that it’s against company policy to talk about relationships with individual writers, but did say that account removals are most likely due to a “terms of use violation” which could include “false or defamatory statements, abusive language, or plagiarism.”
As he explains in a Tumblr post he published after being contacted by BuzzFeed, Werde himself tried to verify Cheng’s identity and asked his friends at Examiner’s parent company to look into her posts.
“In Cheng’s bio on Examiner.com, which I can no longer find on site, she listed herself as ‘a recent Communication Media Studies graduate of the University of Oklahoma,’ and ‘the school newspaper’s pop music writer,’” he wrote. “But a University of Oklahoma representative told me on the phone in January that there had been no “Angela Cheng” to enroll or graduate within any timeframe that could reasonably be construed as “recent.” Similarly, no one at the school paper, The Oklahoma Daily, could find any record of an Angela Cheng contributing.”
After seeing that her articles had been removed, Cheng announced on Twitter that she had plans for a new site:
Angela Cheng@AngelaCheng91 Follow
To all my fans: I have decided to start my own website. Stay tuned!
11:25 AM - 8 Jan 14
Reply Retweet Favorite
BuzzFeed requested comment from Cheng several times though Twitter and then email. Before the launch of her new site, she responded.
She denied being the same person as Sabrina O’Connor outright: “LOL — I am not Sabrina O’Connor. I did use a Flickr picture at first because I am afraid of crazy people recognizing or stalking me. However, I was forced to take that one down and put the current one up.” She added that her new site would be a place for more “positive articles.”
BuzzFeed then asked Cheng, in an email, about this January tweet, where she seemingly outed herself as a fictional person:
Angela Cheng@AngelaCheng91 Follow
Preventing someone from taking their life last evening made my career as "Angela Cheng" worth every bit.
4:02 PM - 14 Jan 14
Reply Retweet Favorite
The email was returned by an automated message, saying her Gmail account had been shut down.
Cheng’s new site, launched a week later and called PopMusicGadfly, has posted more of the same negative Gaga coverage that ran on the Examiner.
Cheng's new site, launched a week later and called PopMusicGadfly, has posted more of the same negative Gaga coverage that ran on the Examiner.
Via popmusicgadfly.com
In the meantime, a new Examiner critic named Amira Hassan has popped up to fill the Gaga-hating void left by Cheng.
The articles in tone and diction sound a lot like ones written by Cheng, and Hasan’s backstory or being a jailed Iranian pop music critic is bizarre.
Another Examiner columnist, Jim Strzalkowski, also sounds a lot a lot like Cheng.
Via examiner.com
But in an email, he denied being involved in the Cheng persona: “It really is not me.”
It’s been rumored that Perez Hilton is the person behind Angela Cheng.
But Perez denies this. “I’m already busy enough being Perez,” he said in an email. “Don’t have time for any other alter egos. I’m not Angela. Sorry to burst any conspiracy theory bubbles.”
CORRECTION: The parent company of Billboard is Guggenheim Media Entertainment Group. An earlier version of this item misstated the company’s name. (3/31/14)
