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Does Thomas Kohnstamm deserve an apology?
In an interview posted late yesterday at World Hum, Lonely Planet author Thomas Kohnstamm explains how he's unwittingly found himself at the center of an unexpected controversy.
The author, who was quoted by dozens of newspapers over the weekend admitting to all kinds of guidebook-writing malfeasance, says that the situation has been "blown way out of proportion." In fact, Kohnstamm claims, he wasn't guilty of anything besides accepting a few comps and doing a bit of hotel and restaurant research on the internet instead of in person.
Several days ago, before the World Hum interview, I wrote an oft-cited post calling Kohnstamm a fraud and expressing outrage at his behavior. Now that Kohnstamm has backtracked from his previous statements, does he deserve an apology?
Well, yes and no. Kohnstamm certainly was not guilty of all the charges leveled at him, and some of the criticism he received was unfair. He doesn't appear to be a massive plagiarizer of the Jayson Blair ilk, and I'd wager he's far from the devil he's been made out to be, here and elsewhere. Also, it probably would have been prudent for me to contact him before writing the "fraud" post to see if he was quoted correctly, even though he doesn't dispute that he was.
With all that said, it's hard to muster much sympathy for Kohnstamm, since he was the one responsible for bringing up these charges in the first place. He repeatedly gave his interviewer the impression that he was a veritable "bad boy" of travel writing, saying, for example, of his agreement with Lonely Planet regarding the Colombia guidebook:
"They didn't pay me enough to go (to) Colombia. I wrote the book in San Francisco. I got the information from a chick I was dating-an intern in the Colombian Consulate."
Clearly, Kohnstamm's implication is that he was supposed to visit Colombia, but the misers at Lonely Planet were too cheap to make it worthwhile. Turns out, as Justin reported yesterday, Kohnstamm and LP agreed that he wouldn't visit Colombia, as he was responsible only for writing the history, environment, food and drink, and culture sections of the book. So why make that explicit to the interviewer? Easy: because that's not interesting, and it doesn't move books.
Now, Kohnstamm is calling his Colombia claim "regrettable" and "an unfortunate choice of words." Hard to argue with that.
His situation now is a bit like that of the college guy on Spring Break who lies to his buddies, telling them that he cheated on his girlfriend with a gorgeous, blonde 19-year-old. When the news eventually makes it back to the girlfriend-- as it always does-- he's in the unenviable position of having to explain that before he was lying, but now he's telling the truth.
As for the claim that he accepted "comps" from hotels and restaurants, he says that's true, but he tried to avoid doing it as much as possible. Frankly, I can't work up much outrage over this, and I'd never condemn a guidebook author for taking a discount here and there-- as long as they aren't in exchange for positive reviews. Kohnstamm is right that these guys don't get paid much, and hell, I'd probably take a discount or two myself. (Gadling credentials, anyone?)
All this doesn't leave me feeling as if I have much to apologize for, I must say. Look back at my original post, and I'll stand by what I wrote: Self-promotion? Entitlement? Decreasing the reputation of LP and its hard-working writers? As Elvis used to say, I'll take all of the above with a side order of more.
But wait, does Kohnstamm even want an apology? Probably not. He just wants everybody to forget about this. But oh yeah, remember to buy his book.
Filed under: Arts and Culture, Blogs, Books
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Eva Apr 15th 2008 9:07AM
I agree, Aaron. Kohnstamm's "clarifications" at World Hum don't leave me feeling terribly contrite. In fact, I feel kind of jerked around.
If you read between the lines of the interview, it suggests that LP spun this controversy out of a "joke" about plagiarism and the "regrettable" line about Colombia, possibly as a pre-emptive strike against Kohnstamm and his book. Let's say for a moment I accept that as the truth. There are still a lot of things not adding up here. The Observer story cited in the World Hum interview is dated April 9th. Reuters, CNN, etc (not to mention you and me!) have been going crazy over this all weekend. And it takes Kohnstamm until April 14th to respond? To a publication that hadn't even repeated the allegations yet?
Personally, if Reuters was falsely accusing me of plagiarism, I'd be in a hurry to ask them to print a correction. If they refused, I'd be calling my lawyer. So either a) the allegations are true (in which case we REALLY have nothing to apologize for, or b) they're false, but Kohnstamm and Random House wanted to ride the publicity wave (in which case I definitely feel jerked around).
Kohnstamm wrote to you on your other post that you should have contacted him to verify the Reuters coverage - but he's had days to correct what they wrote if he wants to, and to my knowledge he still hasn't asked them to print a retraction. The Colombia quote - which he doesn't deny - was pretty cut and dry. I still don't understand what he expected readers to take away from that, if not the impression that he ditched a Colombia trip on the sly.
Was your post slanderous? That's a big word. I'm still waiting for Kohnstamm to call a lawyer, if he feels so hard done by...
And I stand by my comment about the bad porno scene, too! :)
Eva Apr 15th 2008 9:09AM
Ha. Read the last two paragraphs of that comment out loud... They rhyme!
Also, how come you got an indignant response and an offer of a free book, and I didn't? Sigh. I should have called him more names, I guess.
Ladyexpat (Nancie) Apr 15th 2008 5:12PM
Smells like a nasty publicity stunt to me. I'll definitely not be buying his book.
paul Apr 15th 2008 4:40PM
Who cares? The guy is a worthless scumbag. You can't play up your douchebaggery to sell more books and then whine about the bad publicity that follows.
marcela Apr 22nd 2008 9:16AM
I am trying to get an e mail to get in contact with Mr Kohnstam, does anyone has an idea about how to contact him?