Steven Frischling, the finest social media mind of our time, has set up his own blog called exposethefishbullies.blogspot.com! Yet another incredibly stupid move that is guaranteed to backfire on him and land him in even more legal trouble, all while driving more traffic to FishFraud.
Truly, we could not have scripted this better ourselves. We must quote South Park on this one. "This is a gift from God. An early Easter present all wrapped up in a pretty ribbon from Jesus Christ himself!"
We can guess his playbook:
- He will have no content that defends him in any way, such as explaining away his multiple unbelievable stories, producing evidence that would back up these stories, etc.
- He will post nothing that would support his claim of hard evidence on FishFraud's identity.
- He and his team of one will leave "anonymous" comments to further insult, harass and threaten people who have nothing to do with this site.
- He will install a tracking script to try to figure out locations of the blog visitors and then go crazy attacking everyone he's ever met who lives in those cities.
- Like with @yuckystalkers, he will claim it's his "supporters" who created the site.
"Let's cut lose on the BS that certain posters from a certain lame-ass blog can't seem to get enough of! Let's expose those that really have been behind the online bullying efforts.
Who are they and where are they. Let's dig up some trash on them, let's expose them and their family members to the wonderful world of innuendo, fact-less BS, derogatory statements and such that's possible on a totally anonymously-posted trash receptacle called EXPOSE THE BULLIES!
Pile on folks, it should be a great ride!!"This is why we do not feel sorry for Steven Frischling in any way. He knows very well he has no evidence against anyone he is accusing, yet he continues to lie to the contrary. He is now trying to hurt these people simply because he suspects they could be involved, and he is taking his frustration out on them. Every step he takes makes things worse for him and makes more people question his intelligence/mental health.
P.S. A reader (12:50 am) has made a valid point questioning Frischling's mental state. Please do not go on his new blog to provoke him in any way.
He's not going to have a friend left after this. He's a lunatic.
ReplyDelete^What makes you think he has friends now? He has Twitter followers... but it would appear no real friends.
ReplyDeleteAs for him being a lunatic... all his actions speak loud and clear.
If a real friend hasn't gone to his house yet to get him to shut up, then there can't possibly be any left.
ReplyDelete11:07 FF. I was being kind.
ReplyDelete11:08 I say extremely sarcastically.
ReplyDeletethis just gets better and better every day. Please stop this as my free time is all devoted to FishFraud. This is worse than Angry Birds.
ReplyDeleteI know - as if I didn't spend enough time watching a real meltdown in front of my own eyes, now this! This is unbelievable. Tell me someone isn't making this whole thing up!
ReplyDeleteI love that blogger has a warning before you can enter his shitty blog:
ReplyDeleteContent Warning
The blog that you are about to view may contain content only suitable for adults. In general, Google does not review nor do we endorse the content of this or any blog. For more information about our content policies, please visit the Blogger Terms of Service
He's making Charlie Sheen's meltdown look like a bad day at the office. Just when we were wondering how to bring more traffic over here...
ReplyDeleteHe's totally lost it.
ReplyDelete"Posted from that other lame-as blog. Isn't this NASTY!!
"I think I figured out what happened to his son's penis. Fish probably talked himself into believing that he was a world class Mohel and figured he could do the job himself with his fireman's ax while standing on a snowboard."
March 5, 2011 1:18 AM
Not a very nice thing to say now is it?
So..... who said it and where are they?? Big $$$ to the first person that can "EXPOSE THAT BULLY!"
C'mon, step up. It's ANONYMOUS!!"
this is just sad
ReplyDeleteHe named a hospital in NYC (the one he claims he spent in Nov where walked out after waiting hours to be discharged). He said he has and that it was okay to bring knives aboard planes. And that he wants to leave whatever he did as a wedding photographer behind him. That's all I've counted so far.
ReplyDeleteindeed. Nine posts so far, and five are not even in support of him?
ReplyDeleteand all his comments are full of typical Frischling typos, giving him away.
pathetic
ReplyDelete"Please don't become another he said-she said blog. That is why people are dropping that other lame-ass blog. We can wait. Trash collection takes time, weather true or not"
ReplyDeleteSteven Frischling is so smart, "weather" you believe it or not.
stupid move..... only thing this is gonna accomplish is that he now looks like an even bigger wackjob
ReplyDeleteNo more jokes, this guy has lost it. DO NOT POST THERE TO EGG HIM ON.
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry to say but I think this will end up with him putting a bullet into his brain and possibly his children too. It happens all the time. This guy is mentally disturbed and now he's desperate too. I'm being VERY serious here. This is a recipe for disaster.
DO NOT POST THERE.
^You're right. We will add a note to the blog asking people to not engage him anymore.
ReplyDeletehah Frischling is too fucking in love with himself to kill himself. Though he'd probably try to kill the owner of this blog if he could find him.
ReplyDeleteFrischling is a prick and he had all this coming to him.....
No. If he's severely stressed it's serious. Don't be fool too.
ReplyDeleteBecause I think some of the posters on this site are not photographers, I would like to point you to a posting from yesterday on the New York Times photo blog, Lens. In it, photographer Tyler Hicks describes what conditions were like in Libya Wednesday. This post, and his photos, will give you a good idea why so many good photographers working today, Hicks, David Guttenfelder, Jack Gruber, Justin Sullivan, Julie Jacobson, anyone from VII, et. al. deserve recognition and respect. This is what galls a lot of photographers - bullshitters are common, but to say you are a part of a small group of people who put their lives on the line to bring back photos to the public about the horrible nature of war, conflict, famine, strife, etc. when you are not, really pisses some people off. I am guessing most of them don't even know of Fish, and if they do, they don't give a fuck (ooops, I dropped the F-Bomb again - please don't report it to my company again Steven).
ReplyDeleteTrue, Steven did go to Iraq. And he sat on a boat with the Coast Guard. Him claiming he was in a war zone is like me claiming I won the Pulitzer Prize, when it was my paper that won it for public service in 2009. Sure, I had photos in the package that won, but it was the reporting and the work of a lot of people at the paper that won the award.
Anyway, here is the link (please, take a moment to read it and look at the photos - it will give you an understanding of what I am talking about): http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/03/09/in-the-thick-of-libyas-brutal-fighting/
He should have taken Harrington's advice 2 1/2 years ago.
ReplyDeleteNow there's one more black mark (even though it's in his "defense" it looks juvenile and quite unprofessional) on his reputation which will show up in google searches.
^What was Harrington's advice?
ReplyDeleteDO NOT VISIT OR POST ANYTHING ON FISHDICK'S SITE. DON'T GIVE HIM THE TRAFFIC OR ATTENTION. LET IT BE ONE MORE THING HE FAILS AT.
ReplyDeleteIt's been posted here already in one of the older threads, but John used Fish as a case study in why on-line reputation management is important, and noted that he needed to be attentive to it.
ReplyDeletehttp://photobusinessforum.blogspot.com/2008/10/you-and-your-online-reputation.html
Had Fish properly handled this issue then and resolved his complaints, he likely wouldn't be faced with this now very public ridicule.
His responses lately are more akin to watching a preschooler throwing a tantrum over someone calling them a doody-head than the rationale approach of a professional.
It would seem that an open apology and proper compensation to a fairly limited number of brides two - three years ago would have solved this issue. Did he not carry errors and omissions insurance for instances such as this, as would reasonably be expected of a world traveling professional?
He's also spouting off about a members only travel industry forum. The scary thing is that I think he's ultimately looking to collect info to match up and unveil his accusers... If you visit his blog or sign up (and create a password) for his forum he's going to have your information. Be warned.
ReplyDeleteAnother medical issue:
ReplyDelete"Secondly, I am sorry that I was diagnosed with a significant medical issue in late June. This medical issue resulted in major surgery on the 26th of August where my thyroid was completely removed, along with a 48oz cancerous mass from within my neck. I did go out and shoot a wedding less than a week after surgery in New York and another in California a week later. I did these weddings, and others, because I felt like I was ready to feel better and get back on with working. In fact I kept shooting will advised not to because I knew in order to complete my contracts, even if delayed, I first needed to shoot the weddings. My working was against all medical advise, and due to my medical condition, following shooting I was completely wiped out."
From:
http://photobusinessforum.blogspot.com/2008/10/you-and-your-online-reputation.html
so, the dumbshit starts a blog in an attempt to defame the people (apparently there are many) and his first post is asking people for content?? really? frischling's stupidity is simply astounding.
ReplyDeletethis is about as successful as @yuckystalkers. Social Media Genius in action. Would you hire this guy for your social media strategy?
ReplyDelete"fact-less"
ReplyDeleteNo, clueless...
Columbo is back.
ReplyDeletehttp://exposethefishbullies.blogspot.com/
C'mon...
" We posted this blog late last night with a few errors to again bait their blog for responses and as expected, they took the bait. "
ReplyDeleteDoes anyone anywhere really believe this bs contention?
Yet more childish imbecility from Frischling & Co. begets… more conversation about the childish imbecility of Frischling & Co. I, too, never cease to be amazed at the levels of sheer stupidity exhibited by Fish and his minions, but are we doing ourselves, and the photography and travel communities as a whole, a disservice by talking about that stuff so much? Granted, the man provides perpetual fountain of inanity for our amusement--senseless tweets, incomprehensible blog posts, really bad pictures, and a moronic abuse of the English language, but in being so amused are we playing into his hands by staying away from discussing the more important issues? I know that's giving him way too much credit, but…
ReplyDeleteThose photographers who are good enough to really do this for a living know just from looking at Fish's horribly mediocre pictures, or reading his semi-literate captions, that there is no way any decent editor would hire him--and that Steven Frischling is completely full of shit. Frankly, we consider him a nuisance, and generally just laugh amongst ourselves when he makes another stupid post on SportsShooter about how much gear he has or which ten cities he's flying to today. He almost makes it too easy for real professionals to dismiss him with a chuckle and a roll of the eyes as a harmless hack.
The danger, however, comes when we forget that there is an entire strata of photographers--newbies, perhaps, who don't know any better, hobbyists and "weekend warrior" types who want to hitch their wagons to someone "famous"--who buy into all the crap this yutz is peddling. The same, it would appear, goes for unsuspecting members of the travel community.
In both cases, Frischling has built his "reputation," such as it is, not on talent but on the misplaced presumptions of the more naive members of his audience that one's credentials come not necessarily from being good at what you do, but from being prevalent in the online community; that truth can take a back seat to post counts or tweet volume, and that one can garner the respect of one's peers simply by being the loudest, most frequent noisemaker in a world that long ago forgot the importance of examining signal-to-noise ratios. Steven Frischling milked such a system for all it was worth, not once (as a "photojournalist"), not twice (as a "wedding photographer") but three times (now as a self-proclaimed "travel expert"). Problem is, in so doing he's left an electronic trail of lies, deceits, and borderline criminal activity that is a gold mine for anyone with the time, inclination, and wherewithal to do the necessary research and call him on it.
So bravo to you, FishFraud, whoever you are.
(to be continued…)
(…continued)
ReplyDeleteBut such a trail also presents a trap for as well. It's one we may be falling into here when we come across his new "blog," or links to old photos, SportsShooter threads, tweets, and what not. He has made it so damned easy to have a laugh at his expense, through his own actions, words and pictures, and over such a long period of time, that the schadenfreude has become palpable. The chickens are finally coming home to roost, and it's incredible to see how the same social media technology, upon which he has relied for so long to disseminate his blather and bullshit, is being used against him--and with such great success and gusto. Don't get me wrong; we photographers are enjoying the hell out of this moment, as we have every right to. It has literally been decades in the making.
There is a problem with doing too much of that, though. This blog originated with a much more serious raison d'être: an investigation of Steven Frischling's background revealed some very real issues--financial, moral, psychological, and possibly criminal. And I am afraid that the more we make fun of his pictures, his captions, his fashion sense, whatever--horrible as they all are--the less energy we will be able to devote to educating people as to the dangers of doing business, or even being associated, with such a reprobate.
So please, let's not lose sight of (or let the Frischlings deflect attention away from) some of the essential things this blog has served to point out:
1. Steven Frischling is not a travel "expert," nor is he a member of the travel news media. Rather he spends most of his life on Twitter, regurgitating press releases and culling publicly-available information from other sites to help him maintain a blog which thereby allows him to garner the perquisites and scam his way into places and events that only legitimate, working (read: paid) journalists would otherwise have access to.
2. Steven Frischling is a compulsive liar. In order to gain such access he seems to have fabricated stories time and again to make himself sound more experienced, important, and/or knowledgeable. When pressed numerous times to provide evidence to back up his outlandish claims or reconcile contradictory statements, both here on this blog and elsewhere, he has refused to do so--presumably because he can't.
3. Steven Frischling is not an expert on anything related to photography. He regularly dispenses advice that is either incorrect, dangerous, or both. And while we can debate the merits of his (or anyone's) photographic talents until we're blue in the face, the following is indisputable: when it comes to client lists, equipment issues, assignments and situations he's supposedly been involved in, he has shown himself over the years to be a serial prevaricator, specializing in stories either made up of half-truths or spun from whole cloth. As a photojournalist, he is someone who should not, under any circumstances, be trusted or taken seriously.
4. Steven Frischling is a crook. He has left dozens of breached contracts and unhappy clients in his wake, and when taken to court as a result of his business practices, has on at least one occasion simply failed to appear. His business dealings are shady at best, might be criminal at worst, and anyone who enters into a business relationship with him does so at their own peril, with a significant risk to both their money and their reputation.
The more we stray into the land of ad hominem attacks, snarky photo critiques and message board idiocy, though, the more we obfuscate the important stuff and detract from the real--and necessary--message. Stay focused, people. Let's keep our collective eyes on the ball.
Professionalism at its finest.
ReplyDeleteWe've seen the transgressions. We've seen the lack of appropriate responses. We seen him continuing to trash others, and not respond professionally to professional questions. No one wants to see his family get hurt. What is the responsible way of dealing with Steven Frischling?
ReplyDelete3:51's comments were posted after I wrote my comments at 4:25 for some reason. 3:51's dialog is what I was interested in.
ReplyDelete3:51 pretty much hits it out of the park. Nice post.
ReplyDelete3:51 well said and extremely accurate. I do think fishfraud needs to keep bringing to light the many lies and deceptive stories that frischling has based his so-called career on and focus less on the attacks, even though most of them are pretty damn funny. let's not lose site of the mission of this blog by getting caught up in the attack frenzy that frischling is famous for. he has nothing on anyone and only lashes out because he is realizing that the game is over. his years of bullshit and "look at me" tales of deception are being unraveled live on the internet for anyone to see. his career is in jeopardy, whether he is capable of admitting that or not. he is obviously not the sharpest knife in the drawer which is beneficial for the continuation of this blog. like I said, the botched up captions and the ridiculously bad photos are really amusing, but let's keep hammering away at the facts and the myriad of contradictions that are out there and provide real evidence of his supreme stupidity.
ReplyDelete6:51, occasionally comments don't show up at first because they are accidentally marked as spam by Blogger. Once they are unmarked as spam they will appear with the time they were originally posted.
ReplyDeleteThanks for explaining. And the blog.
ReplyDelete3:50, 3:51....
ReplyDeleteBravo. It should be read by all that come here. Fishfraud, any chance of making that a blog post?
Let's do a short follow from 7:30 -
ReplyDelete"...removed, along with a 48oz cancerous mass from within my neck."
Now I am not an oncologist but if a surgeon is removing a three pound cancerous tumor from someone wouldn't it fit most protocols that an intensive radiation therapy program over many weeks would be prescribed post-op? Yet our intrepid photographer is engaged in a post-surgical fulfillment of his transnational wedding contracts after just one week of recovery. Why is there no JAMA article on this medical miracle? Most people I see getting radiation are sadly just hammered into near oblivion as they fight for their lives. But not this guy!
Fish supposedly lured the bully with baited questions that somehow trapped the FishFraud blogger!
ReplyDelete"Regarding the other blog in question, basically our findings lead us to believe the bully behind that blog is a male (father, grandfather or uncle) who is responsible for a bride allegedly "burned" by SF on a wedding. Let's name this bully Chris."
"...removed, along with a 48oz cancerous mass from within my neck."
ReplyDeleteThat would be a very serious operation and yes he would be dealing with if for quite a long time. Radiation, chemo, plus months of follow-up testing. With that size of a tumor, the cancer would have been very advanced and he would be looking like the Elephant Man.
Plus a boat load of doctors and hospitals would have had to been involved. What are their names? Where did this take place?
ReplyDelete3:50, 3:51
ReplyDeleteFantastic analysis and post. Speaking for the members of the travel community, this is exactly what we were seeing. Basically an industry fanboy, through sheer volumes of nonsensical tweets, somehow becomes famous in the industry.
The post hit the nail on the head - most of his fame is because other wannabes don't know better and follow him because they think he's an expert. They simply don't know any better.
The problem is that on the public forums, its hard to challenge guys like these. Simply because nobody is interested in negativity, so challenging him makes you look like a dick, or worse somebody who fails to see new ideas.
Would something like that leave a major scar, or leave some other visible indication?
ReplyDeleteSam 2:19. Exactly! Remarkable stuff. And the point is not on just those still working, but those who gave their lives, and the families that remember them.
ReplyDeleteFishFraud blogmeister: can we call you Chris now?
ReplyDeletePlease cease all comments about Fish. We need him focused. We need him to do yet another around the world flight, fighting through a debilitating medical condition, to shoot the earthquake in Japan. I know that I as well as many others will not be able to fully understand the devestation without Fish's out of focus, wide angle, and lens baby documentation. Please for the sake of needing his valuable insight as well as insightful narrative, let him focus.
ReplyDelete"Fish supposedly lured the bully with baited questions that somehow trapped the FishFraud blogger!"
ReplyDeleteLOL. Let him think that. Although, you might be surprised how enthusiastically we reply to people who suddenly email us from fake accounts and ask questions....
For those commenting regarding his report of a thyroid cancer surgery, google the subject and you will quickly realize that the treatment for the predominant forms of this cancer - follicular and papillary - is not at all like other cancers.
ReplyDeleteThe thyroid is unique in that it is the only thing in the body which uses iodine. As such, you don't need to try and figure out where any remaining cancer cells are - the typical post operative treatment (a single ablative dose of radioactive iodine) will find them on its own. The thyroid (and thyroid cancer cells still act like thyroid cells) require iodine to function, and thus will uptake and hold onto radioactive iodine and kill themselves. Nothing else in the body will, and any remaining RAI will simply be eliminated from the body through urine, saliva sweat, etc. Quite honestly, the radiation therapy was a walk in the park. The worst side effect was a metallic taste in my mouth.
While I am highly suspicious of his claim of a three pound cancerous mass, and immediately jumping back in the game shooting a wedding which presumable would require a significant amount of twisting of the neck, your perception that he would be undergoing the same type of radiation and chemo regimen as a breast/lung/pancreatic/etc. cancer victim and the need for a boatload of doctors is simply incorrect.
My personal hypothesis - based on my own experience with this disease - is that if he was diagnosed with thyroid cancer it was most likely a papillary carcinoma, requiring a thyroidectomy and as a precaution, his surgeon removed the lymph nodes in his neck. This does not equate to a 3 pound cancerous mass, as they take as much of the lymph nodes as they feel is necessary to guard against spread of the disease and not just a specific tumor. This would indeed leave a nearly ear to ear scar - but if the surgeon was good, he would make the incision in folds of the neck, and after a couple of years you would really have to look hard to see it.
Any radition therapy (a one time event with annual followup checks), would not occur immediately as the oncologist needs any remaining thyroid cells to be starved of iodine and for thyroid stimulating hormones to be very high to increase the effectiveness of the radiation treatment.
Could he have gone back to work after a week? Yes, but the neck would be very sore and turning your head a bit difficult. Would it have been against all medical advice? Eh, not so sure there, but I wouldn't have wanted to put my neck on a swivel for four-five hours. I returned to work in an office environment four days post op and underwent RAI therapy two months later.
Thyroid cancers are rare - around 37,000 people a year in the US. Thyroid cancers in males are more rare (less than 1/3 of the total) - particular for males under 40. The predominant forms are extremely slow growing and large masses are even more rare. I had a 2 centimeter mass which was considered quite large - and that is certainly less than 3 pounds - and placed me into a much higher risk group. The predominant forms are also, next to basic skin cancers, among those with the most effective treatment with very high long-term survival rates.
Yes, I personally believe his story is embellished - especially since he was trying to use it as an excuse for why he failed to fulfill on a contract. But if you're going to challenge his assertions, you should at least be educated on what the actual treatment regimen is.
What I find even more incredible is his claim that it didn't cost him anything.
3:36 - frischling is trying to get to japan!!! thankfully, for his safety, his trip originally scheduled for last week had been postponed. here is his message on twitter
ReplyDelete"@flyingwithfish
Flying With Fish
@skyvan It looks like my flights to NRT in the next week will be pushed back again ... I was supposed to go last week, but had to reschedule"
RE: 3 pound cancer.
ReplyDeleteMy father actually had throat cancer (Thanks, Philip Morris!) His cancer was about the size of a ping pong ball. The doctors believed it had spread to his lymphnodes, and thought he had 6mo-1yr to live.
They cut out his cancer. To do that, it looks like he had his throat slit - the scar is more than 180 degrees around his neck. They did all kinds of technical stuff in there, and I am not really qualified to tell you about. For this ping-pong sized cancer, he was in ICU for ten days, and my dad was in much better shape than Fish is - my dad's a roughneck. Surgery went great.
After ICU, a few more days in recovery. Doctors told him to go through radiation and chemo. Dad said if he was going to die in a year, he would just assume not go through Chemo. So he did radiation. That radiation killed the hair follicles in his neck and on his jaw. No more beard ever. It also killed his taste buds. He can barely taste anything at all. That was 15 years ago next week.
Fish claiming he had cancer, and then he shot a wedding on each coast a week and two weeks after surgery to remove a 3 pound mass is patently fasle on the surface. He deserves to be punched square in the nuts just for lying about having cancer. I'm going to go out on a limb and say that no one ever has shot a wedding within a week of having a 3lb tumor taken out of their neck.
The Jerry Maguire kid said the human head weighs 9 pounds right? A neck is just a fraction the size of the head. 3lbs from the neck would be like cutting an entire second neck off of you. That would be huge. That's like a steak at a Texas restaurant that you try to eat on a dare that comes on a platter.
But to use cancer as an excuse for shirking responsibility... I hope he loses custody of his children and never works again. That is about as offensive as anything I have read. Especially for those of us that have seen our friends and family slowly die or struggle with life through cancer and radiation. I hope someone punches him square in the nuts for lying about having cancer. Steven Frischling is a horrible, terrible person.
He had to reschedule an international trip? How believable considering he has absolutely nothing else to do.
ReplyDelete"...if you're going to challenge his assertions, you should at least be educated on what the actual treatment regimen is."
ReplyDeletePart of my post is in the form of a question. This is to gain information from people that might know things I don't.
My girlfriend had her thyroid removed. It left a small scar. It involved a few doctors. It involved a hospital and doctor's offices. The mass removed weighed about 2 oz (I can't recall the exact amount - it wasn't three pounds). They had to go in twice. It was scary. It was painful. It took up quite a bit of our time over the course of her treatment and she couldn't work for awhile.
What does it mean to have three pounds of anything removed from your neck? That's what he's claiming. Not a 2 oz piece of thyroid.
"He deserves to be punched square in the nuts just for lying about having cancer." LOL!!
So rescheduling an international trip...first, he's full of sh*t. He has no job, no reason to go to Japan, no money to do so. Second, rescheduling an already-ticketed itin. to move out a week would be very expensive, and I can't imagine he has two dimes to rub together. Third, flights are going to NRT now. If he really did have a ticket (unlikely) and a reason to go (unlikely), he could go. Who believes this guy, outside of one or two moronic defenders on Twitter?
ReplyDelete@3:51
ReplyDeleteI don't consider him a travel expert at all - I've read his blog and always thought he was full of shit and the people on Flyertalk love that stuff - jetsetting "unique" people. So he probably got into that facet of himself.
I think he's got issues that he needs to deal with. Instead of fighting with people on the internet - shut it down, take some time to talk with a mental health professional and get his house in order. Then rebuild his professional standing by delivering on contracts.