What Is Wrong with Randy Petersen?

We were sent the following email sent by Randy Petersen, owner of BoardingArea.com, to a Twitter individual, on why his company continues to host the Flying with Fish blog written by Steven Frischling, who was arrested June 2 for forgery/larceny involving KLM.

Randy tries to distance himself from Frischling, even feigning ignorance of how to spell his name! It's poorly written with punctuation and capitalization errors but you can get the basic picture. We will add our comments in red.

Greetings and i trust that the week has been a great one for you.

I remember we had exchanged emails a few years ago so hope you don't mind me dragging it back out. I saw a tweet of yours regarding Steve Frishing (?). While you can tweet whatever you like, I'd just like to add in a few facts that may or may not be relevant. Like you, I became aware of some legal issue that has recently popped up for him. (Yes, you could call being arrested for felony forgery and larceny a "legal issue.") And like you, I likely hope that the bad guys always lose — whoever they are. While you might try and draw a correlation to BoardingArea,let's try and make sure you understand these things: Actually I've never personally met the guy and maybe have only chatted briefly with him once over the years. I have no thoughts one way or the other with the guy. (Then why are you holding onto this giant douchebag?) On the other hand, I have met and chatted with the other party, Addison over the years and consider him a valuable asset to the travel industry. It's a fact that Steve has his blog well before BoardingArea and like others, came on board BA simply because we offer and still do a nice play to host like-minded business travel and related topics blogs. I really believe the effort to try and strong arm BoardingArea into the Steve issue is extremely misguided — though I'm not directing that remark toward you. Steve could easily take his blog and move it back to Blogger. (Then why don't you encourage him to do that?) Would we all hope Google at harm for hosting the blog there? (Anyone can have a blog on Google. Google does not claim to "hand select" its bloggers from "the best of the best" like you claim.) Sad to think so. As for being "employed." Actually he is not on any specific payroll for BoardingArea. (Do you give him money?) Again, we're a hosting platform. He's not the most populat blogger of those on BA, nor is he the least read. I think he is somewhere in the middle.

I've chosen to not involve myself or BoardingArea into the dispute because it seems to be a simple business dispute among two people, neither of which i have a vested interest in the result or party to the original action. (If it were merely a "simple business dispute," then why was Frischling arrested? Why is he going to be arraigned in six days?) The one and only issue that I guide myself and BoardingArea in this is ... the issue of a members privacy. (Huh?) Now, for some, no big deal. However, I have long lobbied for an especially in milepoint.com put forth the absolute wall of privacy for our members. They deserve not only my vigilance, but also my personal action regarding the topic. If or should i get involved in this person's personal dispute, then i believe that i am no longer upholding the principle of his privacy, no different than should i really be looking at your personal ife or others as members of milepoint? (What the hell is wrong with you?) Really not, or else at least i am trying hard to make sure i am walking the talk of defending your personal privacy. I get that this is now a public, not private issue, but making a dialogue from others with public comments does not mean this individual's privacy is unlocked and by privacy, I'm referring to trying to connect it to his blog. Fact is, we've only through the years received two negative comments about his blog .... Gary Leff and Lucky factually have generated more negative comments (OK. only one more) than Steve. So, there is no explicit evidence that he has brought this issue into his blog on BoardingArea and if so, then I would certainly review my position. (Frischling is a pathological liar. Everything he writes on his blog is certainly false. He most definitely fabricated the interviews with the TSA agents last fall. And Randy looks the other way.) 

Regardless of how you might feel, understand only that i don't see this person at all in this, i only see what should i be doing to be consistent in making sure that i do not now or later ever cross a line of disregarding someone's privacy. (You cannot hide your cowardice behind privacy anymore. There is no privacy when someone is arrested - this is very public information. In Frischling's case, there have now been three news articles about it, and he hasn't even been arraigned yet.) Tough call for me — I feel bad for Addison if this is true since I'm a supporter of his, but the steadfast commitment to protect the issue of privacy does trump the issue at this moment.

I really do hope you don't mind the "rhetoric", but i'm thinking that some may be missing the driving issue for me in whatever this is about. I like others I'm sure wish that they would hammer this dispute out, it does not look good for either if we believe the accusations of Addison's active involvement in a counter smear. (The only person who has accused Addison of being involved in FishFraud is Frischling, who is a proven pathological liar. Addison has nothing to do with this site and there is no evidence otherwise. The fact is: Frischling is a despicable individual and has made so many enemies around the world that he will never know who FishFraud is.)

And to think i left this sort of stuff behind on FlyerTalk.

Again, hope you are doing well and thanks for your support of milepoint. If you ever have the time, would love to hear what you think we might be doing well on milepoint (if anything) and more importnat what we aren't doing well.

Cheers,
Randy

Here is a screenshot of BoardingArea.com's "About Us" section that describes their bloggers:

Note the highlighted portion:

The business travel blogs you will find on BoardingArea are the best of the best, the cream of the crop, the cat's meow ... you get the idea. Each blog in the BoardingArea network has been hand selected by our team for its quality of content, its timeliness, and, last but not least, for its entertainment value.

Randy has some serious problems. Is he lying in the letter, or is he lying on Boarding Area's description? Both of these cannot be true. So which is true?

Secondly, Randy is ignoring completely the other facts brought up in this blog: that Steven Frischling is a pathological liar and a raging lunatic. There can be no doubt that he is a pathological liar and a raging lunatic after what we have all witnessed the past few months. He's a terrible individual whose lies including trying to exploit tragedies like TWA Flight 800 and 9/11 to get attention for himself. Add to that this week's revelations from Flight Africa. One of Boarding Area's bloggers tried to extort $1 million from an airline, and when he didn't get his way he created a fake Twitter account impersonating the airline to harass their customers! Does that all conveniently fall under "privacy" for you, Randy?

Randy Petersen, you need to grow a pair of testicles and live up to your statement that your bloggers are hand selected and the best of the best. We could not be more disgusted with you.

Simpliflying (Finally) Dumps Steven Frischling aka flyingwithfish!

Shashank Nigam aka "SimpliFlying" finally got a clue and dumped Steven Frischling! Behold the hilarity:

Here was his "About" page before:

After:

Of course this fool had plenty of warning. We've contacted him for months asking why he associated with a known liar and fraud like Steven Frischling, and he ignored us. He only dumped him after we started tweeting his followers with the news that one of his team members had been arrested for larceny and forgery! You can see they were working together recently (how long until he deletes this Tweet?)

People have said Shashank is just as slimy as Frischling and we believe it by how long he held onto him, ignoring the evidence.

Now it seems Frrischling's only professional connection remains Randy Petersen and BoardingArea.com, which brags it hand-selects its bloggers from the best of the best! So how dirty are these people?

Travel Blogger Steven Frischling's Lies about TWA Flight 800

TWA Flight 800 exploded over the ocean after takeoff from JFK airport on July 17, 1996, killing all 230 people on board. "Travel blogger" Steven Frischling, living on Long Island at the time, took a photo outside a Coast Guard station that shows ambulances.

Frischling has since, in various forums over the past 15 years, exploited the tragedy of Flight 800 by describing scenes he could not possibly have seen and bragged about money he could not possibly have made from photos that could not possibly exist.

Prepare to be offended.

Only weeks after the accident, Frischling responds to a spammer on a newsgroup to brag he made more than $2,000 in six hours because 230 people died one night:

alt.journalism.photo: "Great CASH GAINS" (8/3/1996)

"6hrs at TWA Flight 800, I was the only non-related civilian on the US Coast Gaurd base, I made over $2,000 in 6 hrs........."

A few years later, that amount has climbed to $7,000+:

Sports Shooter: "Stringing for AP" (12/1/2003)

"The last assignment I really shot for the AP was in the morgue the night TWA Flight 800 crashed off Long Island. AP got it's five or six photos for $180 (x2 because of the time I invested, and access I was able to get without their help) plus miles, and I managed to get $7,000 from Newsweek for photos they never ran in their North American editions."

Contrast that to six years earlier, when he claimed he had banked nearly a year's salary that night, and also makes the absurd claim of being inside the makeshift morgue! First, it is doubtful the authorities would have allowed a photographer in that morgue, and if they had, don't you imagine that those photos would been seen all over the world?

NPPA-L: "Who Makes What...some actual numbers" (7/20/1997)

"then again I left a few days before TWA 800, was the only photog on thebase or in the morgue that night and made a little less that the yearly salary in one night..."

He repeats this claim about the morgue in 2008, and now brags he has been at "multiple plane crashes!"

FlyerTalk: "anyone ever been through an aborted takeoff/landing?" (5/14/2008)

"Having shot around multiple plane crashes in my news career, including being the pool photog in the make shift morgue for a 747 that blew up, I'm not keen on being on crashing planes. I'd rather shoot news than be news."

But being in the vicinity of a plane crash and making a fortune off it is not dramatic enough for Steven Frischling.  In 1999 he hijacked a thread about the Columbine school shooting in Littleton, Colo., to grab some attention for himself by overstating his connection to Flight 800. He admits to making "bad jokes about TWA 800" (he's all class!) but you must understand, he needs to make these jokes! Even three years later, it is all Frischling can do to get through each day after the hell he witnessed that night!

NPPA-L: "Littleton, Tornadoes, etc." (5/5/1999)

"I know I have made a number of bad jokes about TWA 800, but I also know that I never want to see my negatives again from the night the 747 crashed. Making jokes, seeming all confident and strong is what kept me and keeps me from falling down in a ball of tears."

What a sensitive soul.

He also claims a county detective ripped the film from his camera, and describes distraught Coast Guard "boys" standing over stacks of body bags!

NPPA-L: "seeking police contacts" (2/22/1998)

"I think most of us have faced this. While on the USCG base the night TWA Flight 800 crashed an over zealous Suffolk County Detective,who had no offical power, as he was ona federal military base, where I was a guest, ripped the film from my camera, he was escortd from the base, and the base X.O. filed a complaint against him."

NPPA-L: "to die for?" (9/29/1997)

"5 photos were taken durring actual rescues, including photos of USCG rescuers over a stack of body bags the night TWA 800 crashed just outside the morge, these men(boys really) are holding each other and holding in tears"

This guy is literally unbelievable.

Extra thoughts come from a commenter, who clearly knows a thing or two about news photography:

"If he was actually on an assignment for AP he would have not been able to sell his images to Newsweek for what he is describing as a high fee for first look (to get exclusive images in order to beat out the other news mags) AP would have owned his film.

If he was pool for the morgue his images would have appeared on all the wire services, but they do not.

If he had been INSIDE the morgue he would have had access to powerful images that would have surely run all over the place. I have never seen one.

There is ONE photo on the AP wire of the exterior of a coast guard station with ambulances parked in front. Nothing from inside. No dramatic photo of Coasties holding back tears as they stack body bags."

Another commenter:

"I have googled, binged and yahooed every possible variation of TWA flight 800 morgue as well as East Moriches Coast Guard TWA morgue and have come up with nothing other then a reporter who won a Pulitzer Prize for his story about the morgue following the crash of TWA 800. I looked on the AP wire, AFP and UPI - not a single pool picture of body bags stacked or anything from inside or outside a morgue on the night the plane crashed. The photos that Frischling describes would have ran EVERYWHERE and would still have a presence on the web. Weeping Coasties and body bags? Hell, a picture like that might have even been a contender for the Pulitzer. I think the real story is that he shot the outside of this building using direct flash and that was about it. Like I said, if he had been the pool photographer, all of those pictures would have been shared with all of the wire services and he wouldn't have made a dime on resales because the market would have been saturated with those photos since they would have been distributed by multiple outlets."

Do you find this offensive that anyone would exploit the deaths of 230 people in such a manner? Do you find it absurd that this giant tool still has a travel blog on BoardingArea.com? Meet Randy Petersen, the owner of BoardingArea and founder of FlyerTalk, who refuses to remove Frischling's blog despite being well informed about his actions. In fact, it would appear Randy Petersen even pays Steven Frischling a share of the money from the advertising on the site! (Do you think BoardingArea.com advertisers know what their ads are appearing next to?) By the way you can email Randy Petersen at randy@boardingarea.com to ask why he still keeps Frischling as one of his bloggers, whom he claims are all "hand selected" by his "team!"

Randy Petersen, BoardingArea.com founder