Reporter accused of faking Gates story

Stan Beer
Thursday, 03 August 2006 18:12

IT Industry - Strategy

A respected Norwegian journalist who has been accused of faking an interview with Bill Gates has sent the local media establishment into a spin, with the two publications who printed the story taking opposing views about the story's authenticity.

The 4-page Norwegian language article titled Big Bill and written by Bjoern Benkow, was supposedly based on an interview the author conducted with Gates during a two hour commercial flight across Europe.

The personal assistant of Bill Gates, Craig Beilinson, reportedly told the Norwegian office of Microsoft that the interview was bogus. Microsoft Norway, through spokesman Eirik Lae Solberg, in turn has told the Scandinavian press that the interview never happened.

The interview article was published in Norwegian magazine Mann and Swedish tabloid Aftonbladet.

While Mann has taken Microsoft at its word and has issued a retraction in its August issue, Aftonbladet is sticking by Benkow, whom the newspaper describes as a respected journalist, and maintains the story is genuine. According to Aftonbladet, Microsoft Sweden has not compained.

Benkow has a very strong reputation as a journalist in Scandinavia and has notched up interviews with Tom Cruise and Opra Winfrey. It is hard to imagine why a journalist of his caliber would write a fake story about such a high profile figure as Gates which could not fail to be discovered.

Meanwhile, Benkow is sticking to his guns and says the story is genuine.

As for the content of story, by all reports it is hardly controversial and does not contain any great revelations. Benkow writes that Gates doesn't hold cash; he has $1 bets with his wife and he thinks Google is smart. Aside from any questions about its authenticity, the burning question is whether the article is even worth a read.