Tennis Magazine Used Sockpuppets On Blogs?

In this week’s edition of The Ethicist, a college student who interned at a national magazine asked Randy Cohen for advice. Nick McCarvel wrote that “my editor asked me to post comments on one of the magazine’s online blogs, being sure not to mention my working for the magazine but to write in a style that suggests I’m a reader. That felt dirty to me. Advice?”

Of course, Cohen was aghast that a magazine would make an intern work in sockpuppetry and used Whole Foods’ John Mackey as an example of when the practice goes wrong. But what was the publication?

A quick turn on Google indicated it was Tennis magazine, which was later confirmed by McCarvel via e-mail.

Judging by the writing on McCarvel’s blog, he has a bright career in sports journalism ahead of him. Meanwhile, Cohen reports that the editor in question at Tennis no longer works at the magazine.

— Neal Ungerleider

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