Were you worried that MacWEEK's new "we're a serious news organization now" direction would render the long-standing publication just another bland site on the Mac news web? So were we-- and probably with good reason, because we find ourselves visiting that site less and less often. A quick gander at the main page doesn't inspire us to dig any deeper; while we're sure there are some hard-nosed news addicts out there who will delight in poring over every detail about Media 100's new web-enabled editing systems and the cutbacks at ScanSoft, we confess our tastes-- and attention spans-- run more toward the content and style of the late, lamented Mac the Knife.

So, ever since the site "retired" the Knife as part of its attempt to foster a more "responsible" image, we've been pretty much staying away from MacWEEK due to a marked lack of drama and intrigue. There's one aspect of MacWEEK, though, which has enough soap opera stylings to qualify for a couple of daytime Emmy awards. Ironically enough, the very Stephen Beale editorial that announced the Knife's retirement and ushered in MacWEEK's new role as a mature, bland, and drama-free site touched off a firestorm of flames and outright online nastiness. In addition to allegedly lying about "retiring" the Knife (many, many people attest to the fact that the Knife left the publication of his own accord in February along with a slew of other discontented staff), Beale reportedly cast aspersions on the journalistic integrity of the publication's former staff in private email to MacWEEK readers. Several members of said former staff found out, and responded publicly-- painting Beale in a, shall we say, "less-than-flattering" manner. And adding to it all is the din of a kajillion old Knife fans bemoaning the departure of their favorite absinthe-soaked utensil.

If you haven't been keeping up on the delightful he-said-she-said drama that's been unfolding for the past ten days, you're really missing out. Luckily for you, Think Secret has an excellent blow-by-blow account of the whole situation, including links to Beale-rebuttals from former MacWEEK alumni including Daniel Drew Turner ("Now I'm just offended"), Matthew Rothenberg ("Mr. Beale's... deriding my colleagues and me [is] unprofessional, inaccurate and unacceptable"), and Rick LePage ("For Mr. Beale... to blithely assassinate the character of someone who he barely knows... is wrong"). Beale and the rest of the staff of the Shiny New MacWEEK evidently found all this dialogue unsavory, since they removed the link to the editorial from the MacWEEK home page, despite the fact that links to much older material remain. In closing, despite our worst fears, MacWEEK is not too boring now-- you just have to know where to look.