Species Nutrition/RxMuscle – The response that wasn’t
Yesterday afternoon on RxMuscle.com, Species Nutrition, in a dizzying display of mathematical prowess, decided to issue a public response to various issues that I’ve raised here in my blog. Unfortunately, while the response has the look of a valid response, it fails to address anything of substance, and where it addresses various facts, it’s wildly inaccurate.
In his typical cowardly fashion, the response was issued not by the company’s owner (Dave Palumbo) but rather by an employee.
In 186 days Mr. Roberts has made posts on 61 different days. Therefore the “CNN of the Steroid Nation” posts about 1 out of every 3.28 days.
In those 186 days Mr. Roberts has made 71 distinct posts (multiple posts on ten days) meaning that on 1 out of every 18.6 days the viewers were blessed with more than 1 earth shattering post.
I’d also like to point out that my blog is not the “CNN of the Steroid Nation” (but rather the STEROID WORLD) – a simple reading error that gets repeated multiple times throughout the post. This isn’t a good start for an official company response, but I’ll overlook these mathematical and grammatical errors and address the statement that:
… as a matter of policy we will not respond to any individual post by Mr. Roberts.
Which was later followed by the breaking of that policy by addressing two individual posts:
To comment specifically on two issues of utmost importance to the “Steroid Nation”, yes, John Romano’s Porsche is for sale and yes, Marius Dohne is no longer prepped by Dave Palumbo.
According to their calculations, I’ve mentioned Species Nutrition/RxMuscle and/or their employees twenty four times in that span. Let’s assume that
their math is correct on this one,
despite the mind-boggling incompetence they’ve already shown.
Their response to my claims was, simply stated: Yes, you’re right.
More importantly, and perhaps more telling, is the fact that they never
addressed any of my other allegations. What about the girl who almost died from their products? What about the lawsuit they’re involved in? What about the rampant censorship on their message board? Getting bed with the owner of BuySteroids.com? The Bro/Pro scandal? Padding their traffic stats? Lying to (and about) sponsors? Where is the response to those issues?
And when members attempted to ask those questions, they were rebuked by the staff and told to “stay on topic” – but of course, the “topic” was a farce…it was a response to my claims which never actually responded to (or mentioned) anything of importance. And that’s just what was supposed to happen – to appear like a response has been given to me (and the community) while never actually doing so.
Those issues, the important ones, the ones that have garnered the bulk of the outrage directed at the Species/Rx crew, have been left unaddressed. They’re going unanswered because there is no answer for them – other than agreeing that I’m correct.
Still, to be fair, let’s examine the other claims made in their response:
You would think in the MULTI-BILLION industry of anabolics, supplements, magazines, bodybuilding and bodybuilding contests and associated personalities, etc. that Species, RX Muscle and its principals were a major part of this based on our coverage by Mr. Roberts. Alas and sadly that is not the case, in matter of fact, on a revenue basis we may barely be qualified as small businesses. One might think that there is perhaps a personal agenda here (either Mr. Roberts’ or someone else’s) .
To this, I can only say that in the Multi-Billion dollar industry that I report on, Species Nutrition has gotten itself on my radar more frequently than many others. Perhaps it has something to do with almost killing someone with their supplements? Perhaps I’m biased against them for censoring their website, and lying to their members? I’m not even sure how to address a claim that someone else’s agenda is running my blog. Whose would it even be? The second gunman on the grassy knoll?
In this industry, over the past half year, I defy you to name someone other than Dave Palumbo, who has lost more friends and made more enemies. Perhaps that’s something that should be asked as well…?
But the best part of their response is the old standard “any publicity is good publicity” reply:
None the less, from Species Nutrition, Rx Muscle, Dave Palumbo and John Romano among others, WE WISH TO THANK ANTHONY ROBERTS FOR THE PUBLICITY THAT WOULD OTHERWISE BE UNAVAILABLE TO ENTITIES OUR SIZE. You, the readers of RX, and the others fans of Mr. Roberts, as intelligent members of our community look at each blog.
Don’t thank me just yet. My reporting on Species Nutrition has resulted in the removal of their best selling product(s) from the biggest online supplement retailer in the United States (Bodybuilding.com) – an incident that was subsequently repeated by other retailers, who responded by pulling the products off their shelves, costing Species Nutrition a great deal of lost income. Don’t believe for one second that my posts haven’t cost these guys a lot of revenue.
But in the end, none of this is my fault, per se. I didn’t close the Pit and cause the formation of another (anti-Rx) message board. I didn’t formulate the products that almost killed a girl. I didn’t lock,block,delete threads. I didn’t pad their stats. I didn’t do any of the things that ultimately have led to these events – I simply reported the facts, and the community decided what and whom to believe.
And unfortunately, while Species Nutrition and RxMuscle has chosen to “reply” to me, they failed to honestly engage any of the issues that have discredited their company over the past half year; and in failing to do so, they’ve failed their members and customers, and further served to discredit and dishonor themselves.
