Some dummy with th eI.Q. of a potted plant pulls a similar stunt each and every year, and it's all meaningless garbage.
At best, it's something BAD writers use as an excuse for why they can't sell their horribly written short stories.
Writers need to shut up, stop looking for excuses, and learn to write better fiction. Do this, and you'll sell your stories.
Geeze, it's amazing how you cvan't sell a story form the slush, but many of us do so at top magazines on a regular basis, and pretty much NONE of us started writing AFTER we became famous.
It really makes you wonder how any writer gets famous, since they all started out as unpublished and unknown, and we all know those who are unpublished and unknown can't sell a short story.
Really, of all the dumb stunts I've seen pulled, this one is without doubt the dumbest, and shows a complete ignorance of how publishing, and selling fiction works. It's nose picking stupid.