Friday, September 12, 2008
Dear John:
After a good chunk of the Canadian progressive blogosphere went to bat for Elizabeth May to get her into the upcoming debates, this is not quite the way they expected to be thanked for their efforts.
Oh, and John? Fuck you.
AFTERMATH: There is an allegation that the audio in that clip was altered, and that Elizabeth May was quoted wildly out of context. If that's the case, then the Greens might want to take that up with Blogging Tory co-founder Stephen Taylor, who explicitly claims authorship. And yet, curiously, no one seems to be hassling Stephen about it. Isn't that odd?
P.S. Given how strenuously Elizabeth May has been arguing for her right to be heard, she really doesn't have the moral standing to now bitch about, you know, being heard. If you catch my drift.
OK, THEN, the consensus seems to be that May was badly misrepresented, and all that was necessary was for someone from the Greens to politely point that out, and all this unpleasantness could have been avoided. Yes, there will be a followup shortly correcting the record.
And, yes, John Bennett is an asshat. And a douchebag. That, too.
BY THE WAY, once Noni Mausa posts her analysis of this fake brouhaha, are we allowed to ask if Blogging Tory co-founder Stephen Taylor -- the source of all this outrage -- will post a heartfelt and unambiguous apology and retraction?
Yeah, and pigs will wear lipstick.
GO. Listen.
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19 comments:
Anyone who thinks May was calling Canadians stupid in that clip is only proving how incredibly stupid they are.
Not that it excuses the Greens at all for this idiot behaviour.
Actually, after reading leftdog's comments on that post, I've lost pretty much all sympathy for him. I still think it's very stupid for the GPC to threaten action, but leftdog is a fucking moron.
He's not a citizen journalist, he's an arrogant tool.
Here's the original broadcast Stephen Taylor got his clip from. It's pretty obvious she isn't saying Canadians are stupid but that politicians think Canadians are stupid. The bit you want starts about 37 minutes in.
It's also pretty obvious John Bennett is an asshat.
If you listen carefully to the clip, she's saying "they," not "I." Even the benighted Blazing Cat Fur picked that up after some careful listening.
So I don't really blame the Greens for being incensed. But going after Leftdog and by-passing Stephen Taylor makes no sense at all.
I admit she was pretty quick on the jump, but I went to that video, recorded the audio in Audacity, ran it through Effects to slow it down and increase the pitch to compensate, and she very clearly says "they".
Sheesh. Audacity is freeware. The print media might not have given up their Underwoods, but everyone else could have made this a non-story in the blink of 20 minutes, like I did.
Bozos.
CC, I can send you that snippet if you want.
Noni
Or you could just post it with a devastating explanation at where you're blogging now, and I'll be delighted to link to it, and we can bury this story once and for all and move on to slapping those who so desperately still need to be slapped.
P.S. John Bennett is still a total asshat.
all that was necessary was for someone from the Greens to politely point that out, and all this unpleasantness could have been avoided.
Absolutely! The problem is that Bennett arrived on the scene with his legal gun locked-and-loaded. Given the dishonesty the exudes from political parties (all of them) during election campaigns, Bennett's actions are reprehensible.
I stand by Leftdog's right to interpret and then to be corrected by others, even by the Green Party directly. Introducing the GP objection to that interpretation with threats? That's my objection.
It's such a pain in the ass to revisit the original recording (there's no time index on TVO's video plug-in and my connection isn't all that fast), but I never once heard anything other than "they think Canadians are stupid." Are a lot of people just hard of hearing?
Can someone post the damn thing with a little more of the recording to try and determine if the the clip was fiddled with?
I do agree the Greens have to have a talk with John Bennett. That was remarkably unprofessional, although I have no problem with people objecting to being libelled. There's too much of that going around already.
But going after Leftdog and by-passing Stephen Taylor makes no sense at all.
Dawg, I know I said that in my post at the Beav but it was pointed out to me in the comments below it that while ST may have excerpted the damn thing, he never provided text that said "I" instead of "they" think C's are stupid.
TVO is getting copyright pissy about being copied and posted so Ti-Guy if you click that link above there is a timestamp and you want the 38 minute mark.
P.S. John Bennett is still an asshat and Dave is right.
Making litigious threats to silence critics is something the Greens and the Cons have in common, apparently.
To hell with both.
I find it ironic and sadly amusing that some Conservatives are upset that the Greens are using threats of legal action to try to silence seemingly embarrassing recordings of their leader.
We need a new definition of irony...
Here's the clip for you.
http://nonimausa.blogspot.com/2008/09/what-may-really-said-for-slow-of.html
The Agenda, from which ST's clip was untimely ripped, posts a response and includes a nice short viddybit for Ti-Guy.
I for one, welcome the Greens to the centre ring, where the learning curve is steep and the silly asses in party ranks will hopefully be weighed and measured in the spotlight to the betterment of the process.
It's one thing to 'feel' righteous. It's another to *be* righteous. At least...it used to be, back when facts mattered.
The Agenda, from which ST's clip was untimely ripped, posts a response and includes a nice short viddybit for Ti-Guy.
Thanks Alison. I think May agrees with either the assessment that politicians think Canadians are stupid or the assessment that something called a "tax" won't sell to Canadians.
Clearly, Stephen "Lie-a-Day" Taylor was up to his usual tricks, and that's where the problem started.
"I think May agrees with either the assessment that politicians think Canadians are stupid or the assessment that something called a 'tax' won't sell to Canadians."
occam's razor should thin those options.
KEvron
Jim Bobby and I also contacted the Party and John B. and the party will be backtracking on their threat of Leftdog, despite the blatantly wrong nature of the reports about what she supposedly meant.
Clearly John B. was not familiar with blogs, and made a serious error.
i think leftdog has enacted comment moderation because of me.
KEvron
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