Comments on: Old Friends and Pancakes

By: mcd mcblog

mcd mcblog — Fri, 17 Mar 2006 18:06:00 +0000

Maybe an analogy can help:A good friend abuses his children. He indicates clearly that they deserved the beatings. Someone publically decries the behavior and asks “What about the injuries to these children?”The good friend does the right thing and says “I don’t know anything about that… but I do know that it’s none of your business and I’ll stick with my friend no matter what you think.”If Dave had a real friend they would attempt to calmly get him to deal with some anger management issues over recent events in his relationship with Rogers Cadenhead. Dave’s only counsel in that regard is probably a lawyer.The reason Dave Winer repeatedly is targeted for a “mob” of angry bloggers is because he has a pattern of abusing this media for perosnal vendettas against people he feels have harmed or maligned him.Edward R. Murrow advised the world of the 50′s about a new media: “This instrument can teach, it can illuminate; yes, and it can even inspire, but it can do so only to the extent that humans are determined to use it to those ends. Otherwise it is merely wires and lights in a box.”Blogging has tremendous power but it needs to be held to a new standard of behavior and the ONLY effect restraint is public opinion because there are no other effect controls for rampant misuse of this media… except the legal system which is also a component to this story.Dave is waiting and Rogers will have to deal with him. Im sorry for Rogers situation. He deserves to be considered a true friend by Dave. Scoble, Mike Arrington, Steve Gilmore and other do Dave little good other than affirm his delusion that he’s being victimized unfairly… again.Read Sheeley Power’s overview of the events leading to this situation and you’ll see the true power of the media to inform and inspire readers towards the light and away from the darkness of slander, innuendo and the “gaming” of the truth for personal benefit.

By: Ethan

Ethan — Fri, 17 Mar 2006 14:29:00 +0000

“The easy thing to do would have been to join in the bashing.”From the Scoble post:”Oh, and the “A” in the “New A List” stands for Attack or, maybe, “Ad Hominem.”I see. And Scoble “stayed out of this” how, exactly?(Note: I am not beating up on you, Kent, just pointing out that “not getting into it” means just that, not poking people with sharp sticks and then shouting “force field!”)I’m surprised that nobody noted that Scoble wiped out the comments to that post for a while when people (cough) called him on his BS. Naked conversations, indeed.

By: Seth Finkelstein

Seth Finkelstein — Fri, 17 Mar 2006 12:45:00 +0000

Why, yes, it would sooo easy for other A-listers to “join the mob” against the rich powerful A-lister who is on their board, their fellow conference-pal, a source of attention and possibly even money for them.But, NO, these guys won’t take the easy way! Perish the thought. They’ll take the hard, tough stance, of feeding the A-lister’s claims of being a victim of a mob, of preaching a moral equivalence between the bully and the bullied.It’s a proud day for the bogosphere indeed, with such paragons of justice as moral exemplars.

By: Adam Green

Adam Green — Fri, 17 Mar 2006 10:25:00 +0000

Kent, care to join me in WA? We can let Mathew be our sponsor and surrogate poster.