"Express Your Outrage" @ the (Shr)Edmonton Journal

Footbag Forever · Post by **Footbag Forever** » 24 Oct 2006 07:43

Jeremy wrote:When you're making public statements or statements that could become public relating to footbag, I think it is crucial to consider what kind of image you'll be presenting to people who have never seen footbag but have read your comment. We're just lucky that the story was about somebody as credible as Rory and not some bum like me or there would be nothing positive in the article.

Well Put.

Iron Clad Ben · Post by **Iron Clad Ben** » 24 Oct 2006 10:15

Jeremy I agree with a lot of what you said. Some people obviously sent some very inappropriate emails to the guy. Admittedly one was from my city, so that means someone I play with most likely sent it to him. I'm pretty upset about that. "Express Your Outrage" said the article on footbag.org (weren't you the communications director for the IFPA at one point?). It didn't say "Politely Express Your Concern to the Edmonton Journal". As such it's not surprising that many people did just that. They very bluntly expressed their outrage. Those with a little more restraint took more tactful approaches. But you are talking about a sport that is mainly played by teenagers and adolescents many of whom do not have the experience working people to know or have the self-discipline to take the best approach. I don't think "modified" can be lumped in as a general category of people as part of the "problem". That's an over generalization in my opinion.

I read your letter to Steve and what you lacked in childish insults and vulgarity in my opinion you made up for with sarcasm and condescension.

In his letter to Steve, Jeremy wrote:You describe footbag as a talentless sport but what talents do you have? Journalism? Have you won any awards? Do you write for Time magazine? Or do you write for some tiny paper that runs with "invasion of the beetles" on the front page? Gee you sound like the pinnacle of success.

And this guy was supposed to read this and NOT think you were being a dick? Come on. That wasn't exactly taking the high road either. Just because your negativity was more sophisticated, don't think it's being overlooked.

Jeremy · Post by **Jeremy** » 24 Oct 2006 13:51

"One of the major mistakes people make is that they think manners are only the expression of happy ideas." - Judith Martin

It's not what people expressed that is the problem; it's how they expressed it. I think it's pretty clear my letter was not a "mindless insult." If you ever watch parliament or a real court case or anything like that you'll see that the members insult each other all the time, but in an acceptable manner. I think it's also very clear that I was being facetious and I would be confident that Mr. McKeen knew that. My inference of insult was all completely relevant to the article - while the insults mentioned in the second article have no relation to what he wrote other than telling him the people didn't like it. He talked about talents and I asked what his talents were in his profession. The Edmonton Journal did run with a front page story about invading beetles (the day I wrote my email). He questioned people making a living out of footbag and I told him how much I get paid (not that I make a living out of it, but itâ€™s paying for Lavers for the two people I play with and helping to pay my trip to the states next year). Finally I made a joke that if his friends hand farting is as impressive as the amount of money I get paid, it must be really good.

By the way, his name is Scott.

Also your comments referring to my signature have nothing to do with this article. I think modified is bad for footbag because it divides the community, it's not easily advertised, so not many n00bs come here - so it doesn't promote the sport at all and because not only is most of the discussion unconstructive but it gives people a false sense that they're doing something positive for the sport.

You are right, I was communication director. I quit for a number of reasons including the fact that I put in hours of work for no personal gain and then had my efforts belittled by people at modified. At one stage I spent 4 hours at an internet cafÃ© (costing about $20) improving the footbag.org forum and the response I got from modified was â€œthank god, now I can sleep at night.â€

RawSko · Post by **RawSko** » 24 Oct 2006 16:23

I thought his second article makes footbaggers look like a bunch of immature kids. I was ashamed by those letters he mentions.

When you're community includes a few immature kids (as ALLLLLL comunities do) of course there will be some e-mails like that. This guy surely knows that. It's his bad for choosing THOSE particular e-mails to "Save Face" as you said, Jeremy. He recieved plenty of credible, mature, and well put together e-mails that he could have talked about... instead he refferenced the less inteligent e-mails because it makes him seem better. I still dislike this guy.

But I'm also still proud of the comunity for coming together. I'm sure that if I started trashing Asian people and made a huge public thing about it, I'd recieve plenty of death threats and "immature" e-mails. I would deserve it! When you talk shit, and say stupid things, people will say stupid things back. If this guy was trying to make a form of appology, he loses marks for his choice of e-mails to refference; but e-mails like that were (sadly) bound to be written.

Oh well.

:EDIT:
I guess those e-mails WERE chosen for thier humor, so I can see why he did it. I supose we should (as I Mosher wrote) take them as a grain of salt, as he clearly did.

I agree that it makes us look a little worse, but... c'mon. the guy's a journalist. Wtf can you expect?? not like that takes talent...

(I'm gunna wake up tomorrow morning with a zillion e-mails in my inbox from intense journalists flaming at me

)

I'm jk anyway!!

james_dean · Post by **james_dean** » 25 Oct 2006 03:37

What do you expect? Of course he's going to pick on the worst emails, geez.

Wasabi · Post by **Wasabi** » 25 Oct 2006 04:34

RawSko wrote:I'm sure that if I started trashing Asian people and made a huge public thing about it, I'd recieve plenty of death threats and "immature" e-mails. I would deserve it!

Yo... Don't MESS with US.

King Monkey · Post by **King Monkey** » 25 Oct 2006 04:58

webmaster wrote:Ian, "..if he felt like it"? You gotta be kidding me. Of all the letters he chose to print, he only published redacted versions of the really inflamatory ones in his piece.

Steve, it was obvious that he chose only harshly worded letters to quote in his article, but my point was that he could have torn shreds off us using them as examples of why the community shouldnt be taken seriously; we were fortunate that he made mention of them but did not analyse them further.

footbinc · Post by **footbinc** » 25 Oct 2006 14:41

For the record:

The Beetles did come... It wasnt nice...

dyalander · Post by **dyalander** » 25 Oct 2006 19:10

I'm still incensed at his, and all your assumptions about hand farting. That's the real issue here. I'm going straight to the International Hand Farting PLayers Association (IHFPA) and mobilizing as many hand farters as I can muster and we will not stop until we receive a full and sincere apology. You think it takes no talent to make your hand fart, well that's just because your unedjucated, bigotted, and small-minded. Hand farting is a serious sport, you try and hand fart the entire alphabet and then tell me it takes no skill, and that still wouldn't even take you out of the group stages of the World Championships of Hand Farting.

yyz · Post by **yyz** » 09 Nov 2006 15:56

I posted this on footbag.org as well. I sent that guy a e-mail and he replied kinda like he was crying i quote " I wrote a follow up atricle on footbag could someone on your dam web site please read that". I guess he got a few e-mails from some footbag players! well folks lets take it easy on him now I think he got the message. Good work to all who hit him. see ya ted f

Sidi||TOFU · Post by **Sidi||TOFU** » 11 Nov 2006 12:44

THIS IS SOMETHING I FOUND ON DREWANDMERISSA.COM:

To his credit, Scott McKeen, the Edmonton Journal writer, quickly wrote me back a response. He clarified his intentions in the original piece, and apologized for the way it came across. This was nice. I did not expect a response, so I figured getting one was a bonus. Well, it seems mine was not the only commentary he received. More then a few people must have contacted him. Enough to prompt him to give me a phone call. Again, he repeated his regret for painting Rory and footbag in a poor light. Sometimes, it has to rain a little before the sun comes out. Scott is going to do the right thing. He is going to contact Rory directly, and in Mondayâ€™s paper, there is supposed to be a new article, this one focusing on the footbag community in Edmonton.

This has brightened my day.

Jeremy · Post by **Jeremy** » 13 Nov 2006 04:41

"If footbag players keep e-mailing me with juvenile comments -- long-story short, I once said they had no talent -- they risk losing their lofty standing in the global sporting community. (OK, let me explain. The joke is this: Footbag has no standing in the global sporting community)."

http://www.canada.com/edmontonjournal/n ... b5&k=25100

Horray.

Slowsis · Post by **Slowsis** » 13 Nov 2006 07:22

Hes right you know. That was a pretty sweet burn.

Colin · Post by **Colin** » 13 Nov 2006 13:07

No such thing as bad publicity.

"Damn kids! Get off my internet!"

SlashC · Post by **SlashC** » 13 Nov 2006 13:58

If footbag players keep e-mailing me with juvenile comments -- long-story short, I once said they had no talent -- they risk losing their lofty standing in the global sporting community. (OK, let me explain. The joke is this: Footbag has no standing in the global sporting community).

I think the real joke is that he published a newspaper article in point form.

ninja · Post by **ninja** » 13 Nov 2006 15:26

Would of been better off if ppl had stopped emailing him

Tsiangkun · Post by **Tsiangkun** » 14 Nov 2006 10:42

I told you guys, e-mailing the guy does nothing.

Contacting the advertisers who support the paper on the other hand....

sen · Post by **sen** » 14 Nov 2006 11:00

How can you say e-mailing does nothing? It got him to publish an apology and explain the sport of footbag in a better light. That's good puplicity to people who have never heard of it! The problem is that people are STILL emailing him even after that. This may be due to people who only read it on .org and don't know about the more recent article. Who knows. But I think people should stop writing to him. Now, footbaggers just seem like whiny babies.

modified

"Express Your Outrage" @ the (Shr)Edmonton Journal

footbag and the edminton journal!!!

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