A Steve Taylor has posting comments on multiple posts here and also at Whale Oil. These appear to be warnings to media (and presumably to bloggers) to be careful how they report and comment on Colin Craig.
Going by this and previous comments by Steve at Whale Oil it’s a good bet he is connected to and acting for Craig and the Conservative Party.
Warning One:
Satire site or not – Craig seems to be sending a none-too-subtle message to the MSM regarding accuracy, which I suppose is fair enough – goodness me, how often have the MSM helped themselves to material and legwork from this website, not attributed any of it to the author, or simply mis-quoted context in the “material lift”?
If I was a Journalist who was anti-Conservatives, I might make fun of Craig publically, but in a professional and private capacity, I would be more mindful that if I was to mis-quote Craig in the media, then I’m most likely up for a meaningful act of correction.
One letter from a Lawyer equals this publicity – cheaper than an ad I guess: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10879437
Warning Two:
A useful reference on media law: http://www.medialawjournal.co.nz/?page_id=273
From the website: Can humour be defamatory?
“Yes. Humour, satire, sarcasm, cartoons and spoofs that make fun of people can be defamatory, by holding people up to ridicule unfairly. But it can be difficult to predict whether a court will say “although dressed up as a joke, the barb is defamatory and damaging” or “no-one would take this seriously, it’s obviously just a bit of fun”. Decisions have gone both ways”.
That sounds like warnings to the media (and bloggers) – don’t mess with Colin Craig quotes!
I commented at Whale Oil on Warning One:
But Craig didn’t send a message to the MSM, this was a quiet letter to a relatively small website. Their reaction and the reaction on social media has blown it up into an MSM story. I’m not sure that this is what Craig intended, I very much doubt it.
No media takes kindly to being slapped with legal letters. It’s possible MSM may take note and take more care reporting Craig, but it’s also likely that they will just be more careful but with increased scathingness at any opportunity.
There are easy ways of ridiculing someone without satirical made up quotes – for example by using Craigs actual quotes.
And Steve responded:
“No media takes kindly to being slapped with legal letters. It’s possible MSM may take note and take more care reporting Craig” – yes, I suspect so.
So he has taken half a quote that was not represeenting the whole point I made.
He has said “simply mis-quoted context”, and “in a professional and private capacity, I would be more mindful that if I was to mis-quote Craig in the media, then I’m most likely up for a meaningful act of correction.”
But here he has taken half of one of my sentences and quoted it (using quotation marks) which misquotes me out of context.
Perhaps he should practice what he preaches.
Steve Taylor
/ 24th April 2013Hi there, could I ask you to post the complete dialogue of our conversation? Thank you.
Pete George
/ 25th April 2013I have posted what I wanted to include.
If you send me what you would like to see send it to me and I will post it separately in full.
Dennis Horne
/ 25th April 2013practice what he preaches
or even practise 🙂
Pete George
/ 25th April 2013Ah, yeah, a bit slack on noun versus verb, US versus British.