I've been brooding over this for the past couple of days, as to whether or not to blog about this, and I've decided I will.
While listening to Apple Phone Show #43, Scott Bourne was talking to Chris Breen about the iPhone being released in Ireland. During this conversation he made the statement "the iPhone gives them one more reason to drink, like they need another reason to drink'. Being March, and me being Irish, I took some offense to this. Most of the time, something like this wouldn't bother me, but for some reason it must've been the way he said this statement and implied, at least to me, that all Irish are drunkards. I posted a comment on the blog entry for the episode about how his statement implying that all Irish are drunks and they'll use 'any excuse' to drink. With statements like this it is detrimental to 'New Media' producers when they are supposed to be expanding the view of listeners / participants and all they are doing is just perpetuating the narrow-minded views of the world.
Here was the conversation (via e-mail) that followed. It is a direct copy-and-paste.
From Scott Bourne: Wayne I am half Irish. Sorry if that throws a wrench in your diatribe.
If you're one of those looking to be offended - life will keep you busy. I never insinuated Irish were drunkards. That's your thing - you decided that. Perhaps you have a problem of being an Irish hater and can't face it. I said (not insinuated) the Irish like to drink. That's different from being drunk. And by and large we do like to drink. Should that fact be changed to match some politically correct scorecard you carry? Hell no.
As for new media being forced to cow tow to every politically correct jerk looking for a reason to express faux outrage - well for me, that's the REASON to do new media. We don't have to do that. And if new media's acceptance were to hang on living in a politically correct world where we tip toe over everything we say - then there's no need for new media. We have old media to be afraid of people like you.
You need to get over yourself and maybe you'd find life more enjoyable.
And as my father's family would quote
The Irish are a fair people; they never speak well of one another. —Samuel Johnson 1709-1784
I've marked your IP address as spam.
Good day.
My Reply:
Mr. Bourne:
I can't be an Irish hater when I am Irish. Therefore I'm not an Irish hater. But your statement of insinuating that I'm an Irish hater is very disappointing to me. I'm not saying that new media has to go ahead and be politically correct, I actually enjoy that they're not, it allows me to consume media that I could never get from traditional media But making a statement that 'it gives them another reason to drink' is only aiding in stereotyping the Irish. In an age when the whole idea of new media to help others broaden their mindset, statements like that only help narrow it. I'm sorry that this is your mindset. It's a disappointment to find those who are trying to make a big change in one area but continue to perpetuate stereotypes in other areas.
You've lost a listener, who will not recommend any podcasts of yours to anybody. While this one person may not have much impact, it is a lost revenue stream. Particularly after listening to you and Alex on TWiP, I was all set to go off and purchase a book of yours, but no longer. My biggest disappointment in this is that I cannot support Andy Ihnatko or Chris Breen by listening to this podcast. I'll just have to support them in other ways.
Scott Bourne's Reply:
Wayne I don't need your money. I don't do the shows because of the money I make doing them. If I did have to rely on them for income, I'd be held hostage to people like you. I'd never put myself in that situation.
Your attitude is immature and frankly, I feel sorry for you.
By the way - Chris, Alex and Andy will all find some way to manage without your support. We have millions of listeners. You're the only one to complain. That says a bunch more about you than me.
Now to me, this is just plain arrogance and complete selfishness on his part. Mr. Bourne doesn't think that one listener has any potential to change something. Well guess what Mr. Bourne, you're wrong. There's no need to feel sorry for me. I'll be fine, the fact that you have chosen to go ahead and take the 'I'm holier than thou' approach will be your downfall.
Needless to say I've unsubscribed to the podcast. I'm half debating whether to unsubscribe to any podcast he's on, but well, Mac Break Weekly and TWiP are too entertaining or informative to stop listening to. But if he doesn't appear on them, I won't be sorry.
