The picture above is of Scott, the newspaper reporter from HBO’s “The Wire” that was willing to kick it up a notch to give his story that extra umph! Misleading readers and misrepresenting people he wrote about were the least of his concerns.
I bring that up because I got an email today from one of my blogging buddies Natalie from across the pond in the UK. Our regular readers will remember her from a guest post she did a few weeks back that many enjoyed called: Black, British and Probably Crazy. It seems that after speaking with Natalie the Daily Mail didn’t get the story they wanted so they made the story they wanted. Even though she told the journalist that she did not make the blog for revenge, and she didn’t want to be in an article that suggested that, they constructed a story that included 26 inaccuracies believe it or not (they streched a 14 month engagement into a 5 year one, claimed the blog was set up for the purpose of revenge which was untrue and accused her of cyberbitching) and twisted her personal blog that me and TheMom read regulary into an online journal seething with revenge towards an ex in an article titled “Don’t Get Mad, Get E-venge”. Even more suspicious is that in no point during the article which she’s featured heavily do they link to or even name her site which is highly irregular when someone writes up a story on a website. But I guess you don’t want people finding out that what you wrote was incorrect so you don’t provide the evidence. Check out here what Natalie had to say about the whole deal.
You can check out the article here and leave a comment letting them know we’re not having it but be warned that Natalie told me several of her supporters left comments but they have not been posted. I left mine a little while back letting them no they need to retract that article and we’ll see if that gets put up or not.
Please check out the links above and show some support. The days of thinking you can marginalize people in general, and black people in particular are over due to the internet and the strength of the black blogosphere. I encourage other bloggers to link to this post or directly to Natalie’s to share this with your readers and to take it as a lesson about dealing with the media as it concerns your work on the web.
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Thank you TheDad and TheMom! Your support means so much! It is scandalous that a national newspaper which publishes a website that can be read by many around the world, doesn’t believe that it is important to get their facts right. I still can’t believe what they have done and I will be doing everything in my power with the help of support from the blogosphere to have them retract this story and apologise. You are right about the marginalisation and as you guys know, it is difficult enough as it is for black people to get very much positive coverage and it is shameful that they have taken four years of my writing and the various things I have done to help others, and reduced it to sensationalist crap.
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