This entry was posted on
Monday, July 7th, 2008 at
10:23 am and is filed
under The Political Weblog Movement.
“I’m not a ‘victim of injustice’ as far as I’m concerned this is just a flame war.” – Phil Hendren
Hendren doesn’t need an apology, Hendren doesn’t deserve an apology, and the only reason Hendren wants an apology is so he can misuse it.
So he’s not going to get one.
In fact, I won’t be apologising for the same reason I think Bob Piper shouldn’t have apologised over Praguetory’s nonsense and Tom Watson shouldn’t have apologised in response to the faux-outrage that followed Sion Simon’s Webcameron adventure.
Mistakes and errors have been admitted to, comments are still open, no-one is being bullied under comments by single web users with multiple personalities and no effort has been made to retro-moderate this site or any other in an effort to rewrite history.
Please keep this in mind if anyone tries to pass off this refusal to apologise as anything near their level of bad-faith bullshit.
Hendren is only kicking up an artificial stink over this because he desperately needs an ‘out’ after publishing my home phone number on his website and then calling me at home a minimum of six times. It’s not the sort of thing you can do and then pass off as a joke (which is Hendren’s usual escape route), and even the dimmest of web users (not counting the most ardent of his followers) know that ‘taking it offline’ like this is unacceptable, and that doing it and then calling your victim a stalker in the same fetid breath is the height of audacity.
And on the subject of strategically yelling ‘stalker’, here’s your bonus link from a few years back. You may spot a few old tricks that are now used by the new boys from Torytown.
Final wrap-up on the calls to my house later this week.
By Paul.Ferrari July 7, 2008 - 11:56 am
I've been thinking about this and I've altered my view – you've said you got it wrong, you've been up front about it – nothing more is needed.I also think you're right that an apology would be misused.
By Manic July 7, 2008 - 1:27 pm
Thanks, Paul. That means lot to me. Cheers for taking the time to think about it.
By Bob Piper July 7, 2008 - 1:47 pm
Tim, mine was slightly different. I apologised to those people who felt genuinely offended by what I had posted, primarily because they saw it out of context.I didn't apologise to Dominic Fisher, nor do I believe for a nano second that he was offended. In fact he and a couple of other right-wing nutjobs carried on ditching the dirt and lies after the apology, so I suspect you're approach is right.No-one believes dizzy is genuinely aggrieved, and there is no doubt his 'desire' for an apology is his usual political point scoring.
By Manic July 7, 2008 - 2:16 pm
Bob: They saw it out of context thanks to the efforts of Dominic 'Praguetory' Fisher, who then went on to misrepresent what your apology meant, as you note here.And you'd be surprised what some of Dizzy's readers would believe.
By Bob Piper July 7, 2008 - 2:21 pm
Tim, Phil Hendren has e-mailed me to say he isn't asking for an apology. He did on the day the issue arose, but your post gives the impression he was persisting in some way.I just thought I would post this because my comment certainly gave the impression that dizzy was pressing for an apology.
By Manic July 7, 2008 - 2:45 pm
"Phil Hendren has e-mailed me to say…"Oh, FFS. Did he also ask you to tell me that he's not speaking to me? I wish that twit would grow up, but thanks for passing the message on.(NOTE: And it's not your fault – or mine – that he didn't tell anyone that his position had changed.)