January 10, 2005
I really didn't feel like bothering
But I must respond to this excited nutcase with a blog and way too much time who is picking a fight over my post on the Tampa Fox News reporters who were fired several years ago over a dispute about a story they were doing.
Following is the entire accusatory post, with my answers to the rather overwrought charges and assertions as called for.
2005-01-08 Posts like this are why I sometimes hate blogging. Norwood has written a blog post full of several factual errors. Either Norwood has no idea who Steve Wilson and Jane Akre are - or he pulled a Glenn Reynolds and wrote a post that simply served his political bias. In this case, Norwood's hatred of Fox News. I'm no fan of Fox News, but Wilson and Akre are two of the strangest and most crooked media people I have read about.”Posts like this?” Uh, posts like yours, the type of which you would ordinarily write only under threat of death or serious dismemberment, or posts like mine, which you will endeavor to attack in a rather erratic and ineffective but quite vicious fashion, much like a kitten going after a dangling piece of string? Just asking...
Anyway, your thesis seems to be twofold: Norwood sucks, and so do Steve and Jane. Let’s proceed...
OH. MY. GOD! Steve and Jane MIGHT be living in SIN?!?Wilson and Akre were a (maybe still) married investigative news team working for WTVT in Tampa - before Fox News owned the station. The couple contended that the station censored their story on Monsanto. Wilson admited [sic] in court there was very little difference between what the station wanted and their version.
I don’t have the time to research the ownership issue, but WTVT was certainly a Fox affiliate at the time of Wilson and Akre’s firing, else Fox News would not be part of the lawsuit. I fail to understand what possible difference it could make as to who the actual owner of the Fox News station was at the time of the incident.
I’m not gonna make any cheap quips about spell checkers. Oh, wait...
Norwood linked Wilson and Akre's webpage asking for financial donations for them to repay millions in Fox legal fees since they lost two case against the media giant. John Sugg Reports, "After Akre's verdict was overturned, the couple turbocharged their fundraising by claiming they may have to pay Fox's legal costs, which, they say, 'could amount to maybe $3-million.' That's a gross exaggeration. Fox won fees only for the relatively minor portion spent during the appeal. Wilson acknowledged he has no basis for the $3-million figure, but justified it by saying that Fox might -- just might -- someday be awarded other fees."
Now this is a huge distortion. At the time Sugg wrote this piece, he well knew that Fox was suing Wilson and Akre for $1.7 million. So, yeah, Fox might someday be awarded those “other fees,” like if they win the suit which Wilson is soliciting funds to fight. The notion that the couple were only ordered to pay appeal related fees is also directly contradicted by Project Censored. (same link as previous)
Wilson and Akre are so broke that they bought a $1.4 million home in Jacksonville, Florida. Jeremy Voas of the Metro Times asked Wilson how he got the money to pay for the home. Wilson refused to give him a direct answer. He would not even say if he's still married to Akre. Voas also reports on how Wilson ambushed Dr. Kenneth Burnley and kept intentionally bumping into the man while interviewing him on camera. This turned into a shoving match. Wilson said in his on-air report, "If there’s any accountability, Dr. Burnley apparently figures it’s not to us."
I guess this paragraph is in support of the “Jane and Steve suck” part of the thesis? It has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with the Monsanto story or with any “factual distortions” on my part.
Wilson is also a raving egomaniac. The man represented himself in court and lost! He tells progressives that he's fighting for the little guy while he's stuffing $5 thousand of their money he got from them off the internet under a mattress. Me thinks Wilson is hiding money from the IRS.
Let’s see... he testified about the $5,000 in court... he was hiding it from the IRS! He stated that he stashed it, in the form of a cashier’s check, possibly under his mattress, in order to prevent the funds from possible being seized by the IRS. That does seem a little fishy, and may be worth looking into, but it happened way back in 1999, and the matter seems to have been resolved in Wilson’s favor, since he was able to later return the money to the charitable account without repercussion.
Again, I never alluded to this incident nor did I make any “factual errors” regarding this incident.
As for his egomania, well, yeah, the guy is one of those tabloid style TV reporters. If he wasn’t full of himself, he wouldn’t have much of a career potential.
I wonder if Norwood will correct his post after he reads the trackback I put on his site. If he doesn't then he's as guilty of the same dishonesty as that he accuses Fox News of.
Uh, my post was rather tame and pretty neutral. I concentrated on Wilson and Akre’s recent filing with the FCC challenging WTVT’s license renewal, and I encouraged readers to contact the FCC themselves if they felt so inclined. I included links to Wilson and Akre’s site and a brief summary of their situation for background.
Readers who bother to click through to the Jane and Steve page can see Jane and Steve’s version of events and decide for themselves. They allude to Sugg’s article and refute many of the charges he makes.
The “factual errors” cited by this strident blogger seem, at best, to be differences in opinion or interpretation. I have no idea why this person has chosen to pick a fight with me about these secondary issues.
Update: Norwood has not changed his post on Wilson and Akre. I don't think bloggers should take this man seriously.
I read your post when you first wrote it. Then, jaw dropping ever further in a stunning real-time show of utter disbelief, I read it again. I found it so thoroughly without merit that I deemed it unworthy of a response - I did not take it seriously.
Then you came and left a trollish comment on BlogWood with the laughable assertion that I should change my blog post to reflect your opinion. Uh, that’s why you have your own fucking blog, dumbass - so you can spout misconceiving fact-challenged hastily (if at all) researched non-spell checked crap without bothering those of us who are not brain addled twits.
Bugger off, you blathering bitch.
Posted by Norwood at January 10, 2005 04:19 PM