(08-03-2010 06:50 PM)3601 Wrote: "Mental and emotional abuse of bad information."
"Stop worrying about being the guy who knows everything."
"I wanted Memphis fan to understand the difference bw the guy who claims to be a message board insider and a more reasonable person who does this for a living."
"Hoping that something is true does not make it so."
"I think the whole thing is just sad."
"It's a never ending cycle until the people realize that the 'insiders' don't know what the hell they are talking about."
To be clear, the person who he went after to make these points was not trying to put any of this out there in public, and neither was anyone hearing it from him, until "the mole" decided to give it to a radio host who decided to attack him for ratings.
Just posturing.
Andy never claimed to be an insider, but he talks to people who are. He is not making stuff up or he would not be so worried about the names.
Now, are those people wrong? Sometimes. Sometimes they jump the gun. Sometimes the story moves out from underneath them. But certain confluences of stories from people who don't know each other start to seem stronger.
By the way, speaking of sources, how did those negotiations with Bruce Pearl go Dan?
Anyway, Dan says he thinks we will be in at some point, so the big expose is over a date? Really?
Well, here it goes, I am also one of the 32, having written some things for Andy on TBT a while back and had some various discussions as well. And from that perspective I can say that in the email communication, date was considered to be the least certain thing.
But given what Adam Zagoria wrote, the date of Tuesday had legs from somewhere else anyway, so that seems like external confirmation that something was going on which got slowed down. Zags is a professional, is he not?
Once again, the attack was misplaced, because the only leak to media from that group was the leak to Dan, and all that group amounted to was a private discussion of what was being heard.
In fact there was even a semi-organized effort by members of that group to scuttle Dak's thread so that it would look like just so much more message board drivel to anyone who might be in media, because we were trying to keep it from leaking.
I will admit that I am guilty of posting some vaguely hopeful thoughts here and there, and AFTER Dak's thread and the KSR report I pm'd a few people in the last few days about my belief that something was happening, but I also included disclaimers, and I didn't say where I got that or give any specifics that could cause any damage. I felt like I was still respectful of Andy in the way that I did so, but if that betrayed any trust, let this be a public apology. Let me make clear that I am most certainly not the mole, and I even went back and made sure that I didn't accidentally forward things to Dan since he happens to be in my address book from communication a few years ago.
Basically I did those things re this board not to stir things up, but rather to bring some balance to wildly fluctuating discussions, because I believed then and still believe now that enough of what I heard is true that there was and is reason for hope, and it was not just some made up rumor.
Did we joke about Dan already having shot himself in the foot with his behavior? Yes, there as well as here. That is probably Dan's motive as much as anything. But as many people would agree, it is Wolken's attitude toward fans and attitude in general that has created most of the negative attitude toward him.
I tried to tell Dan back when he was attacking the fanbase for loving Joey that he needed to lay off his judgment of fans, but he instead has gotten more and more intense until he stooped to the point of reading private discussion that had no public impact over the air in the attempt to humiliate a fan and his friends.
And still he can't see how ridiculous that is.
Andy never tried to be anyone's hero. He just enjoyed finding out what he could find out, and sharing what he felt he could, thinking that others might like to know, but always with implicit or explicit qualifiers, except when he felt it was extremely strong and got really excited. But even then the qualifiers of be responsible for your own mental state stayed in effect.
So the bottom line is that none of the above stated things by Wolken justify what he did or really apply to the situation. I believe that in the paper he will only report verifiable things, but part of a message board and discussion among fans in general is that you hear things that are not officially verified, and you have to decide what to believe. I believe that other people are capable of hearing legitimate things and that I can try to sort that out myself.
I think that in this particular situation, at best Wolken was misguided, at worst he was cynically driving his ratings. His tweet leans toward the latter.
So there it is, I've said my piece in full now, and I'll move on to other things.
/
Truth Squad
![[Image: Dan+Wolken.jpg]](http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_0p08Ip2eLVs/S7QXRVIHhyI/AAAAAAAABmg/sn5z9yEl_I4/s200/Dan+Wolken.jpg)
