Thanks for pointing to this!

BTW: The blog entry is at http://www.timwu.org/log/archives/257

As far as I can see: up to now there are no comments.

Maybe we could accuse him of being jealous of JKR's success and Melissa's forthcoming blessed book? That would be something completely expected from the vicious minds here at Rattlesnake Central wouldn't it? Oh wait, that would be a different group of rattlesnakes I guess.

These are the facts - and I didn’t refer to her as having mushroom hair, so she ought be happy.

This made me snort my breakfast! What has MA got to complain about...other than she got found out for being less precious about who she sees as a friend than she should really be!

I've just realized something: I saw the post on Leaky in which someone displayed their message to Tim Wu. It was this line that caught my eye:

"... you will notice that Melissa stays out of the majority of the conversation about the trial, in order to remain neutral."

I've just realized why this whole "impartial/neutral" thing bothers me. Doing nothing is also a choice - we talked about this alot over the years with HP. Cornelius Fudge is a good example of someone who solves problems by remaining neutral, although he really isn't neutral because he sides with the Malfoys and Umbridge.

It's "easy" but not "right" to stay silent and appear neutral.

It reminds me of some quotes.

“Who can be wise, amazed, temperate and furious,
Loyal and neutral, in a moment?
No man.”
~William Shakespeare

“If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality.”
~ Bishop Desmond Tutu

“Washing one's hands of the conflict between the powerful and the powerless means to side with the powerful, not to be neutral.”
~ Paulo Freire

"The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who, in a time of moral crisis, remain neutral."
~Dante

I'm not sure why people expect Wu to be impartial. He's a law prof being a lawyer I can tell younthwt we are an opinionated lot. But none are so opinionated as law professors.

As far as neutrality is concerned what you don't say speaks more loudly than what you say and actions speak louder than words. No one is neutral. I think some people are objective from time to time but we all lean one way or another. Let's face it LL has been taking some serious pop shots at SVA. Fortunately for him, the hardcore fandom is a small percentage of the people who are out there.

Rattlesnake Central- that's hysterical.

Bluestocking

Wonderful quotes, and you're doing a great job in summarizing this case; I've also loved the links you've provided, and have just referred a friend here. May I friend you?

And watch Melissa insidiously attempt to discredit Tim Wu with the following words: "Yesterday I took a closer look at Mr. Wu's facebook photo, and it was either he, or someone matching his description, that was sitting with Mr. Vander Ark's companion (and when he was allowed in the courtroom, Mr. Vander Ark) for the first two days of the trial, almost for the whole time. I remember lightly wondering who the man in the dark suit with the legal pad was, chatting with them, and yesterday I understood."

Now, obviously, Tim Wu interviewed Steve during a court recess, since he mentions that in his piece in The New Yorker. Melissa seems to be trying to imply, though, that there is some conspiracy. *eye roll* And, for the record, I read an account of trial experiences from Steve's "companion" at the time of the trial. She describes sitting next to various interns for various of the involved companies and some of her interactions with them. Never once did she mention sitting beside Tim Wu, though.

BTW, on page 17 of the LL comments, "davidenglish" says this: "This summary seems to ignore the fact that fandom wasn't sure what to make of the lawsuit and most fans seemed to be on SVA's side in the first two weeks of November." So, I would guess that s/he's your mouse from last night, rattlesnakeroot.

I don't understand the comment on mushroom hair. Where did he come up with this and why does he think it's the best thing in the world that he didn't say she had it?

Leaky bad Rattlesnakeroot good. Bow down to the master.

But you can't put your own opinion in your own blog! That's just wrong. You can't have an opposing opinion to the LL!
/sarcasm

I have been doing a lot of thinking the last few days on whether it is important or not to JKR, WB, SVA, or RDR for them to wage a fan (PR} campaign on the internet and if so how much they would budget for such a campaign and how this money would be spent.

I'm not ready to speculate that Melissa has been "bought" since she seems adament that she has not. I do see some speculation from "this side of the war" that this might have occured.

I have noticed during my several years on cosforums before I was banned that certain posters do have the power to bring the wolf pack when they want to discredit someone to the rest of the online community. I never got my feelings hurt by these attacks because I never considered myself a part of the Harry Potter fandom. I didn't read the books and join cosforums because I like fantasy. Like SIP said, I only wanted to make up theories and argue them.

This power to bring the wolf pack has to be worth money in marketing. I know if I had a product to sell, it would be worth money to me to get so many people to travel the web and basically advertise and defend my product anytime it is critized.

I'm just thinking out loud now. I have no theories or opinions on this.

I like Rattlesnake Central
A rattlesnake is a beautiful animal, perfectly adapted to the world once roamed by mammoths, camels, horses and pronkhorns
you only don't step on it or annoy it.

Yeah, I like the 'Rattlesnake Central', too. At first, I didn't even understand that it was meant derogatory. I hope it doesn't disturb you, Rattlesnakeroot, because I think it's a splendid name for a blog.

(reminds me of Draco coming up with the 'Weasley is our king' song and seeing the joke backfire and become a song of praise ;)

"I spent a long time on the phone with this man, you know? If he had any confusion as to which voice was mine (which, honestly, after our conversation seems so unlikely), I was a phone call away. Were I about to ascribe a potentially inflammatory comment to him I'd have double checked it was him; the only way it's an honest mistake if he was absolutely 100 percent sure it was me on the podcast, which, again, after 45 minutes on the phone, unlikely." - MA

This is just an observation with my linguistics hat on, but claiming that someone 'knows' your voice after a 45 minute phone interview is ridiculous.

Studies have shown, time and again, that even expert listeners, (linguists' whose job it is to listen to recorded data and identify the speakers), can and do get it wrong and even then, they can only rule out speakers from the voice line-up, they cannot conclusively say "It was her! Listen to those vowels, man! I know it was her!"

Even your average joe listener can sometimes mistake the voice of a close friend over the phone, so MA's suggestion that TW should have somehow known it wasn't her and/or if there were doubt phone her to check is silly. She even suggested the fact-checkers listen to the podcast and that she herself couldn't remember who said what.

Well, I doubt Tim Wu is a linguist capable of discerning accurately between two female voices, one of which he is only vaguely familiar with, unless there were extremely obvious differences between the voices such as intonation, pitch, accent, dialect etc etc etc... I haven't listened to the podcast, so I wouldn't know...and what I would also add is that what is immediately obvious to someone is not immediately obvious to someone else. Perhaps the salient features of Melissa Anelli's speech were all too similar to Sue Upton's?

OMG. I has a thesis!

Edited at 2008-05-07 08:43 pm (UTC)