Stephen King being bashed re: Army comment

[Matt]

Thank you so much. I think the small amount of messages they got were perhaps an indication that fans would soon be flooding the place.

I'm glad they acted swiftly for sure.

[Daghain]

Replace "sounds like" with "is" and I think you have something there.

[MrsSmeej]

Now, now... Shouldn't we be gracious in victory?

[Daghain]

No.

[Daghain]

I'm gonna' miss Noel when his fifteen minutes are up.

Oh, don't worry Brice. He'll find some other insignificant thing to make a big deal out of. You won't have to miss him at all.

[Brice]

I know!

[Brice]

He'll probably erase all reference to SK and then make us look like the bad guys for harrassing him "for no reason".


























parasite

[razz]

Now, now... Shouldn't we be gracious in victory?

no. we rub it in sheppard's face.

[Matt]

I think we deserve a bit of gloating for sure but it should be restrained glee because the whole thing really was a huge suck for SK.

[Brice]

I don't imagine he's really letting it phase him too badly. It was likely just a minor annoyance.

[Matt]

Yeah, basically something you don't need like a weasel in the henhouse.

But still, its gotta bring you down a bit. Some horrible shit said about him out there.

[Brice]

Oh, I know Matt! I just figure with all the crackpots out there he's heard far worse via "fan" mail.

[Agathia]

Wow this is alot to digest, Matt you have made some very good points. Why American was so praised by other nations is due to free speech and equal rights and then after 9/11 those right were suppressed. Just because the nation's at war, doesn't mean we aren't allowed to speak our mind. However I do not necessarily agree completely with Stephen King's words because I believe it's too generalising and unfair to say you only join the army cause you're uneducated. However I don't think he meant it as an insult to the soldiers. It was more of a warning to youth that illiteracy will limit future potential.
Just my two cent.

[Matt]

And a great couple of pennies it was!

I think that last line is spot on. SK kind of considers the war in Iraq a pretty scary prospect and used it as a metaphorical "boogyman". I agree that he didn't mean to slight the soldiers.

Since it is pretty damn scary, I believe he has a point.

[Lord_Vertigo]

What he said was stupid. Even fabulously successful writers who we all love can still be human and make some really dumb remarks. King said what he thought, which is fine, we can all say what we want. But this doesn't make any of us immune from having to live with the consequences of our words, and King deserved to get blasted for making such stupid comments.

[alinda]

meh, I get it everyday, I have been know to say some pretty dumb stuff myself from time to time.

[Matt]

Hmmmm...I would say that he deserved people saying they didn't understand. He did not deserve people insulting him personally for what could really be considered a miscommunication.

The way I see it, if they would have attacked his words, it would have lost steam as soon as what he meant was explained. The only reason it got the legs it did is because people decided that wasn't enough and decided to attack the man personally which was not something he deserved.

And remember, this is from a veteran of the US military.

[Randall Flagg]

Now that the furor has subsided a bit, I am going to merge this into the King announcement thread, with a brief redirect.

[Matt]

I think that's probably smart, I'm going to deactivate the page tomorrow and we'll call the affair closed unless it stokes up again.

[Maelstrom]

I LOVE the idea that Matt is some great internet conspiracy leader. It gave me a good laugh to read that bit about the 'plant' in the messageboard.

I actually sent him a message, we'll see if he posts it on his blog. Really wish I would have copied it.

They are giving me hell on that misspelling, I said I was a bit dyslexic (which I may be with how bad my spelling is)

My wife: "You're a lover, not a speller"

Matt, I am also a member of SKMB and joined this room because of your blog there about this site. I wrote a note to that Newsbusters orginization myself, only I did copy the body of my email. I don't know if it will get posted there, but I am sure you will put it through here.

"I am writing this note not as a soldier or even a former soldier in the US Armed Forces, and also not even as a citizen or resident of the United States of America, although I am an American, that is to say a citizen of one of the countries of North America. I am not writing to support Mr. King, nor to defame him any further, but to add my view, or my opinion, to the mix.

It seems to me that Mr. King made a comment to some students who are still gaining that invaluable commodity known as education. This comment I believe was taken completely out of context. Mr. King, in my opinion, was not indicating that the members of the military are illiterate fools, but he was indicating that those students who fail to gain the necessary education do have the military as a fall back solution. The military accepts those who have substandard educations far more easily than, say, NewsBusters would. Mr. King, along with every person who has spoken for and against his comment are entitled to these opinions.

Now, as for the attack on other notes written here on the NewsBusters' board (ie, soliders instead of soldiers) it should be noted that people are not infallible (personally I have used backspace at least five times just during the writing of this email) and typographical errors do occur. I noticed in another of the emails after this particular attack another email that stated "...the men in women in uniform..." and I ask, should this person be attacked for expressing that the men of the military wear women's uniforms. See, that is taken completely out of context and the person who wrote those words made a typographical error. I apologize to this person if they take my words here as an attack. They are merely an example of how mistakes can happen.

As for Mr. King's write up on the SKMB and the suggestion that he should wait for Ms. Mod to return from vacation, I believe he did the right thing by responding immediately. If Mr. King had waited until Ms. Mod's return then the wound would have festered and become quite uncontrolable. I believe that Mr. King would have been attacked even more than he has if he had have waited.

Thank you all for listening to my ranting and raving."

[alinda]

Not at all, thanks for posting, welcome , why not visit the rest of the place?

[Matt]

Now, as for the attack on other notes written here on the NewsBusters' board (ie, soliders instead of soldiers) it should be noted that people are not infallible (personally I have used backspace at least five times just during the writing of this email) and typographical errors do occur. I noticed in another of the emails after this particular attack another email that stated "...the men in women in uniform..." and I ask, should this person be attacked for expressing that the men of the military wear women's uniforms. See, that is taken completely out of context and the person who wrote those words made a typographical error. I apologize to this person if they take my words here as an attack. They are merely an example of how mistakes can happen.

Actually, that's all me.

Its pretty common in an all text environment I think. Especially when you are dealing with someone who does a lot of typing.

I know spelling and errors like the ones above are considered bad form on the internet by some folks but I got passed worrying about what people think of me personally a long time ago. To be honest, I was more horrified about that "soldier" misspelling than anything recently because it might have reflected on SK somehow, that wouldn't be cool at all.

But overall, most people seemed okay about it and got the message. I hope so anyway.

So to pull this thing back on topic, I do believe the issue has blown over but we do have several potential thread ideas here...we could start those elsewhere.

In closing the issue here on tdt.com--I just want to say again how much I appreciate everyone being honest but civil on their feelings towards this issue.

What can be said about King fans is that we are an intelligent and giving lot.

Look for this thread to be archived one way or another soon.

[scottish_rogue]

Can't believe I haven't seen any threads on this yet...it's been out for a while. Or maybe I missed the thread where it was talked about already. Anyway, I just wanted to hear what you all had to say about all this and what your opinions on it are.

http://newsbusters.org/blogs/noel-sh...d-army-or-iraq

[Daghain]

Oh, it was discussed somewhere here when it came out, I remember. Hopefully someone who has better board search fu than me will come merge this with that.

[Hannah]

I can find it, I think.