Wednesday 5th March 2008
by WayneI’ve been brooding over this for the past couple of days, as to whether or not to blog about this, and I’ve decided I will.
While listening to Apple Phone Show #43, Scott Bourne was talking to Chris Breen about the iPhone being released in Ireland. During this conversation he made the statement “the iPhone gives them one more reason to drink, like they need another reason to drink’. Being March, and me being Irish, I took some offense to this. Most of the time, something like this wouldn’t bother me, but for some reason it must’ve been the way he said this statement and implied, at least to me, that all Irish are drunkards. I posted a comment on the blog entry for the episode about how his statement implying that all Irish are drunks and they’ll use ‘any excuse’ to drink. With statements like this it is detrimental to ‘New Media’ producers when they are supposed to be expanding the view of listeners / participants and all they are doing is just perpetuating the narrow-minded views of the world.
Here was the conversation (via e-mail) that followed. It is a direct copy-and-paste.
From Scott Bourne:
Wayne I am half Irish. Sorry if that throws a wrench in your diatribe.
If you’re one of those looking to be offended – life will keep you busy. I never insinuated Irish were drunkards. That’s your thing – you decided that. Perhaps you have a problem of being an Irish hater and can’t face it. I said (not insinuated) the Irish like to drink. That’s different from being drunk. And by and large we do like to drink. Should that fact be changed to match some politically correct scorecard you carry? Hell no.
As for new media being forced to cow tow to every politically correct jerk looking for a reason to express faux outrage – well for me, that’s the REASON to do new media. We don’t have to do that. And if new media’s acceptance were to hang on living in a politically correct world where we tip toe over everything we say – then there’s no need for new media. We have old media to be afraid of people like you.
You need to get over yourself and maybe you’d find life more enjoyable.
And as my father’s family would quote
The Irish are a fair people; they never speak well of one another. —Samuel Johnson 1709-1784
I’ve marked your IP address
Good day.
My Reply:
Mr. Bourne:
I can’t be an Irish hater when I am Irish. Therefore I’m not an Irish hater. But your statement of insinuating that I’m an Irish hater is very disappointing to me. I’m not saying that new media has to go ahead and be politically correct, I actually enjoy that they’re not, it allows me to consume media that I could never get from traditional media But making a statement that ‘it gives them another reason to drink’ is only aiding in stereotyping the Irish. In an age when the whole idea of new media to help others broaden their mindset, statements like that only help narrow it. I’m sorry that this is your mindset. It’s a disappointment to find those who are trying to make a big change in one area but continue to perpetuate stereotypes in other areas.
You’ve lost a listener, who will not recommend any podcasts of yours to anybody. While this one person may not have much impact, it is a lost revenue stream. Particularly after listening to you and Alex on TWiP, I was all set to go off and purchase a book of yours, but no longer. My biggest disappointment in this is that I cannot support Andy Ihnatko or Chris Breen by listening to this podcast. I’ll just have to support them in other ways.
Scott Bourne’s Reply:
Wayne I don’t need your money. I don’t do the shows because of the money I make doing them. If I did have to rely on them for income, I’d be held hostage to people like you. I’d never put myself in that situation.
Your attitude is immature and frankly, I feel sorry for you.
By the way – Chris, Alex and Andy will all find some way to manage without your support. We have millions of listeners. You’re the only one to complain. That says a bunch more about you than me.
Now to me, this is just plain arrogance and complete selfishness on his part. Mr. Bourne doesn’t think that one listener has any potential to change something. Well guess what Mr. Bourne, you’re wrong. There’s no need to feel sorry for me. I’ll be fine, the fact that you have chosen to go ahead and take the ‘I’m holier than thou’ approach will be your downfall.
Needless to say I’ve unsubscribed to the podcast. I’m half debating whether to unsubscribe to any podcast he’s on, but well, Mac Break Weekly and TWiP are too entertaining or informative to stop listening to. But if he doesn’t appear on them, I won’t be sorry.
Scott Bourne’s atrocious. He mistakes small-minded prejudice with being intelligently provocative. Call him on his ignorance, he responds that he was deliberately drawing you into a reaction. You can’t engage with somebody on those terms, so it’s not worth the effort. He’s a man whose confidence derives entirely from his fortune. Don’t we all know “that guy”… late middle-age, suddenly knows everything about everything. I remember hearing him once blurt on (the subject was Steve Jobs’ health) that there’s no such thing as getting over cancer, there’s just temporary remission. Not for a moment did he stop and think about the effects his remarks might have been having on any number of listeners with friends or family members seeking treatment for the disease. Awful. Nor would I pay too much attention to his constant bragging about listener numbers, and his assertion that he can’t be doing much wrong if so many people choose to listen. He needs reminding that the podcasts are free. I’d like to know how well they did if – like much traditional media – they cost something.
I’d also like to echo Allison’s statement that not all podcasters are arrogant gits in the ilk Mr. Bourne. I’m a podcaster too and I’d never dream of answering an polite email in such an abrasive and abusive manner, no matter how much I disagreed with the point being made.
As it happens I disagree with your point here, and actually think Scott has a point … though it’s hard to tell since it’s wrapped so tightly in abuse and insult. I hate hyper PC, and I do thing you’re over-reacting to a funny throwaway comment. I’m pretty sure I’ve made a comment like that at some stage. But I promise you, if you were to write to me to complain I’d reply politely and explain why I don’t agree.
BTW, Scott made an appearance over on my blog at one stage. I was kind of asking for it though since I’d listed his bragging about how rich he is as one of the down-sides of TWiP, though I did conclude that TWiP is a great podcast despite Scott’s bragging. He was every bit as abrasive and rude to me as he was to you. The point he made on my blog was that apparently it’s all just an act and that he’s nothing like how he presents himself on the show. That sounds awefully old-media to me. What I love about new media is that it’s not fake, but real. Unfortunuately that may not be as true today as it once was
Don’t let Scott put you off podcasts and podcasters, there’s WAY more nice, civil, polite, and friendly podcasters out there than there are Scott Bournes!
Bart.
Wayne – two of my friends had very similar viscous emails from Scott after they commented on his sites. One was Irish, one a woman. There’s a real similarity to all three of the letters – arrogance, putting the other person down, insulting, and downright mean spirited. He must actually think little of himself that he has to attack so much.
As far as the arrogance of podcasters (being one myself) I listen to the people who seem like nice people. It astounds me that Leo enjoys his company, as Leo is one of the nicest guys around. I’ve gotten to meet him several times, and the other folks he hangs with are equally delightful – Alex Lindsay is a very sweet man, Merlin Mann is just as goofy as you’d hope, all of them are wonderful and gracious.
I hereby promise never to be arrogant or rude to anyone who comments on my blog or emails me questions for my show. In fact, I have a section called “Dumb Question Corner”, designed to allow people to ask those questions they fear are too dumb to ask.
Great post, right on the money,
Allison
NosillaCast at http://podfeet.com
A technology geek podcast with an EVER so slight Macintosh bias!
Hi Wayne,
I’ve just had a run in myself with Scott Bourne, he made some comments about the UK on a recent episode of This Week In Photography, people left messages on his blog about it, so I thought I would too, he kept brushing them off because he said it was just 15seconds of the show, I thought if he says something it doesn’t matter if it’s for 15seconds or an hour and he should accept a reaction, I left a message on the board and he said how I was predictable and should I wish to continue the discussion I should email him, so I did, I asked him to explain ‘predictable’ and said how his comments had soured the show for me, here’s his response…
xxxx let’s make a few things clear
1) I could not care less whether or not you listen or like me. We get paid not one dime from our sponsors for foreign downloads and it’s the foreigners who seem to be the most demanding – even though they pay nothing and offer nothing by way of their participation. They usually just complain the most.
2) You are predictable in that you fell for the bait. You reacted rather than acting. You let me bait you with an inane comment and reacted with nationalistic pride without regard with facts.
3) Your comment was clearly meant to deflect from the main point of my words on security in UK – i.e., that you folks have traded liberty for security and now have neither.
4) I didn’t say you had to agree with or not your fellow brits. Just pointing out that my position can’t be that far off given the fact that a usually nationalistic bunch is even agreeing with me.
Get over it or don’t. I am too busy to give you a backrub with every free (that’s right FREE) podcast. Nobody’s forcing you to listen. If you aren’t willing to accept that my opinions might be different than yours, listen to a podcast from the UK.
Not very nice I thought, seams he doesn’t care unless you are an American listener. Suffice to say I will now have nothing to do with his podcasts or any he may be on.
Hey Wayne. While I think this guys response was *way* out of order, I think your insinuating that all podcasters are arrogant is also out of line. This dude is one of a only a handful that has the kind of numbers he does. The rest of us (yes, I’m a podcaster since March 2005) respect all of our listeners and try to be as fair as possible.
I think it’s possible you may have been taking the quip a bit too seriously (heck, my buddy Jackie Bradley and I – neither of whom drink BTW) joke constantly about how the Irish love to drink. And it’s true – though I can’t really stand the stuff that the really drink in the pubs, eww! BTW Italians like to drink too. Just sayin’ (I’m Italian).
Regardless of your take on it, this guy did respond like a jerk though, I’ll give you that. Please remember that all the rest of us podcasters are not like that!