Kaned by Dowbiggin
I promised myself I’d written the last thing I was going to write about Patrick Kane until Bruce Dowbiggin chipped in about the blogosphere’s role in the affair:
Blogs get Kaned: The question of whether independent bloggers should have equal status with mainstream media is a hot topic in the industry. But the alleged Patrick Kane robbery and battery of a cabby was not exactly a shining moment for the integrity of bloggers. The release of the police charges Monday morning brought an immediate torrent of abuse in the blogosphere for Kane, who was accused of beating a hapless Buffalo cabby for a 20-cent tip. Before Kane could explain his side, sites were saying “How could Kane be this stupid?…
The integrity of bloggers? I can’t speak for anyone else, but I’ll stand behind what I wrote.
Patrick Kane is a stuck-up, rich, spoiled, bratty punk… this punk kid needs a ass beating… The best possible light for Kane is that he is a mean drunk, a guy who is not above physically abusing a 62 year old man after a stupid prank went awry.” You get the flavour.
I wonder about the integrity of a media critic who includes a quote from my post in a paragraph that I otherwise did not write. I don’t think Dowbiggin’s readers can get the flavour of what I wrote from this gross distortion. (And if the first two sentences were written by a blogger, I didn’t read them anywhere. Dowbiggin should provide better evidence if he is going to indict the blogosphere in this affair. I’m definitely being charged here. Who else? Should the rest of the blogosphere be responsible for what I write?)
Kane’s mug shot was widely circulated. Then it emerged that the cabby – who has two DUIs and might have been driving without a license – locked Kane and his cousin in the back seat of the cab, thinking they were college kids punking him for a fare. The cabby’s own lawyer said the incident was a tad overblown. Okay, way overblown. Kane’s lawyer said it was the cousin, not Patrick, who got into any rough stuff. His client was being defamed. Suddenly it was a new story.
None of these revelations make it a new story to me and none of them change my opinion of Patrick Kane. I don’t understand why Dowbiggin thinks they should. Does he really believe Kane is being defamed? He was the guy in the mug shot, wasn’t he?
But the damage was already done to Kane, who is supposed to be on the cover of EA Sports NHL game. As we said, not a good day for the blogosphere.
Patrick Kane did all the damage that was done to Patrick Kane. He will lose the cover of the video game if EA Sports decides he is not the sort of guy they want associated with their brand. If that happens I would not credit my post or the blogosphere myself, but if Bruce Dowbiggin insists on giving it to me, I’m flattered and I’ll take it.
Quite hilarious. Just part of our modern culture, apparently, where someone else is always to blame. I’m giggling, thinking of Kane as the victim in this affair.
Like Rajeev mentioned in the earlier post, some kids who behave like jerks have a stern parent to face in the aftermath. I know I would have.
I really miss William Houston. What bugs me about the Dowbiggin article,(an other MSM criticisms of blogs)is his inability to acknowledge that there are a wide variety of blogs out there. At this point I think it is disingenuous for any reporter worth his/her salt to pretend that all blogs are aligned in some way.
Generally speaking, I like Dowbiggin and I’ll always cut him some slack because he was the only Canadian reporter willing to break the Eagleson story. I’ve read his books. I don’t think he has settled particularly well into his new role at the Globe, but I think he’ll eventually do better.
I don’t mind being criticised, but I don’t like it when my words are mixed up with message board ranting even though I am not identified. Tyler Dellow, it seems, has found the references.
On the larger issue Dowbiggin raised, what I wrote reflects my opinion and not the opinion of the blogosphere. Even if one decides that I am entirely in the wrong, one blogger cannot make for a “bad day for the blogosphere”. At worst, it was a bad day for Benjamin.
I think Dowbiggin has been looking for an issue he thought he could fit between his first line and his last one. I think this is a pretty lousy issue to pick, myself. As far as I am aware, the worst any blogger has done is convict Kane of being a dick.
Obviously I think there is ample evidence on this point on this charge. If Kane could explain his behaviour during this incident in a way that did not make him look like a dick, he would explain his behaviour. If Dowbiggin actually wants to claim that Kane was not being a dick, he can explain the incident in a way that doesn’t have Kane coming off as a dick.
I find it pretty funny that Dowbiggin laments about the damage done to Kane by you scurrilous bloggers and he then goes on to attack the cabbie for having two DUI’s (as if that has the slightest thing to do with ANYTHING) and the idea that he MAY have been driving without a license (again irrelevant, to say nothing of it being unsubstantiated – he “MAY” be a martian, too).
The question of whether independent bloggers should have equal status with mainstream media is a hot topic in the industry.
No it isn’t. This is always one of my favorite MSM whines. The legitimacy of MSM, or bloggers for that matters, comes from the readers. Not from whether or not Dowbiggan and others confer it. The raging hot debate matters solely to his him and his, near as I can tell.
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Early one August morning, Chicago Blackhawks forward and GAP Kids model Patrick Kane caught a cab home with his cousin Jimmy.
The night had been memorable. On the way to a Jonas Brothers Show, Patrick’s mother let them listen to the rap station in the backseat of her Winstar. Once there, they received double butter popcorn from a hockey fan working the concession, and Jimmy kissed a girl ON THE MOUTH during the teen sensations’ encore. In fact, the evening would have been perfect had it not been for a meddling cabbie.
Patrick’s mom had given the pair $15.00 and his sister’s emergency cell phone with strict instructions to call her before they left the concert and to get EXACT change from the cab driver. Patrick had played fast and loose with her change before and lost, and was punished with a two month revocation of his allowance. He wasn’t about to test her again.
They pulled up to Patrick’s house, his hockey net perched against the shed at the end of the driveway.
“That’ll be $13.80,” growled the cab driver, crystal meth and anger on his breath.
“Certainly, Mister!” chirped Patrick, handing him his $15.00.
The cabbie grabbed the money from him covetously and turned his back, reaching into the bag full of crystal meth on the passenger seat for another handful.
“Uh, boy mister, it sure would be swell if we could get some change,” stammered Patrick, shooting a nervous glance at Jimmy, who was picking at the seat cushion in front of him, his brow furrowed with worry.
“Wha-?” began the cabbie, turning around to stare menacingly at the boy. “Go on, git outta here, ya’ little jerk…before I knock yer block off.”
Patrick flinched.
“Mister, I ain’t trying to cause no ruckus here. It’s just, well, my mom – she’s a real swell lady and all – but she get’s awful sore when she doesn-”
Suddenly, the cabbie’s grubby claw swung in a wide arc at Patrick, a jaw-shattering blow narrowly missing his prepubescent face.
Patrick had no choice. The boy’s lives were in peril. So, in perfectly legal, text-book self defense, Patrick and Jimmy summoned their courage, put on their bravery hats, and beat the living shit out of the cabbie, taking their money back before calling an adult.
—an excerpt from My Side of the Story, by Patrick Kane
This is always one of my favorite MSM whines. The legitimacy of MSM, or bloggers for that matters, comes from the readers. Not from whether or not Dowbiggan and others confer it. The raging hot debate matters solely to his him and his, near as I can tell.
I agree that this issue has been put to rest for pretty much everyone except those in the MSM. To be fair, the traditional news outlets and the people who work for them are getting killed by the internet and the emergence of the new media. They are not doing very well in the face of the new competition and fear is driving the bus.
I’m not sure how the situation will all get sorted out, but I am certain that the internet and blogs are here to stay and I am certain media carps about it are doing nothing to secure their future.
Obviously I think there is ample evidence on this point on this charge. If Kane could explain his behaviour during this incident in a way that did not make him look like a dick, he would explain his behaviour.
I haven’t heard much in the way of details, but I can think of lots of scenarios in which Kane doesn’t look like a dick. Of course, they involve him standing by (mouth agape?) while his cousin acts like a total a-hole… but that would make him look like a wimp, wouldn’t it? Which is worse?