This is a repost off the NZFurry mailing list, of what happened today amist all the fuss, "confusion" and perhaps rage. She/The Press is going to be running a follow up article and some of you might have already known, talked to Pete (of MidFur) and another local fur (Ant) along with myself for that.
Please take a grain of salt and remember, I cannot stress enough that what I said is my own personal opinion and in no way representative of the rest of the New Zealand community and fandom.
=====
So, I "happen" to be right down here in Christchurch while the article ran over this past weekend. Needless to say a lot of you had quite mixed reactions to what has been written... most of them negative for obvious reasons.
Pete (from MidFur) has already expressed his concerns with the use of MidFur images in print and on the online edition (which has since been pulled), and in fact Vicki Anderson (the journalist involved with running this article) have interviewed him over the phone earlier this afternoon. The major reason those photos from MidFur was used, was because The Weekend Press' parent company is FairFax Media, which also own (?) The Age in Melbourne where the original story and photo was run last year, so perhaps they felt it was legal for them to do so. Again, I am sure Pete or the media liason from MidFur has taken care of that aspect already.
Since the publication of the article, she has gotten a lot of... "hate"mail regarding the alledged interview, and therefore been in contact with various people over the matter to gain a fairer representation. Pete and "Dragon", Ant (I am sure most of us knows him), and finally myself. Seeing as I was in the area, she really wanted to have an actual person that's local to do the interview for the follow up article.
Now everyone knows talking to the press is a bad idea, especially when the topic is furry and "sex and orgies" but seeing as we have crossed that bridge and "Pandora's Box" have been opened, claiming it doesn't exist as a rebuttal but refusing to actually let them conduct a "fairer" interview would just make things well, go nowhere.
Anyhow, I met up with Vicki at their makeshift offices by Christchurch Airport (since the earthquake) earlier this evening to "set things straight" as she calls it.
Some of the burning questions a lot of you no doubt wanted to know (and keep in mind I still don't believe 100% of what she claims happened, but that's my view on all media/journalists, but she was adament it's what she experienced and was a truthful representation):
- The whole original article/interview came about because a college that worked at The Press in Christchurch is a "furry", but because he works there, he didn't want to be interviewed, instead he pointed Vicki to a friend he knows, that knows a couple from America that arrived into Christchurch recently and it would be interesting to do a story on.
- She was actually uncomfortable with running the article with the heavily "biased" theme originally, but kept an open mind and her editor actually told her that if that was her experience with the people interviewed, then it should be run as such.
- Originally photos from the interview with the American couple were to be used, however apparently they changed their mind and did not want photos of their suits published along with the original article, hence the use of "stock" photos from FairFax media's archives (hence all the MidFur photos).
- She did (and I can confirm) that an e-mail was sent prior to FurcoNZ 2011 (last year) in regards to doing an article. We of course gave the standard "no press/media are allowed at the event" but, myself personally and a few others have no issues if you do want to interview/talk to us. Unfortunately she did not receive the reply. (As a sidenote, a couple of Victoria University students also e-mailed us wanting to do a documentary and wishing to attend FurcoNZ and again, we kindly explained our policy and refused to grant them registration).
- She stood by her journalistic integrity and I reiterated that I am not there to judge that. What I said with her earlier in the evening is purely my own personal opinion and experience, and in NO WAY represent the views of all the members of our local community (and I could not stress that point enough).
- If she managed to talk to me (or any willing furry in New Zealand) last week before it goes to print, none of this would have happened or, a much fairer and representative article about our community will have been published and none of this "mess" would have happened.
As Pete has already pointed out, she has been e-mailing us back and forth following up with the article and interview, trying to make sure that the views are more balanced and in no way biased. As soon as it goes to print, she will notify me via e-mail and TXT message and hopefully will arrange to have a hard copy sent to me.
In my opinion, on face value she does seem like a genuine, nice person after meeting up with her for over an hour, and so far with the e-mail and TXT correspondance, back up her character as such, and she does stand by her journalistic intergrity. But again, I can't speak for everyone in this community so you all can make up your own minds and take everything with a grain of salt.
What's done's done in the original article and hopefully this upcoming follow up article is much more truthful and representative of what our New Zealand community represents.
There will be photos from the New Zealand community hopefully posted this time, with correct captioning. They are mostly from the various FurcoNZ and events that we have done. Unfortunately she insisted only suits I own/or people I talked at that point in time that have explictly given permission are used this time, as she did not want a repeat of the last article, being accused of "making things up/ficticious photos". So don't feel I was biased at only showing a certain selection of suits, as I actually showed her pretty much all the suits that exist in NZ (and you all know who you are). She was amazed with the quality of the suits that came from the community (and I am quite amused in fact) that she commented they are much better and "professional" looking than what the original American couple showed her in the first interview/article (think Warehouse/Online/generic mascot quality suits).
Well, we shall see what happens this week when the follow up/revised article goes to print and online.
And feel free to hassle me for any inaccuracies, or, send your hate mail this way. :P
I also picked up 3 copies of The Weekend Press while here, so if any of you want a look or want to grab a copy off me, again, bug me about it (I will be back in Auckland in the next few days).
Thanks and hope that clears up whatever questions you have about this whole saga.
This is a repost off the NZFurry mailing list, of what happened today amist all the fuss, "confusion" and perhaps rage. She/The Press is going to be running a follow up article and some of you might have already known, talked to Pete (of MidFur) and another local fur (Ant) along with myself for that.
Please take a grain of salt and remember, I cannot stress enough that what I said is my own personal opinion and in no way representative of the rest of the New Zealand community and fandom.
=====
So, I "happen" to be right down here in Christchurch while the article ran over this past weekend. Needless to say a lot of you had quite mixed reactions to what has been written... most of them negative for obvious reasons.
Pete (from MidFur) has already expressed his concerns with the use of MidFur images in print and on the online edition (which has since been pulled), and in fact Vicki Anderson (the journalist involved with running this article) have interviewed him over the phone earlier this afternoon. The major reason those photos from MidFur was used, was because The Weekend Press' parent company is FairFax Media, which also own (?) The Age in Melbourne where the original story and photo was run last year, so perhaps they felt it was legal for them to do so. Again, I am sure Pete or the media liason from MidFur has taken care of that aspect already.
Since the publication of the article, she has gotten a lot of... "hate"mail regarding the alledged interview, and therefore been in contact with various people over the matter to gain a fairer representation. Pete and "Dragon", Ant (I am sure most of us knows him), and finally myself. Seeing as I was in the area, she really wanted to have an actual person that's local to do the interview for the follow up article.
Now everyone knows talking to the press is a bad idea, especially when the topic is furry and "sex and orgies" but seeing as we have crossed that bridge and "Pandora's Box" have been opened, claiming it doesn't exist as a rebuttal but refusing to actually let them conduct a "fairer" interview would just make things well, go nowhere.
Anyhow, I met up with Vicki at their makeshift offices by Christchurch Airport (since the earthquake) earlier this evening to "set things straight" as she calls it.
Some of the burning questions a lot of you no doubt wanted to know (and keep in mind I still don't believe 100% of what she claims happened, but that's my view on all media/journalists, but she was adament it's what she experienced and was a truthful representation):
- The whole original article/interview came about because a college that worked at The Press in Christchurch is a "furry", but because he works there, he didn't want to be interviewed, instead he pointed Vicki to a friend he knows, that knows a couple from America that arrived into Christchurch recently and it would be interesting to do a story on.
- She was actually uncomfortable with running the article with the heavily "biased" theme originally, but kept an open mind and her editor actually told her that if that was her experience with the people interviewed, then it should be run as such.
- Originally photos from the interview with the American couple were to be used, however apparently they changed their mind and did not want photos of their suits published along with the original article, hence the use of "stock" photos from FairFax media's archives (hence all the MidFur photos).
- She did (and I can confirm) that an e-mail was sent prior to FurcoNZ 2011 (last year) in regards to doing an article. We of course gave the standard "no press/media are allowed at the event" but, myself personally and a few others have no issues if you do want to interview/talk to us. Unfortunately she did not receive the reply. (As a sidenote, a couple of Victoria University students also e-mailed us wanting to do a documentary and wishing to attend FurcoNZ and again, we kindly explained our policy and refused to grant them registration).
- She stood by her journalistic integrity and I reiterated that I am not there to judge that. What I said with her earlier in the evening is purely my own personal opinion and experience, and in NO WAY represent the views of all the members of our local community (and I could not stress that point enough).
- If she managed to talk to me (or any willing furry in New Zealand) last week before it goes to print, none of this would have happened or, a much fairer and representative article about our community will have been published and none of this "mess" would have happened.
As Pete has already pointed out, she has been e-mailing us back and forth following up with the article and interview, trying to make sure that the views are more balanced and in no way biased. As soon as it goes to print, she will notify me via e-mail and TXT message and hopefully will arrange to have a hard copy sent to me.
In my opinion, on face value she does seem like a genuine, nice person after meeting up with her for over an hour, and so far with the e-mail and TXT correspondance, back up her character as such, and she does stand by her journalistic intergrity. But again, I can't speak for everyone in this community so you all can make up your own minds and take everything with a grain of salt.
What's done's done in the original article and hopefully this upcoming follow up article is much more truthful and representative of what our New Zealand community represents.
There will be photos from the New Zealand community hopefully posted this time, with correct captioning. They are mostly from the various FurcoNZ and events that we have done. Unfortunately she insisted only suits I own/or people I talked at that point in time that have explictly given permission are used this time, as she did not want a repeat of the last article, being accused of "making things up/ficticious photos". So don't feel I was biased at only showing a certain selection of suits, as I actually showed her pretty much all the suits that exist in NZ (and you all know who you are). She was amazed with the quality of the suits that came from the community (and I am quite amused in fact) that she commented they are much better and "professional" looking than what the original American couple showed her in the first interview/article (think Warehouse/Online/generic mascot quality suits).
Well, we shall see what happens this week when the follow up/revised article goes to print and online.
And feel free to hassle me for any inaccuracies, or, send your hate mail this way. :P
I also picked up 3 copies of The Weekend Press while here, so if any of you want a look or want to grab a copy off me, again, bug me about it (I will be back in Auckland in the next few days).
Thanks and hope that clears up whatever questions you have about this whole saga.
- lyctiger