Joho the Blog: Why I just deleted a post

July 08, 2005

Why I just deleted a post

I just deleted a post of mine, something I don't think I've done before. I deleted it because it was substantially and completely wrong, as a commenter quickly pointed out. (Thanks, Max!) It was only up for about 15 mins, so it's highly unlikely that it was indexed or that anyone else pointed to it, so I don't think my deleting the post will break anyone's links.

I posted on the basis of a friend sending me big chunks of a column by Fox commentator John Gibson that made it sound as if he wished PAris had been attacked instead of London. In fact, he says that he wished Paris had been chosen for the Olympics rather than London...granted that he wishes this because he would rather see the French have to deal with the security worries and hassles. I don't like that sort of anti-French stupidity, but it's not in the same class as what I thought he was saying at first.

So, since I was way wrong, and irresponsibly didn't do more than glance at the original article, and because deleting the post is unlikely to break any links, I've just pulled it.

FWIW, here's the original Gibson article. (It's a no-follow link since Gibson undoubtedly gets off on "being controversial" and I don't want to add to his pleasure.) His latest confirms he's a heartless asshole. An "I told you so" in these circumstances is not just bad taste; it reduces the tragedy to the size of Gibson's ego, which, while massive, is outweighed in the scales that matter by a single London tear.

Posted by D. Weinberger at July 8, 2005 09:13 AM

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Comments

Hi David,

That explains why I couldn't comment on it just now. What I was explaining to Max was:

@Max, indeed he wrote that the day before the bombings. But then AFTER the bombings he reinforced his earlier comments:

"The bombings in London: This is why I thought the Brits should let the French have the Olympics — let somebody else be worried about guys with backpack bombs for a while."

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,161864,00.html

While his first rant at the French was in poor taste at best, the follow-up deserves all the attention it is getting.

Posted by: Ton Zijlstra | July 8, 2005 09:47 AM

David, his article was the day before the bumbs, but he posted another one after, confirming his intentions I think:

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,161864,00.html

Posted by: Loic | July 8, 2005 10:05 AM

You can still see the "deleted" post at:

http://www.hyperorg.com/blogger/mtarchive/004194.html

Posted by: Mark Siegal | July 8, 2005 11:05 AM

we still need to show our outrage. i work in Aldgate East, where the first bomb went off. You know what - that doesn't make me wish it had happened in France instead. On the contrary i hope fervently that Paris doesn't have to deal with such events again. I would not, could not, wish such horrors upon my fellows.

Posted by: james governor | July 8, 2005 11:18 AM

Hmm, Mark. It's not showing up in the list of posts that MovableType shows me, so that link may stop working soon. It should, anyway. But just to keep this transparent, here's the post of the original text, with some obvious munging of names to keep it from showing up in searches. (My aim in deleting it was to keep bad info out of circulation.):

----------
Loic Le Meur points to F*x News' John G*****n's disgusting, historically stupid and morally reprehensible article, Missed Opportunity, in which he wishes the terrorists had attacked Paris:

"It would have been a delight to have Parisians worried about security instead of New Yorkers. It would have been exquisite to watch.

But, alas, they picked London. I like the Brits. I like London. I hate to see them going through all this garbage when it would have been just fine in Paris."

What sort of person wishes this on any city? Oh yeah, a terrorist does. Terrorists and people as disconnected from reality as John G*****n.

Loic, as an American, I am ashamed that G*****nand I share a flag. [Technorati tags: f*x media J*hnG*****n London]

Posted by D. Weinberger at July 8, 2005 08:47 AM

Posted by: David Weinberger | July 8, 2005 11:35 AM

Roll on the day when people, atheist to fundamentalist (of whatever religion), downtrodden to ascendant, conduct their internecine warfare through online dialogue (however repugnant) rather than real violence.

Posted by: Crosbie Fitch | July 8, 2005 12:14 PM

True, I hadn't seen this before:

"The bombings in London: This is why I thought the Brits should let the French have the Olympics — let somebody else be worried about guys with backpack bombs for a while."

Sorry. And I thought I was the factchecking star :(

Posted by: Max | July 8, 2005 01:05 PM

Well, the post shows up in the Bloglines RSS feed; sort of like Google's neverending cache, I guess.

Posted by: Jonathan Arnold | July 8, 2005 11:19 PM

David,

There goes any chance you ever had of working with Fox News.

Will you ever get over this?

Posted by: Gary Turner | July 11, 2005 05:03 PM

http://mediamatters.org/items/200507080002

Posted by: Anonymous | July 11, 2005 05:21 PM