Guilford County Commissioner and 6th district U.S. congressional candidate Billy Yow on this blogger:
“He’s a coward. He sits in his dark closet. He’s a blogger. If you take a blogger and you look at the validity they offer society today, that speaks volumes as to who it is.”
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| Billy Yow, 2004 |
Mr. Yow, you are entitled to your opinion, sir. Personally, as a new district 6 voter, I would rather have heard you refute the message of the t-shirt and your association with it than see you posing with it, confederate flag and all, while calling me names. But that's your call. It's important for voters to understand how candidates respond to criticism and ad hominems are certainly not unheard of.
I am confused, however, about why you chose the accusation of cowardliness. You see, I don't think it was cowardly to put my name on the public record of the registration for BillyYow.com so that anybody and everybody could see who was responsible for it; I don't think it was cowardly to explain my actions in interviews with the News & Record (print version) and WGHP. I don't think it was cowardly to put myself in the line of your fire for the sake of public awareness.
Regarding the "validity [bloggers] offer society," as far as sweeping generalizations go, I think the issue has been pretty well decided in contradiction to the opinion you have. (See: Red State, Crooks & Liars, Zero Hedge, and Think Progress for some well known examples; Greensboro 101 for a local view.)
As for this blogger specifically, I humbly believe that I have offered some substantial validity to local society—if I can interpret your use of "validity" to mean consistent, thoughtful and substantiated commentary and information. Some examples:
- You will find me in agreement with you and Conservatives 4 Guilford County on the objectionable policies limiting speech at Guilford County Commissioners' meetings and acting to encourage the North Carolina American Civil Liberties Union to intervene.
- You will find me defending you, Mr. Yow, against unfounded accusations of impropriety in cow-gate, as well as noting when you, in your official capacity, make unfounded accusations.
- You will find me writing honestly and conscientiously on a variety of subjects neglected or mishandled by local media, including fact checking, Guilford County government, Greensboro government, and elections.
15 comments:
If you're waiting for him to answer on your blog, you could be waiting a long time.
I'll be glad to put some similar questions to him for the coming week's "Inside Scoop" column.
Yeah, what Joe said: Don't hold your breath.
I find that natural light mitigates eyestrain. When blogging at night I prefer a soft fluorescent.
Respectfully, Joe, to the extent that this story continues in the main stream media as Yow versus blogger, I think the newsorgs will miss the mark. The news is not about Yow's opinion of this blogger's rectitude, it is about a candidate for public office who will, to this day, pose with that repugnant t-shirt and what that says about his suitability to represent the people of North Carolina's 6th district in the United States Congress.
Ed, You got me. In truth, I never blog completely in the dark, my poor typing skills demand that I see the keyboard. A 40 watt soft white bulb in a shaded desk lamp suffices. I apologize for the inaccuracy.
As I said at my place, when the argument devolves to "just a blogger," the blogger has won.
I think the cliche Yow was reaching for involved a basement and pajamas, not a "dark closet." Those are reserved for the gays, as I recall, not bloggers.
And for good reason -- I'm a pretty good touch-typist, but if I'm in a dark room I sometimes have to half-close the screen on my laptop to orient myself on some of the more obscure keystroke commands by the light of said screen. It's annoying.
Roch made public what the local media would not.
Billy Yow makes no bones about what happened.
Yes, Yow's "just a blogger" remarks put him in a negative light but we need to remember that both parties are being honest and forthright.
Which is more than can be said for the "media" covering the story and the bloggers piling on.
The negative light cast by the "just a blogger" remarks is insubstantial compared to the negative light cast by Yow's race-baiting actions.
And he's honest about what he did? Not really, not until he fully owns that it was a shitty race-baiting thing to do. That's honest.
Just acknowledging that something everyone knows happened, happened, is not exactly a shining moment.
Roch, I may be wrong about this but I'm pretty sure the photo you label February 28, 2012 was taken ten years ago. He has a completely new hair cut, and I think I remember that photo was taken at the time the t-shirt came out.
I seem to recall it was completely sunny on Feb 28, 2012, because I was out in all day. Maybe Yow was hiding out in some cloudy town
Tony, thanks for bringing that to our attention. The image was taken as a screen capture from the WGHP story that aired yesterday. They did not indicate that it was file footage. I'll see if I can get some clarification.
It's not just the hair; the beard's gone now. It's pretty clear from the Fox-8 story that the shirt-holding shot is in the past.
Doesn't make it uninteresting. But the caption doesn't match the photo.
"I'll be glad to put some similar questions to him for the coming week's "Inside Scoop" column."
Really, Joe?
For what purpose? Is Billy Yow's attitude regarding Roch or vice-versa really news?
This is a one day news story that is being deliberately stretched out as a negative campaign ad against Billy Yow with eager help from the media.
Billy has to live with those t-shirts, but lets not pretend we don't know what's going on here.
Haven't had the chance to talk with Billy about it yet -- or hadn't until today. Wanted to see what kind of reaction he's gotten.
Which has been a lot.
Judging from comments and e-mail, that doesn't surprise me.
Thought it would make a good Inside Scoop post -- not about he and Roch, just about the event in general. No harm in asking some similar questions to those Roch posts here while doing that.
If I wanted to I guess I could do a whole series of stories about this. We had a brief discussion in the office about it today in which we all agreed there's really no sense in doing any more news stories about it unless something that's actually news happens. I'm going to make one of a few Inside Scoop column items about the reaction, which Billy actually welcomed.
Now the caption's good.
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