brad@looking.UUCP (Brad Templeton) (03/17/89)
As part of Karl Denninger's campaign against me, he has promoted Matt Crawford (matt@oddjob.uchicago.edu) as a potential new moderator for a replacement moderated humour group. To promote him, Denninger has reprinted Crawford's mail, where he promises that he will continue my policy of not judging the politics in the jokes, just how well they are written as comedy. While I admire Mr. Crawford's statement, I have reason to doubt it. I thought I would reprint for you a few of Mr. Crawford's own words on the subject, written during the debate on Jonathan Richmond's complaints about the famous ventriloquist joke. If Mr. Crawford has changed his mind on this matter, it's quite a change. I congratulate him. >From: matt@oddjob.uchicago.edu (Matt Crawford) >Newsgroups: rec.humor.d,soc.culture.jewish >Subject: Re: RACIST JOKES ON REC.HUMOR.FUNNY >Date: 15 Nov 88 19:00:14 GMT > >brad@looking (Brad Templeton) writes: >) So I'll make the same call here. Send me your jokes that make fun >) of racism, anti-semitism, national socialism, etc. They have to be >) funny, of course. > >Hah! Double hah! This from the guy who begs for anti-liberal jokes >when he has to give in and post an anti-conservative joke, but passes on >the very feeblest of anti-liberal jokes with no added comment. > >And from the guy who posted an unrotated "joke" advocating assassination >of Jesse Jackson. > >This guy is as biased as they come, short of a white robe. I fully >support the suggestion made earlier to replace him. > > Matt Later, when the RHF 1988 jokebook was announced, with an 800 number available for orders, Matt posted this gem: >From: matt@oddjob.uchicago.edu (Matt Crawford) >Subject: Re: USA and overseas ordering information for the "1988 R.H.F Annual" >Date: 22 Nov 88 21:00:04 GMT > >funny@looking (Funny Guy) writes, in rec.humor.funny: >) (This posting is a companion to the announcement of the 1988 annual, which >) should have come first.) >) >) How to order the 1988 rec.humor.funny annual from inside the USA and >) overseas: ... >) Toll Free Ordering >) >) You can dial 1-800-265-2782 from within the continental USA to order. > > >Dear, dear. Does anyone remember the "auto-dialing Falwell" crusade? > > Finally, he decided to call for my removal as moderator of the group. (This article talked about both the book and racism issues. I have retained the parts relating to accusations of racism.) >From: matt@oddjob.uchicago.edu (Matt Crawford) >Subject: Recall vote on rec.humor.funny moderatorship? > >.... > >This, couple with the recent outrage against him being discussed in >whatever.jewish, plus my own opinion (and that of several others I have >corresponded with) of his handling of rec.humor.funny prompts me to make >a very serious call for his removal as moderator of rec.humor.funny. > >I see three distinct issues to consider. There have been ethnic slurs >which may have overstepped some peoples limits of acceptibility, such as >the currently controversial Jewish joke and the "kill-Jesse-Jackson" >joke of a few months back. > ..... >On the other hand, one might take the position of protecting minority >rights and argue that some specified number of votes against retention >should suffice for removal, regardless of the number of votes for >retention. > > Matt Crawford -- Brad Templeton, Looking Glass Software Ltd. -- Waterloo, Ontario 519/884-7473
matt@oddjob.uchicago.edu (Matt Crawford) (03/22/89)
Brad says that either I have changed my mind about what may properly appear in a moderated jokes forum, or I am being inconsistent. While it is the right of every person to change their mind or be inconsistent, in this case I am not doing either. If this were some other newsgroup I would speculate on why Brad does not realize this. Instead I will explain. Here are the writings of mine which he says make his case: ) >Hah! Double hah! This from the guy who begs for anti-liberal jokes ) >when he has to give in and post an anti-conservative joke, but passes on ) >the very feeblest of anti-liberal jokes with no added comment. ) > ) >And from the guy who posted an unrotated "joke" advocating assassination ) >of Jesse Jackson. ) > ) >This guy is as biased as they come, short of a white robe. I fully ) >support the suggestion made earlier to replace him. I said Brad was biased. I implicitly said that the Jesse Jackson (some say after the fact that it could just as well have been Jesse Helms) joke should not have been posted unrotated. I did not say or imply that I thought offensive jokes should not be posted at all. ) >Dear, dear. Does anyone remember the "auto-dialing Falwell" crusade? This was funny and offensive to Brad. I posted it. It could have caused financial harm *if* anybody construed it as instructions and obeyed it. The "Run, Jesse, Run!" would have caused much more harm if it had been construed as instructions and obeyed. What's the problem, that mine wasn't ROT-13? Neither was his. Finally, in a much longer excerpt, Brad notes that I mentioned the ethnic content of some jokes. I did so, but only as part of enumeration of all issues I saw which needed to be considered in the question of a recall vote for the moderatorship. I attributed the racial-content issue to those who had been shouting about it; I did not offer a judgement of my own on it. See Brad's article <2963@looking.UUCP> for the excerpt, and remember that he included only those parts that mentioned the racism issue. ________________________________________________________ Matt Crawford matt@oddjob.uchicago.edu