Ya gotta love it when a shit storm blows up on the web and it gets no better than when it includes the notables of the tech blogosphere. Such is the case of Loren Feldman and his past coming back to haunt him as he gets yanked from a content distribution deal with Verizon. Of course the tech blogosphere has stepped up in fine fashion. On one side you have the Fans of Feldman being lead by his good buddy Michael Arrington who is slyly suggesting [nw] that this whole thing is a conspiracy to keep Loren from the road to fame and fortune; but sure isn’t hurting Michael’s pageviews. Taking the contrary view to this is perhaps the people like Corvida of SheGeeks [nw] who perhaps have more of a right in some ways of weighing in on the subject.
Now as much fun as this whole thing is as it takes up space on Techmeme and pageview counters go nuts the fact is that the tech blogosphere had absolutely nothing to do with this takedown of Loren. In fact this whole bullshit hoop-a-la had long been put to sleep many months ago with everybody having picked their sides and gone on with other things. Then recently Loren had the pleasure of rubbing everyone’s face in it when c|net announced they were doing a deal with him. That of course was blown out of the water because of the schoolyard behavior that resulted from from his blow up with Shel Israel.
Then while everyone was drawing lines in the sand as c|net bowed to pressure put the deal “on hiatus” word came that Verizon was truly getting this whole social media thing by inking a distribution deal with Feldman and his company 1938Media. Within days of the announcement though all hell broke loose when KNBC posted to their website [nw] the news that civil rights groups where protesting the deal. What apparently had raised the ire of these politically savvy groups was a year old video of Loren’s that while in my opinion was denigrating of blacks it was still within his right to make and distribute.
While the tech blogosphere and the whole social media arena had basically left this in the past and had moved on to newer and shinier toys this video lurked in the dark like a bad dream. I have no idea who it was that sent the video to the mainstream news stations like KNBC but within a very short period of time Verizon found itself the brunt of racial and religious hostilities. The outrage hadn’t come from the place that gave Loren his birth of questionable commentary but rather it came from the real world social networks.
Regardless of the content; because after all he could have done the same type of thing with Jewish, Mexican or just plain pick your favorite religion or nationality, Loren suddenly found himself in the radar of groups that are well practiced in the art of corporate intimidation. They have been doing this for a very long time and have roots that go far beyond anything the high minded Internet social media groups could even dream of mustering. As much as social media on the Internet might like to think of itself as a force to be reckoned with they are living in a dream world when it comes to serious influencing in the real world.
It doesn’t matter one iota to a corporation like Verizon whether or not people like Ethan Kaplan point out the hypocrisy [nw] of the very people moaning about the loss of someone like George Carlin and the need to push boundaries but who in turn get pissy over Loren’s bluntness about the fallacies within social media. Nor do they care when folks like Mark ‘Rizzn’ Hopkins quite rightly point out that if you don’t like it don’t watch it. What Verizon does care about however are the millions up millions of people who couldn’t give a rat’s ass about puffed up internet personalities but do spend money hand over fist for the company’s products.
With corporations like Verizon; for whom the Internet and social media mavens are only a miniscule portion of their overall business, the pressure that can be brought to bear by political and community activists is their real motivators for change. When it comes to affecting real change this only goes to prove that feet on the street are still more powerful that delusions of grandeur tapping on keyboards.
Welcome to the real world.
Conversation Tags: social media, Verizon, Loren Feldman
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You didn't answer; I will ask again, do you hate women?
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All those 15 years prove is that you are old.
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Of course that moron had the right to make a racist "TechNigga" video, but activists have the right to lobby corporations not to promote that sort of garbage. Why do you have a problem with the latter but not the former?
Maybe that Jew Feldman has learned a much-needed lesson.
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are you calling me the asshole here?
If tha tis the case then you'd better take a minute out of your self-rightous life and re-read the post again because I did not suggest that and really who's being the racist here you pompous twat.
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You mentioned "the hypocrisy of the very people moaning about the loss of someone like George Carlin and the need to push boundaries but who in turn get pissy over Loren’s bluntness about the fallacies within social media," which amounts to a false charge of hypocrisy as well as a repetition of an inane comparison.
You did, in fact, suggest such a comparison with your above statement by putting Carlin's boundary-pushing in the same category of Feldman's hatred and you should be ashamed about it. READ IT AGAIN.
And anyway anyone who lowers themselves to blogging about this on their own site is, like you, an asshole.
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As for the name calling I'm not the one who resorted to the racist style continatation of Jew as a way to denigrate a person as you did with Loren - I just called you a pompous twat which you continue to prove yourself to be.
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So now, are you saying that you don't agree with his view, even though you bothered to mention it the way you did in your post?
You are spreading misinformation and stupid arguments. Don't you feel a little responsible for that?
And what do you mean by "pompous twat?"
Do you hate women? Otherwise why would you use language like that, even to refer to someone who was making you look stupid?
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As for spreading misinformation and stupid arguments it is too bad that you missed what the article was about in the first place but then I guess that shouldn't be a surprise considering you hide your real name and think it is okay to use racial innuendo to insult a human being.
In regards to looking stupid - na I don't think so. You have a long way to go to do that but you are doing a find job of showing yourself in that light.
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And as he himself is saying: ” It’s not insulting an ETHNIC group, but a SOCIAL group, in this case: rappers/ganstas.” I am in a complete agreement with him here, and have a hard time understanding where the racism comes in, or is it just the fact that a white man used the ”N-Word” and that where not social accepted? Well if that is the case then we are not talking about racism but just different standards of what people is ”Allowed” by the social norms to do, and as I said before it is the comedians job to push the limited of that social norm.
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Looks to me like Feldman wanted it both ways. He wanted to be the bad boy. He wanted to push the envelope. But he got slapped for it, and now he wants to say he didn't mean anything bad by it. Well, tough. That's not how it works. With racial issues in this country, sometimes when you start pushing people's buttons, they push back. He's going to have to deal with it now.
And with regard to the fact that this video was "exclusive" and never meant to be seen on V-CAST -- that's not the point, either. The point is that Verizon had made a distribution deal with a guy whose best known work to date was a five-minute blackface routine called "TechNigga." Someone figured out that this was bad P.R. for the company and pulled the plug. That's how it goes.
Oh, and can we stop the Carlin comparisons, please? TechNigga's more on the Andrew Dice Clay level.
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* The TechNigga videos were never on VCAST. It was to be exclusive content.
* Therefore there was nothing to protest.
* That didn't stop Project Islamic Hope from protesting. They're a professional protesting group.
* They protest easy positions, they have no guts to stand up for tough cases.
* PIH is essentially cultural political correctness patrol.
* That's bad.
* Loren wasn't making fun of black people.
* Loren was making fun of bloggers.
* I agree with the George Carlin angle.
* PIH is playing the part of the Catholics in the Catholics vs. Opie and Anthony and Jack Thompson in Jack vs. Grand Theft Auto.
* People are hypocrites for not calling these protesters on this.
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LOL wow -- care to explain that one?
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Like I said, I didn't find it a particularly hilarious video, and the only reason I've analyzed it is because of the controversy, not the humor value. If he spent a bit more time writing the jokes, his point might have been better made.
I don't think Loren's truly a racist though. It just doesn't scan.
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I'm currently writing my own rant on this as I want to make myself clear and use all the words I want to, on my own blog :)
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