I’m not really interested in debating this any further, other than giving my official stance on The Northmangate Scandal, hence why I’ve turned off the comments.
But you and I wouldn’t know about it without “The Leak”.
Somebody wrote that on the SB’s site, and I have to say, that’s simply not true. Quite a few of us were sent that e-mail, and I believe it was being forwarded to many others, via different channels.
It was simply a matter of time before it became blog fodder.
When I read the original e-mail, my first thought was, “What an absolute numpty! This was then followed up by, “What kind of fucktardly cabbage would write such personal shit about her children on an author loop?”
I pretty much still think that.
One thing I found interesting was that people were more than happy to blame the SB’s for posting this ‘private’ email, for various nefarious reasons, but not many people questioned the motivation of the person who had forwarded the e-mail in the first place.
What was their agenda?
Pissed off author? Seems likely. Maybe they were after revenge for some perceived/actual slight against them, wrought by the e-mailer, or Triskelion? Again, another possibility.
I’ve heard a lot of garbage about morals and ethics, but who the hell are we kidding here?
That highly unprofessional e-mail was sent by somebody obviously undergoing some emotional stress, and people have been very quick to point that out, but who’s to say that the person who forwarded the e-mail off the loop wasn’t going through their own mini trauma?
I tried to put myself in Gail Northman’s shoes, and wondered if I’d have possibly reacted similarly to her. In a word, no, I wouldn’t have.
Some people would argue that I couldn’t possibly know what I would do under similar circumstances, but as far as I’m concerned, that’s such a crock of shit. I’d have never sold my child down the river, by basically calling her a prostitute, on a group with over two hundred members. Never. Hell, I probably wouldn’t even call her that in a private one-to-one with my best friend. But that could just be a me thing.
I then tried to put myself in The Leaker’s position, but this was a lot trickier, because I simply don’t know what her motivation was.
Somebody asked at Dear Author if any of us would have personally forwarded the e-mail ourselves. Foolish, foolish question. The true answer? It depends.
Let me say this, If I felt I had been screwed over by the company I happened to work for, or shafted by the person who sent the e-mail, not only would I have forwarded the e-mail, (yes, probably anonymously) I would have made damn sure, that it got on every news channel going. Vindictive much? With the right provocation? Damn straight.
Would this have been the right thing for me to do?
Probably not, but then again it’s easy to have a high moral standpoint on these things, when you have no emotional investment in the situation. In the same way that Gail’s stress may have led to her idiotically posting that rant, The Leak may have also felt at the end of her tether. Who’s wrong? Who’s right?
As for the whole ridiculous issue of whether or not The SB’s should have posted the e-mail, why shouldn’t they have?
It was a very newsworthy item, gossipy even, but I can tell you that, had the bit about Northman’s children not been in there, the discussion would have been very different. Triskelion itself, would have been put under far more scrutiny, than they were.
The crux of the argument seems to be that the SB’s had a moral obligation to not publicly post the e-mail.
Total bullshit.
The original leaker of the e-mail was the person who had the moral/possibly contractual obligation to not forward the e-mail outside that loop. Once she failed to live up to that obligation, and sent the e-mail out of the jurisdiction of the loop, that e-mail was fair game.
Fair. Game.
The SB’s didn’t owe Northman a damn thing, whereas, she on the other hand, owed her soon-to-be team, the courtesy of A, behaving with some decorum, and not sounding off like a rhinoceros with an arrow up its arse, and B, not resorting to high school jinks, by giving her authors the middle finger, and trying to insinuate that they had no right to take their issues with Triskelion to the RWA. If promises were being broken left, right, and centre, I’d have been pissed with the publisher too.
The loop had over two hundred members, a few of which had obviously demonstrated their dissatisfaction with in-house events, by officially complaining about Triskelion.
That’s like me finding out that somebody had been leaking secret company documents, which were potentially damaging to me, then me sending them an e-mail telling them I’d kill them if they didn’t quit.
Does one really need a Masters degree in astrophysics to work out all the reasons why that would have been a really bad idea?
Bottom line, Northman shouldn’t have posted that e-mail on the loop in the first place. Also, The Leaker shouldn’t have forwarded the e-mail, but once she did, it was then up to the recipients of that e-mail what they did with it, and in my opinion, publicising it was well within the SB’s remit. They didn’t owe Northman or Triskelion a damn thing. End of.
