Comments on: In strange news…

By: Feministe » In strange news…

Feministe » In strange news… — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 12:18:04 +0000

[...] is a new Post at Feministe » In strange news…. This group blog features politics, news, and pop culture through a decidedly feminist lens. [...]

By: Samuel

Samuel — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 22:13:45 +0000

@Mike F, Bitter Scribe and Zula

I think you’re right. NAMBLA receives far too much attention and only legitimizes their politics of child molestation.

By: Arnold Schoen

Arnold Schoen — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 04:16:06 +0000

Press Release

NY Post Article a Hoax

9-March-2009

NAMBLA, the North American Man/Boy Love Association, flatly denies the
ridiculous accusation (as reported in the NY Post on March 9, 2009) that we
put a bounty on NY Attorney General Andrew Cuomo. We have done nothing of the
sort to Mr Cuomo or anyone else, now or ever. Unnamed sources talking about
vague threats by some unnamed “agent” offering money adds up to precisely one
thing – a hoax. There is no truth to the story. Contrary to the many
falsehoods which have been directed against us over the years, NAMBLA is an
organization dedicated to the changing of laws, not the breaking of them.

It is true that we oppose civil commitment. We do so for the same reasons so
many other sensible groups and individuals do – it is an end run around
everyone’s constitutional and legal protections. Civil commitment programs are
an ex-post facto use of mental health facilities as prisons and are
based on misinformation about recidivism rates (which study after study by
states and the federal government have shown to be very low). We oppose civil
commitment because the many millions of dollars wasted in this futile quest to
appear tough on crime could be much more wisely spent being smart on crime. We
oppose civil commitment because, like all good Americans, our history has
taught us to despise witchhunts and to question the ulterior motives of
witchhunters.

If the Attorney General’s office had actually put any credible effort into
investigating this hoax they would have had no trouble disproving the
allegations. The fact that someone went running to the tabloid press instead
shows that publicity rather than credibility was the only purpose. It also
speaks poorly of the NY Post that they printed such an unsubstantiated story.
We think the people of New York would be much better served if both the
Attorney General’s office and the Post put more effort into distinguishing
fact from fantasy.

Contact Arnold Schone
arnoldschoen@yahoo.com
212-631-1194

By: Jill

Jill — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 00:55:54 +0000

It’s more likea 50-cent street tabloid, but yeah, you pretty much hit that nail on the head.

By: Zula

Zula — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 00:49:16 +0000

This sounds like a 4chan prank to me.

Also, what kind of publication is the New York Post? It reads like a supermarket tabloid.

By: Bitter Scribe

Bitter Scribe — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 23:49:59 +0000

NAMBLA probably has the highest ratio of attention from political partisans to actual significance of any organization in history.

By: MikeF

MikeF — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 23:47:33 +0000

I’m with Sophist. There’s no way a random anonymous internet post on some backwater forum actually indicates a real bounty on Cuomo…

By: Sophist FCD

Sophist FCD — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 22:54:25 +0000

Keep in mind that this is the Post. From the story, it sounds as though some jackass on the internet claimed that they were an “official of NAMBLA” that there was $10,000 out there for anyone willing to “shoot Andrew Cuomo in the face!”, which just sounds run of the mill like internet-toughguyism to me. I mean, it’s not exactly a wire transfer to Carlos the Jackal’s unnumbered Swiss account.

By: chingona

chingona — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 21:10:08 +0000

No. She was convinced that I was making a potentially libelous error. Not legally libelous, necessarily, but that I was making an error that would make NAMBLA look worse than they actually were. I think she thought they wanted to lower age of consent laws – lower them radically, far beyond what the vast majority of people would consider appropriate – but she just could not believe they did not believe in age of consent at all or to phrase it a different way, that she thought that surely they must think there is some age that is too young, even if they set the bar way lower than most people. But they don’t. Their “standard” is that the sexual relationship between an adult and a child should be “age appropriate” but there is no such thing as “too young,” the same way there is no age that is too young to start reading to your kid. Like I said, it was a very disturbing conversation.

But it was pretty egregious that she made me call them back. When reporters are sharing war stories of horrible editors and horrible things they made them do, this is the story I tell.

By: Personal Failure

Personal Failure — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 20:36:13 +0000

chingona: does your editor hate you?