I have removed this post. I feel I was unfair in my collective demonization of the media during the period when very little was known by the public. I have moved it to a personal site where it is more appropriate. I apologize to those of you who may have been offended as well as those who felt the same way I did.
10 Comments:
CanaGal said...
bravo reid, bravo!
Jeff said...
Well said Reid. I have had quite a few people responding to me about our blogs today. This is a difficult time, yet the media has made it even more difficult and has been shortsighted into the mess they have created by exposing personal websites on the local news and newspapers. This is sickening and for a profession that wants to call themselves "professiona", I have seen no professionalism towards our lives and our blogs and pictures one bit. They never asked any of us to publish these links, or better yet be seen in plain view on TV. They never verified any pictures that they lifted off your blog, nor tried to track down the person who actually took those pictures or asked the owner of websites permission. They have sent hounding e-mails to everyone based solely off of our blogs. This is unexceptable in my opinion and completely classless and unfrofessional. Thanks to them some very respectable people have been hurt nad made upset. I know the media doesn't care and are only looking for a story, so I say we list the names of the individuals and papers and TV station's that have violated our on-line lives.
Mr Carter said...
well said jeff - post pics of the offending reporters and see how they feel.
my heart goes out to all of you who were close to bk, his family, and all of us who knew him.
sean
Rob K said...
Well done Reid.
CFCN called my workplace at least 10 times today and even showed up, unannounced at my office.
I cant believe how hounding they were.
I would like to thank all for the information that was passed around.
God bless you Brian!
canagal said...
I agree with Jeff. I stopped buying the Herald years ago for how they treated my man during a media scrummage for information.
Anonymous said...
Reid,
I'm sorry that you had to go through all the media harrassment, that is the last thing any of you needed. Knowing how you've been hounded, it makes me even more appreciative of all your efforts to keep us updated.
You and Jon were my only sources of information, and I thank you both tremendously for that. It's been a long week here, so I can only imagine what you are all going through. I can't even begin to make sense of this whole mess.
As Sean said, my thoughts are with bk's family, his dearest friends, and the rest of us that had the great fortune to know him.
-DC
Anonymous said...
I'm sorry you feel hit so hard by the media, Reid. I know the trite thing to say is that they're doing their job but I feel like they're attempting to fairly represent how many people knew bk--and how public his death has become. I don't think BK would like it... he was a very private person... but a blog is an easy way to get a glimpse of who a person is and who they were. Some may not find it respectful, I realise, but it is meaningful.
cp
Charlene said...
I'm sorry to say this, but having been through a murder investigation (of a child I babysat back in the late 70s - she was five and I was 16), I can tell you that the media will NEVER stop. They will NEVER listen to you, not for a microsecond, if you ask them to stop. They will take it as a personal insult and a threat to the freedom of the press if you ask them to stop, and they get WORSE. They may also assume that you have something to hide and may start harassing you, asking you if you had something to do with it. What you've experienced as of now is unbelievably, unbelievably mild compared to how it will get.
After Kimmie was killed, I babysat her brother and sister on a regular basis at night and during the summer because the mother was going to school. She changed her number three times; each time, somebody in the police department leaked the new number to the media. The Alberta Report and the Calgary Herald were the worst. Only the old CFAC television and the old Albertan newspaper reporters left the family alone; reporters from every other outlet were intrusive and sometimes abusive. EVERY DAY the media called that house and asked things like, "did you kill her?" or "did you rape her first?" or "did she cry out "Mommy" when you were strangling her?" If I answered the phone, I just hung up, but can you imagine what the victim's brother and sister must have gone through?
One problem was that the victim's parents were divorced (very bad back in 1979), the mother was going to school to get back into the work force (a working mother was horrible), and she looked Indian (she was Scottish), which is of course a worse crime than anything. The media therefore assumed she was the murderer. It turned out to be a guy who lived a few blocks away whom none of us knew who grabbed her off the street.
I'm just trying to say, be very aware that the media will not listen to you. Don't talk to them. Don't have anything to do with them unless you have to. Be very, very careful.
Jerilyn said...
Reid,
After the unimaginable pain you, your friends and Brian's family have been put through, I know words do little to help. And those tasked with reporting information are only making it worse. I am so, so sorry.
I have never met you, but have become acquainted with you and the close group of friends up there in Canada through Sara - - and, while I never met Brian, I do feel a profound sense of loss.
Prayers from Texas - and may you all lean on one another during this time.
Jerilyn
Geoff R said...
On behalf of the Velocity Cycling Club in Edmonton, our deepest sympathies to Brian's family and friends.
Geoff Rackette
President
Velocity Cycling Club