Help!

I'm Stuck In the Whurlitzer And I Can't Get Out!

WhenTheMSMAndTheBloggodomeCollide
BadCrazinessVille

As regular readers are likely aware, I have fallen into the whurlitzer that has cranked-up around the Bains/Saini affair (and all that entails), mostly because of my brief correspondence with the author of the original piece in the Vancouver Sun, Kim Bolan.

For those not familiar with the story you can follow its evolution here, here and here.

You can also cross reference it with the original piece written by Ms. Bolan which I've liberated from the soon-to-fall subscription-wailing-wall here.

Anyway, I was fully prepared to take hits from both sides of the Bloggodome based on the conclusion I came to, which was the following:


As for me, I think I have now been given an answer to the lesser known Sixth 'W' which is 'how' (Ms. Bolan received her information [regarding the familial connection between Mr. Bains and Mr. Saini]).

Thus, I can only conclude that there was no pre-determined conspiracy afoot here.


What I was not prepared for, however, was for the MSM to start spouting-off on my small part in the story.

Although looking back on it now I guess it was inevitable once folks like Ralph Goodale started asking the same questions that I had asked speculatively two days earlier, at a very good discussion over at Mary's place.

And, I must say, at least David Akin, the parliamentary correspondent for CTV News, was fair in his assessment:


The Gazetter also follows what I think are good instincts in trying to verify that the person who posted the comment on his/her blog is, in fact, Kim Bolan. The Gazetter appears to be satisfied that Bolan did indeed write those lines.


In response, I left the following comment for Mr. Akin at the CTV website. I've posted it here for posterity because I have no idea if it will ever see the light of day there given the vagaries of the GlobeMedia login/vetting system:

David--

Yes, I am convinced that Ms. Bolan wrote those words in a comment she posted on my blog after I raised the issue speculatively in post on Thursday (after a discussion with commenters on another Leftcoast blog the day before.

In an Email to me from her pacific newspapers group account, which is detailed in the follow-up post you linked to, Ms. Bolan also made it clear that it was she that initiated the conversation with her contact(s) in the Sikh community (ie. it was not the other way around).

However, to be clear, this is the only specific point that I tried to deal with unequivocally in my brief, but cordial, correspondence with Ms. Bolan by Email. I did this purposefully because I wanted to be able to be able to make a definitive statement, for the record, one way or the other, given my previous speculation that Ms. Bolan took exception to.

Which, I believe, is what I've done.

As a result, however, there are many things I did not learn from Ms. Bolan and these will be detailed in a future post.

Thanks for representing the situation accurately.

RossK (Gazetteer)


So, there you have it.

Perhaps the only way for me to get out of this whirly-gig that is making my head spin and keeping me from my work and family (I'm sitting in the Laughing Bean on East Hastings at the moment, pounding furiously at the keyboard for a few minutes, while little e. is at dance class) is to write that post titled 'What I Didn't Learn From Kim Bolan'.

OK?

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The Laughing Bean is a fantastic place, and I've written about it before. It also has free, and I mean absolutely free! (take that VPD) WiFi, which makes it even more attractive than the Evil Empire Outlet cloaked in green down the street.


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