I'm not going to waste much time with this. Movie website pissing matches bore me and seriously, we all have much better things to do. But when someone attacks you publicly, I think you've got a right and responsibility to defend yourself. Silence can only be taken as agreement.
This morning I was attacked by someone named Devin Faraci and if you don't know who he is, stop reading and click over to something else on this site. He works for a competing website, and he's had an axe to grind against me for years. I'm amazed that he's managed to keep up his anger really, since we have absolutely no relationship with them, never have, and never will. Our history has been mostly one of him subtly attacking us online, and us staunchly ignoring him.
I've never understood why he hates me. I've never talked to the guy, I know absolutely nothing about him and don't really care to. So I'm not going to try not to fire back at him, or insult him, or detail the litany of crappy, unanswered behavior he's directed towards me over the years.
So here's my answer to Devin's accusations of ethical problems with this site, his irrelevant personal insults I'll ignore. It will come with no explanation because if you don't already know what I'm talking about, there's no reason for you to. It's all dung:
DF says: "Ethical concerns like not ripping off other websites, like your Film Habit did with Nick’s Piss and Vinegar column here on CHUD, from back when you used to post on our boards."
If you see similarities in the columns I'll take that as a compliment, since I know Nick to be a very capable writer. But I wasn't aware he had the market cornered on film related editorials. Frankly, I don't see the similarity though honestly I've only read his column once or twice and that many years ago so I might have missed it. My old Film Habit column was simply an editorial and reader mail. Roger Ebert does the same thing in his Movie Answer Man column. Is he also ripping off Nick? I guess Nick invented answering reader mail too.
Yes, I posted on your boards for about five seconds… long after I'd already started my site and had been doing it for quite awhile. I also posted on a dozen or so other movie boards besides my own. Sorry, you weren't that special. At the time, posting around the web was a good way to keep in touch with the overall community. During that time I also saw AICN's Moriarity posting on your boards, in addition to the owners of several other entertainment websites. Did they rip off CHUD too?
DF says: "Ethical concerns like respecting review embargoes, as opposed to how you break embargo on an almost weekly basis."
Don't you live in New York? What makes you think that you know what sorts of embargoes are placed on writers here in Dallas? Maybe you know about Dallas embargoes that I haven't been informed of. If so, we have never intentionally broken an embargo and never will. Don't tell me CHUD never runs an early review. You've had a review of The Fountain up on your site for months. As you well know, breaking review embargoes usually results in being banned from screenings. Since I'm still going to screenings, obviously we haven't broken any embargoes. I am however flattered that you spend so much time tracking my work. I was going to work on a review of Flags of our Fathers this afternoon, but now I think maybe I should get your permission first. So email me and let me know if it's ok for me to review it.
DF says: "Does the public interest in this case outweigh the potential damage to this actor’s chances?"
Apparently you and I have very different ideas about what our job is. Last I checked I don't work for actors, I work for the public. I have no responsibility to them, and every responsibility to the public. Just because the story is small, doesn't mean it shouldn't be reported properly. I don't pick and choose which stories I will report based on whether or not it'll make me celebrity friends. I simply report. It's not my job to help their careers. That's why they hire agents.
End of my response. It's probably useless. Devin's site is much bigger than ours, and as such whatever he says will be believed. There's no way for anyone to win here. There's no bully like an internet bully. Move along.
