Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2002/04/13

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Subject: Re: [Leica] Erwin's departure from public :-(
From: "B. D. Colen" <bdcolen@earthlink.net>
Date: Sat, 13 Apr 2002 21:17:08 -0400
References: <5.0.0.25.2.20020412172743.00aa3c80@mail.comcast.net> <3.0.2.32.20020413074813.014e8aa0@roanoke.infi.net>

OK- For the record:

I did NOT question Erwin's character - I questioned his independence and
what I believed was his too close relationship with Leica. 

I find it endlessly amusing to read the repeated attacks on the
independence of Popular Photography - and there seems to be one of those
attacks underway at the moment - by many of the very same people who
defend Erwin Puts to the death and trash anyone who questioned his
independence from Leica.

But hey, if you folks want to mourn the death of a news letter in which
someone who trashed the Konica Hexar - with AE - for removing control of
the photographic process from the photographer - and then praised the M7
for having AE which allows the photographer to realize Barnack's vision,
mourn on.

And while I'm responding for the record - I was saddened to see a photo
JOURNALIST of Sal Di Marco's standing, who should know something about
journalistic independence and standards, would attack my questioning
Erwin's relationship with Leica by talking about "back ground
briefings," "cultivating sources," and "off the record." Sal, Erwin Puts
is not a political reporter - he is someone who "reviews" the equipment
produced by a corporate entity - and those who read the reviews have no
way to judge the accuracy of the reviews if they don't have any
information about his relationship with that corporate entity. 

Read Erwin's M7 review. Read the M7 corporate brochure/pdf. And then ask
yourself how inappropriate my questions really were.

And if you think they were inappropriate, and that I caused Erwin to
stop writing a news letter to which I never subscribed, so be it.

B. D.

Marc James Small wrote:
> 
> At 12:34 AM 4/13/02 -0400, Austin Franklin wrote:
> >
> >Hold on here.  That's BS.  NO ONE FORCED HIM FROM THE LUG!
> >
> >Also, I don't know about denigrating, ridiculing, but it IS perfectly
> >appropriate to criticize, question, challenge and debate issues here, no
> >matter WHO the author is.
> >
> 
> Austin
> 
> And that is the exact problem.  Since the early days of the LUG, no one of
> us has challenged Erwin on the issues he raises.  Every challenge, every
> single blessed attack, over the past five years has been a challenge to his
> integrity and character and not one single word questioning his testing
> methodologies or results.
> 
> If BD and the other Erwin-baiters had chosen to contest the issues instead
> of Erwin's character, we all would have benefited.  As it is, the entire
> LUG has been lessened by the negativism and nastiness of these character
> assaults.  They served no purpose and only make the entire forum seem cheap
> and ratty.
> 
> Marc
> 
> msmall@infi.net  FAX:  +276/343-7315
> Cha robh bąs fir gun ghrąs fir!
> 
> --
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In reply to: Message from Skip Williams <skipwilliams@pobox.com> ([Leica] Erwin's departure from public :-()
Message from Marc James Small <msmall@infi.net> (RE: [Leica] Erwin's departure from public :-()