Howdy Y'all, I erroneously reported in a previous posting to Paddlewise that Paddler Magazine failed to print a retraction for their extremely ridiculous piece in their Sept/Oct issue titled "Sea Canoe Battles Corruption". In that issue, John "Caveman" Gray fantasized that, "They (me and my former associates at Sea Canoe) want to take over the company and run it under the corruption of the mafia, perhaps in partnership with them." Paddler did print the retraction, but I didn't see the retraction right away. They put it on a page other than the one where my former partners and I wrote in Paddler's Hot Line section... slightly exculpating on their part. I don't think that most people, after reading our letter, would quickly thumb through to see if Paddler admitted any wrong-doing. Our livelihoods depend on opinions and perceptions to some degree. The potential harm that the piece caused is not necessarily a calculable point. It could just as likely turn off potential clients of ours by the very 'possibility' of it being even 'remotely' true. I wonder if Paddler even tried to contact us? We're just on the other side of the world... shucks, we even have email over here in the jungles of Thailand. I wonder if they thought to ask Mr. Gray what our names were? They should have refused to publish his words without giving us a chance to tell them the facts. I believe this falls under Journalism 101! I am also disconsolated by their choice of locations in the Ooops! Section (in the Nov/Dec issue)… just below Charlie not getting his name attached to his face or for Richard not getting credit for the shot. I'm sure it's a big deal to them, but I wonder if the screw-up could actually cost them future income, and more importantly, the chance to meet some new friends/guests like it possibly has to us. They didn't seem to think that the retraction was important enough to put on your website like they did with the original piece. Maybe there are people out there who actually read the online version of Paddler and not the magazine itself. These would likely be people living overseas. Since they failed to put the retraction and our letter on your website, there could still be people out there in the cyber world who think that we are mafia hitmen. I have cancelled my subscription of course. I wonder how many other articles in Paddler are based entirely on the imagination of an author. Sincerely, Dave Dave Williams, Director dave_at_paddleasia.com http://paddleasia.com Phuket, Thailand *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - All postings copyright the author and not to be reproduced outside PaddleWise without author's permission Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
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