In the age of blogs, the web and YouTube, it’s been quite a challenge keeping abreast of the whole Glenn Milne saga as it whistles around the world.
The leading independent US news website Salon.com even posted the video on its home page with this short story.
It’s been amazing to see the number of errors that have crept into the coverage. To start with, everyone from Milne to Salon have been calling us Crikey.com, which is actually a cybersquatter pushing offensive cartoons about Muslims.
It has also been widely reported, such as on popular Kiwi site Stuff.co.nz and in the UK outfit Metro, that I provoked a “fresh charge from the tuxedoed Milne”, by saying “Thanks buddy, thank you.”
This one was started by Crikey’s Margaret Simons and the comment was actually made by the floor manager who leapt onto the stage to escort Milne away as the more comprehensive SBS video footage clearly shows.
Then there’s the question of how many times the video has been downloaded. The Herald Sun reported the following today, while still managing to maintain its ban on mention the C-word, Crikey, or correcting the record about Milne assaulting the wrong man:
Biffo an e-hit
The Glenn Milne v Stephen Mayne confrontation has been a huge hit on website YouTube around the world. Several posts have been placed on the website, with each receiving more than 1,000 viewings. It’s become one of those emails we normally get from overseas.
The Age today mentioned a figure of 90,000, yet the YouTube video that Crikey linked to alone has had 110,887 downloads, so the overall figure is clearly much higher.
The bile continues to flow from far flung corners of the News Ltd empire. Andrew Bolt’s blog contains several defamatory slurs and he’s even linked to blogger Tim Blair who has tolerated numerous posts attacking my mother, even disclosing the church she used to attend. Blair, a Daily Telegraph columnist, has even linked to the blog which so upset Milne. Amazing!
For the record, mum’s decision to write that letter to The Australian was entirely her own and there have been some apologetic smoke signals coming back from the paper. Shame no-one mentioned that to Blair. Wonder how long he’ll keep that Tele column?
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