We've just received our second lame threat for defamation action (Caroline Overington took our defamation threat virginity, something we'll always remember fondly)...
I didn't recognise the name Scott Balson, forgetting that in a post I made I quoted a piece in The Australian that mentioned him. I hadn't bothered Googling the guy at the time, not being particularly interested in someone who is basically as much of a nobody as we are, but after we got the email below I certainly did- the goods on Mr Balson I will post below the email he sent.
Sarah
I note that you carry a number of defamatory comments about me at:
http://todaysapatheticyouth.blogspot.com/2007/10/nazis-vs-kevin-rudd.html#links
I would suggest that you read the published Australian Press Council ruling at:
http://www.presscouncil.org.au/pcsite/adj/1380.html
And The Australian's published retraction at:
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,,23171258-7582,00.html%3Ffrom%3Dpublic_rss
If you want to be joined in the defamation action being taken against The Australian then take no action on this defamatory web page which you edit.
You have the option of immediately posting an unqualified apology on your web page and links to the adjudication by the Australian Press Council/ The Australian on any page referring to me and this defamatory article.
If you take this second option by Monday 3rd March, under advice to me, no action will be taken against you.
The choice is yours.
Scott Balson
Here is my reply:
Dear Mr Balson,
Seeing as how you allude to having received legal advice, I find it hard to believe that your legal team would have let you labour under the misapprehension that secondary publishers (us) can be included in defamation proceedings, when no judgement has been made as to the defamatory nature of the material.
When you've finished suing the Australian, please have your lawyer forward us a summary of the judgement and a request to remove such materials that remain on our blog. Your correspondence will also be posted on the blog.
Regards,
Sarah
Meanwhile, for your enjoyment, here's something on Mr Balson (published in 1999) by Jeremy Jones I found at the Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs council website:
Balson himself described Australian Jewry as an "elite racist community", whatever that is meant to mean, Israel as "the world’s most racist state", and referred recently to George Soros as "a Jewish parasite". He has referred to Jews as Nazis and claimed Israel survives because of "well placed Jews in the US".
As editor of the daily "newspaper", Balson has directed readers to bizarre antisemitic conspiracy material web-sites which have included direct promotions of The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion, and published articles referring to Jewish "tentacles". Openly antisemitic postings have included claims that Jews "have certainly been reading" the anti-Jewish forgery The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion, and "acting on" their blueprint for world domination, with another containing an appeal for the English to "rise up against the filthy rotten zionist infested British Establishment".
[...]
Drawing mainly on his own imagination, with such reliable sources as convicted US fraudster Lyndon LaRouche, the promoter of Australian Christian Identity (ie. white supremacy) Ray Platt and a bevy of "One Nation supporters", Balson’s book is not the first attempt at bringing internet "wisdom" to the world of the book, but it is most likely one of the intellectually lamest.
[...]
At the time of writing, Balson’s main foci of animus are the evil conspirators who successfully plotted to delay a Brisbane-Sydney flight to cause him personal inconvenience, the battalions of secret service agents violating his personal property and the mainstream media who haven’t hailed his volume as the greatest contribution to human knowledge since, well, the internet.
Author-as-victim Balson sees a conspiracy in the fact that the mainstream media see no news value in his railings and an iron-hand of censorship behind the fact that, at the very most, one (anonymous) journalist attended the launch of a book exposing the ills of journalism.
I don't suppose it's defamatory to refer to this Scott Balson guy as a complete and utter kook with an overinflated sense of his own importance?
21 comments:
i reckon if he sues we can get the australia/israel and jewish affairs council to help us out. they have access to lawyers, jewish ones. must be like ratsak for anti-semites...
Suggest you be careful on this one.
You called him a Nazi (The Australian didn't) - doesn't matter if you have diddly-squad in your piggy bank.
The Australian newspaper don't apologise for fun.
And Bankruptcy hurts (especially if you are newly married).
Gam, Sarah have to say I agree with anonymous...
But it's your call.
neither the australian or sarah called this guy a nazi. the australian didn't apologise or retract their story either. i suppose it would be more accurate to call balson a guy with links to white supremacists, some of whom may be nazis. i wouldn't know, i'm not the one who links to them and i'm not the avid supporter of racist parties. we'll see if he sues us won't we? we might personally be penniless but i guarantee we know people who aren't... it's pretty obvious that balson hasn't the first idea about defamation law, or he wouldn't be threatening us when he doesn't even have a judgment against the first publisher.
Yeah we'll take it more seriously when we have a letter from a real lawyer. And I read what the Australian had to say- it sure didn't read like an apology.
Gam like Sarah I have Googled this guy and he is not a white supremacist... he actually runs a global village homestay business for the benefit of indigenous people.
Do your own research and see for yourself just why The Australian tried to defame him. It isn't that hard.
He is on your side and you have taken a cheap shot which could turn out to be real expensive.
Word of advice don't presume anything when it comes to the law. Cheap talk can become real expensive later on.
We're not presuming anything: when we get a letter from a lawyer, we'll act appropriately.
I also find it interesting that we seem to be getting a higher proportion of anonymous/profile not available comments.
Another thing I find interesting is that if the latest anonymous commenter is to believed, various Australian Jewish groups seem to have formed the idea that Scott Balson has espoused and/or facilitated anti-semitic views completely out of thin air. Those quotes seem pretty damning if you ask me.
Gam, Sarah take the blinkers off and read the Australian Press Council Ruling carefully:
Mr Balson said that the views in question were printed on an open forum on a news website that has been inactive for over seven years and were clearly referenced then as not his personal views. He argued that equally extreme views were now commonly aired on websites run by media organisations.
The report quoted a spokesman for the Council of Australian Jewry (Jeremy Jones) that Mr Balson had long been associated with extremist right-wing views and conspiracy theories, without indicating whether this was a recent comment.
The article you have posted was written in 1999 by Jeremy Jones. See the link?
If someone posted a hate message on your open blog should you be forever labelled because of that?
My advice, for what its worth, is to just apologise and move on. One day you could well be in Balson's shoes. You don't know the whole story and, by your own words, you presume much.
Dudes... looks like you should rethink
People have posted racial hate messages on our blog, and we make damn sure we delete them.
I think the main problem was that the article in The Australian failed to clearly outline the year that Jeremy Jones made his comment on Balson (which I suppose I did just there too... I'll change that!); I don't think there was any indication whatsoever that Balson never held those views or he'd be going after Jeremy Jones too, no?
I am fully prepared to post the Press Council ruling in full and alter the blog post if necessary.
elizabeth and Mikey, thanks for the input- it is valued- but we're happy to wait until Monday for a letter from Balson's lawyer.
Holy shit... we just got trolled by someone pretending to be Mikey???
the press council is not a court, it is a self regulatory body. nice job trying to turn it into a legal authority. the story has not been found defamatory by any court of law. we, as secondary publishers are merely reporting on what has already been reported on by a first publisher. if balson had a judgement we'd be getting a letter not a poor attempt to heavy us into cleaning up his mistakes.
when i hold a hard copy written by balson's lawyer advising us to remove material that has been found to be defamatory, we will do just that.
mikey__capital (note the two underscores) isn't the real mikey. isn't it interesting that someone would seek to impersonate him to harass us...
(Sorry deleted my original comment).
Yep Mikey__Capital is not me. Don't know why anyone would bother trying to pretend to be me either.
Gee Balson, why don't you just go home... it's getting embarrassing.
As for 'elizabeth'... what are we supposed to think now? No offence elizabeth but even if you're real I can't really take this seriously any more... Balson obviously can't get his shit together long enough to do any more than blog-stalking and cheap impersonations so I think I'll consider myself done with this until Balson has The Australian grovelling at his feet.
I still can't believe I was dumb enough not to recognise the fake Mikey at first- there's not even a picture! Mikey, I apologise :)
Yeah this is cracking me up!
You guys seem to have a weird talent at drawing sad, craven egotists to this blog (uh oh... runs to mirror...).
Oh Noes! We are in your blogz, defaming your jewz!!! L337!!!
What a first class dickhead. Scott, I know you're reading this, you need to lay off the wacky tabacky dude. Or maybe lay into it; get some CC's and salsa, kick back to some Pauly Shore movies, chillax.
Oh wait!! Are you gonna sue me too? Oh no! I'll have to create a host of fake user names!!
You the man, Patrick!
That's telling them!
Guys, you should give this "Patrick" character all your non-existent money...
Uh oh guys, you should listen to this "Patrick" fellow; he sounds like a devilishly handsome individual...
lol patrick is just as funny as he is devastatingly handsome. i hope scottie sues the australian, we'll email them this interesting exchange, maybe they'll ask him about it in court. also there's the prospect that the crank's business might take a hit from people googling him and finding out. you'd think someone who makes his living off the 'net would be bright enough to avoid something this stupid...
"I don't suppose it's defamatory to refer to this Scott Balson guy as a complete and utter kook with an overinflated sense of his own importance?"
No, because truth is still a defence against defamation charges, as I understand it.
What a whack job. Too funny all these anonymous comments and people pretending to be people - I can't believe how stupid some people are, thinking that threatening you won't result in MORE publicity for the very claims they are trying to make go away.
Well, I suppose stupidity's to be expected from someone who thinks Jewish people are '"acting on" their blueprint for world domination'. Looney tunes.
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