Waiting For Jian To Answer A Simple Q-uestion

It’s been three months since I first began asking Jian, his staff, and now the CBC to answer a simple question.
What editorial/opinion piece written by Jian was published by The Guardian?
It says very clearly on his Wikipedia page that …

He is also a writer whose editorials and opinion pieces have been published in The Washington Post, The Guardian, …

It says the same identical thing on the CBC “about” web page.

Perhaps, since he has no trouble reading feedback from yesterday’s broadcast of his show, I should be submitting it for consideration as “Letter of the Day”.

92 Comments

  • Allan says:

    The statement that “Q” “has become the highest-rated show in its morning timeslot in CBC history”
    has the instant effect, not so much of puffing up “Q”, as demeaning everything that went before.
    Doesn’t it sound just like learning that Mariah Carey has sold more records than The Beatles?
    Are The Hour’s ratings any better than they were when Ghomeshi was tanking on >play if you take various factors into account?
    And saying “Q has garnered the largest audience of any cultural affairs program in Canada” is maybe not something you want to say too loudly when you consider that half of the show is spent being fascinated with American culture.

  • anonymous says:

    That Twit­ter post­ing, or ’œtweet’ by aging CBC Radio host Jian Ghome­shi has won the Voret­ski Prize for new forms of lit­er­a­ture. The prize is unusual in that it comes with a bill rather than an award.

    ’œIn this one pithy post the author, or twit, has cap­tured every­thing that is wrong about Toronto,’ read a state­ment by the panel of judges. ’œIt fawns over and seeks the appro­ba­tion of an Amer­i­can celebrity, one whose fame has waned, man­ag­ing to be self impor­tant and pathetic at once. The poignancy of the final sen­ti­ment, that the celebrity pre­tend­ing to remem­ber Mr. Ghome­shi, ’œTwas sweet,’ is what sep­a­rated this tweet from so many other trite obser­va­tions we had to wade through. What first looks to be name-dropping descends to a level of need­i­ness that verges on the masochis­tic. It goes from self-aggrandizement to self-abasement in 21 words.’ The essence of a tweet, accord­ing to the judges, is its bal­ance of van­ity and banality.

    The award is a vin­di­ca­tion for Ghome­shi whose tweets were recently deemed ’œspam’ by the Cana­dian Radio-Television Com­mis­sion. The CRTC cited the vol­ume of the self-promotional mes­sages as a lead­ing fac­tor in its decision.

    Ghome­shi was pre­sented with his invoice at a Korean pojang­macha, or street food wagon, on Bloor St. West in his native Toronto. All pro­ceeds from pay­ments of Voret­ski Prize state­ments finance fur­ther stud­ies into new forms of lit­er­a­ture ’” the tweet, the poet­elle, the pre­scrip­tion and the’ yel­low sticky’ are some recent examples.

    Conan O’™Brien was once well-known for hav­ing held NBC to ran­som for $45 mil­lion USD, a demand to ensure he would not per­form his act on their net­work. A change in earth’™s orbit was the pre­dicted result of O’™Brien’™s can­cel­la­tion though it was, ulti­mately, with­out consequence.

    • Anonymous says:

      Fantastic comment: In this one pithy post the author, or twit, has cap tured every thing that is wrong about Toronto. It fawns over and seeks the appro ba­tion of an Amer i can celebrity, one whose fame has waned, man ag ing to be self impor tant and pathetic at once. What first looks to be name-dropping descends to a level of need i ness that verges on the masochis tic. It goes from self-aggrandizement to self-abasement in 21 words.’ .

    • Hi H8er says:

      Clearly written by a Tea Makers reader.
      Well played.

    • Allan says:

      Canada sprouts an “Onion”

      http://www.urnews.ca/

      • Anonymous says:

        Is this what Jian’s wikipedia page means by “award-winning”?

      • Fake Franks Passim says:

        Holy shit they got Paul Moth writing for them!

        Can anyone shed some light on this site? How long has it been in existence?

  • Allan says:

    Jian’s latest tweet betrays a very sly sense of humour …

  • Allan says:

    An earlier version of the Wikipedia Jian page …
    http://www.famouslikeme.com/48868/article.html

    “In August 2005, Ghomeshi was among the 5000 CBC employees locked out.”

  • Anonymous says:

    For all of the questionable claims made on Jian’s Wikipedia page, there are very few “references”, “sources”, “citations”, etc. And most of the ones that have them don’t have all that much to do with Jian. :

    #1 a CBC podcast of Barbara Walters on Q

    #2 comes from the CBC/Q “About The Host” which is a copy/paste from Jian’s website Jian.ca where he claims that “Since its inception in 2007, Q has garnered the largest audience of any cultural affairs program in Canada and has become the highest-rated show in its morning time slot in CBC history”

    #3,4,5 from Jian.ca (a trusted source?)

    #6 is about Jian hosting “The Dora Awards”

    #7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 all have to do with Billy Bob Thornton

    #13 is about LIGHTS

  • Anonymous says:

    It’s probably his mum.

  • Anonymous says:

    To show you what kind of people are contributing to Jian’s Wikipedia page, someone named “DriveMySol” (Lights has a song named “Drive My Soul”) added “Hello! Mag named Jian one of the “Most Beautiful Canadians” in 2010″ on May 13th :


    Someone named “Lovelightsforever” added “is very talented and super good looking” on May 13th as well :


  • Anonymous says:

    “Whomever is (NOW) editing Jian’™s Wikipedia page”……

    That’s the problem with Wikipedia. Jian can get one of his cronies (or himself) to undo all of the changes that the current, more honest, editor has made. All it takes is a few mouseclicks and keystrokes.

    I wouldn’t be surprised if all the changes that have been made recently are soon undone….Jian hasn’t changed his bio on jian.ca at all : http://www.jian.ca/about.php

  • Allan says:

    Whomever is editing Jian’s Wikipedia page is showing themselves to be far more responsive and responsible than either Jian or the CBC.
    Some new revisions …


    and


    So far no acknowledgement of my inquiry with Jeff Keay and Jian “appears” oblivious to what is being discussed here.

  • Anonymous says:

    Your comment is bathshit medicore

  • Anonymous says:

    Your comment is batshit mediocre.

  • Anonymous says:

    It still needs to be revised that he is no longer a weekly columnist at The National Post.

  • Allan says:

    And now what of the CBC pages?
    And the CBC’s reputation for being dependably accurate.
    And Jian’s page, and what he hands out as a bio before a speaking engagement?

    Wikipedia editors are anonymous, which is the way some of their creators prefer to keep it. What do you think the answer will be if you ask Tod Maffin “who wrote that Wikipedia page?”

    But the CBC and Jian are not anonymous, and are required, ethically and otherwise, to take responsibility for the accuracy and inaccuracy of the information they present to the public. And to account for why something so obvious took place.

    By all means, the unknown Wiki editor who made the changes today can keep the words The Guardian on Jian’s page.
    It’ll be an on-going reminder of what happened.
    So a Wiki editor decided to back off a claim that was unsupportable.
    That’s nice.
    But it doesn’t absolve the CBC and Jian, who still have to deal with it.

  • Anonymous says:

    You are batshit crazy.

  • Allan says:

    Newest revision aligns itself closer to verifiable reality. And the world is a better place.

    As in ….. ….. ….. “even though you can actually SEE and HEAR the Leonard Cohen interview itself, that we mentioned earlier and told you was a World Exclusive,
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ugh8Xe6hX7U
    we liked the words The Guardian so much, that this seemed like a good way to work those words on to the page. Something about saying The Guardian and seeing that newspaper’s name on my Wikipedia page in some way referencing me, that, well, it just brings shivers.
    The Guardian.
    Think about it.
    Me. Something I did. The Guardian.
    Or, maybe leaving it on the page is just our way of being stubborn, proud and silly.”

  • Anonymous says:

    As a broadcaster, Jian has has been compared to Larry King. (by his dad)

    As a musician, Jian has been compared to David Bowie. (by himself)

  • whoops says:

    Anonymous says:
    May 25, 2010 at 12:28 pm

    Interesting that when someone inflates their ’œachievements’ to impress people, it has the opposite effect of making them look desperate, insecure and pathetic.

  • Fake Alfred Nobel says:

    How dare you say that about the 2004 International Blogger’s Golden Global Choice Internet Award won by Small Dead Animals?

  • Stretch-y-troo-vus / Fake Jeff Keay says:

    Jian’s name has been dropped in conversation alongside personalities as diverse as Jean Paul Sartre, Audrey Hepburn, and New Brunswick television leprechaun Harrigan.

  • Allan says:

    There are probably several explanations for what has happened, perhaps ones that none of us have ever thought of.
    Because, let’s face it, some of that stuff is pretty vague.

    “covers Prince Edward Island like the dew”
    So it’s not THE The Guardian, but it is The Guardian.
    I’ll write and ask them, while we wait for Jian and the CBC to get back to us.

    http://www.theguardian.pe.ca/index.cfm?sid=319964&sc=98

  • Allan says:

    Someone’s being real nitpicking.
    The unquestionably reliable CBC, and Jian himself, will tell you, on several pages, that …
    “(Jian) has appeared as a contributor or guest on programs ranging from CNN Today and The National, to Late Night with Conan O’Brien.”
    But Wikipedia takes up valuable space that could be used to list more of Jian’s accomplishments by adding …
    “He has appeared as a contributor or guest on programs ranging from CNN Today and The National to Late Night with Conan O’Brien'(as a drummer for Moxy Fruvous)’ mainly as a result of the Billy Bob Thornton interview.”
    That sentence doesn’t even read correctly. Alright, so he wasn’t a guest on Conan’s show in the same sense as that out-of-control dude Billy Bob Thornton. He WAS on the show!
    And interesting how the CBC forces you to have to think, and figure out little puzzles.
    Was he a contributor or guest on The National? And which was he on CNN Today?
    But they’re not really playing fair. They didn’t even give you “as a drummer” for The National.

  • Anonymous says:

    That’s bizarre. Where did “The Guardian” go?

  • Allan says:

    Yipes. Someone has recently made a mistake on Jian’s Wikipedia page.

    There’s an extra comma there.
    That ain’t right.

  • Anonymous says:

    Interesting that when someone inflates their “achievements” to impress people, it has the opposite effect of making them look desperate, insecure and pathetic.

  • Anonymous says:

    “shared stages with…” is musician bio-speak for “I opened for…” Dylan and Jian/Moxy were probably never on the same stage at the same time.

  • Allan says:

    Waiting For Gho – meshi

    I’ve written Jeff Keay of the CBC asking him about this issue, and he should be walking into his office this morning to be greeted with my email, and I expect to hear back from him quite soon.
    Unless, of course, he’s:
    (a) on an extended vacation
    (b) far too busy at the moment
    (c) thinking deeply about the implications of all this
    (d) preparing a full and dazzling demonstration of the CBC’s new commitment to transparency and accountability
    (e) stalling because he’s still pissed at all those questions I asked him about Tod Maffin

  • Allan says:

    It’s become a yearly column.
    That is, if he publishes an opinion piece within the next 30 days.
    But so what. The important thing is that Jian can honestly and accurately state that “In 2008 he became a weekly columnist for The National Post.” Nothing at all misleading about that.

    Big shout out “thanks” to the brilliant Fake Melville Dewey and his great research.

  • Anonymous says:

    So where DID his weekly column in the National Post go to?

  • Allan says:

     New Host -  Jian Ghomeshi!
    AMREF Canada is pleased to announce award-winning broadcaster, writer, musician and producer Jian Ghomeshi will be hosting An Evening with Measha Brueggergosman.
    Born in London England he is the host and co-creator of the national daily talk program, Q, on CBC Radio One and Bold TV. Since it’s inception in 2007, Q has garnered the largest audience of any cultural affairs program in Canada and has become the highest-rated show in its morning timeslot in CBC history.
    Jian is also a writer whose editorials and opinion pieces have been published in The Washington Post, The Guardian, The Globe and Mail, The Toronto Star, and The International Herald Tribune. In 2008 he became a weekly columnist for The National Post.
    http://canada.amref.org/get-involved/events/an-evening-with-measha-brueggergosman-october-17-2009/

  • Allan says:

    How does the Cohen piece even qualify as an article written by Jian?
    There’s no original content there whatsoever.
    It’s a bare-bones edited transcript of the CBC interview.
    Is it in Jian’s contract that he, and only he, can take the work that the CBC paid him to do, and sell it off as his own property, as belonging to Jian Ghomeshi?
    Who did The Guardian make the cheque out to?
    No doubt the CBC has answers, good ones, to these questions.

    Perhaps Mansbridge splits the profits from his One On One book with the CBC.

  • Anonymous says:

    Hmmm.

    Maybe my time-space device is out of whack, but didn’t Jian’s oft-published claim about being in The Guardian pre-date the Cohen interview?

    If so, it’s all a bit spooky!

  • Fake Melville Dewey says:

    Lexis Nexis my ass. Only thing Jian ever did in the Guardian is the Leonard Cohen interview!

    Transcript below – the only edit I did was to pseudonymize it.

    Re:Author Jian Ghomeshi
    ——————————————–

    Dear [Fake Melville Dewey],

    I’m afraid I can’t locate any other material by this contributor in our archive.

    best wishes,
    Penny.


    Penny Jones
    Head of International Product Development
    Guardian News & Media Ltd.
    +44 (0) 203 353 4113
    0791 999 4908 (mobile)

    On 22 May 2010 21:18, [FMD] wrote:

    Hello,

    I am looking for a list of all articles, interview, stories, or other content appearing in the Guardian either in print or on-line by the author Jian Ghomeshi.

    A search of your site indicates only an interview he did with Leonard Cohen. Did anything else by this author appear in any version of the Guardian?

    How might I find such a list of these works for possible purchase?

    Many thanks for your help,

  • wirehead says:

    Does the ‘sharing a stage with Bob Dylan’ has to be qualified with “…at the same time”?

  • PoonGirl says:

    He should also be on the board of that website funding grant…

  • Anonymous says:

    Sounds like somebody needs to apply for a website funding grant…..

  • Allan says:

    web site down due to Jian’s small package

  • Crotchety Old NCSA Mosaic User says:

    blown bandwith cap = cheapskate with a rinky-dink isp

  • Fake Gary Slaight says:

    I like how you call it ‘regular’ radio.

    I regularly have to shut off AM talk after about 10 minutes.

  • anonymous says:

    It’s not exactly prime-time radio. No competition at that time. Regular radio puts its best programming 6-9a and 3-6p.

  • Anonymous says:

    Personally, I don’t lose a lot of sleep over Jian’s word count in The Guardian.

    But I do wonder about the claim Q has more listeners than any previous show in its timeslot. The latest 5 major market PPM report says the show has a 7.6% share at 10am (down from The Current’s 10.3%) and 8% in the evening.

    Anyone out there got old BBM numbers for Morningside?

  • Anonymous says:

    So it’s true. Pride is the most serious of the seven deadly sins. (i.e. the desire to be more important or attractive than others, failing to acknowledge the good work of others, and excessive love of self).

  • Anonymous says:

    Could it be that his fans are too cheap to buy the magazine, so they are all trying to get a copy of the picture off of his website?

  • Anonymous says:

    Does that mean a background performer in a film with Angelina Jolie “shared screen time” with her?

  • Albert Grossman says:

    Or it could be that Bob Dylan is suing Jian for defamation of character for the false claim made by Jian on his website : that he “shared stages with a variety of artists including Bob Dylan”.

  • Allan says:

    No need to be concerned about Jian. He always lands sunny side up.
    And at the Ryerson talk he said he’s had other job offers.

    the explanation for the bandwith problem – with 10 days left in the month …

    2 Answers:

    “Bandwidth allowance/limit is the amount of data transfer you are given on a plan/package by your host.
    The notice means that the bandwidth allowance that your host gives to you on your current plan, has all been used up this month. If you have recently received a lot of traffic, this may happen.
    You should consider moving to a bigger package with more bandwidth allowance if you expect to receive a similar number of hits/downloads or transfer next month as you did this month. By upgrading to a bigger plan, you will probably not see this notice again as you will be within a much larger allowance and shouldn’t exceed it.”

    “”bandwidth limit exceeded” means you are facing your worst nightmare.
    Your site is off-line, your visitors has been turned back and you may never see them ever again.
    You reputation flashed down the drain and your chances to do well online nothing more than product of your nightmare’s broken dream

  • Anonymous says:

    Something’s going on…..he hasn’t tweeted in a whole day!!!!

  • Anonymous says:

    I wonder if he’s having “bandwidth” issues because he posted a “Hello” article without their permission. Say “hello” to copyright infringement, Jian!

  • Allan says:

    jian.ca – BANDWITH LIMIT EXCEEDED – everyone wants to read about Jian tonight it seems.
    I was hoping to read this weeks column by Jian in the National Post, for which he’s been a columnist since 2008.

  • PoonGirl says:

    Thank you.
    Allan and I had a great conversation and he said he wants to hand it in to The Gurdian as an editorial. Since, it seems any transcript of a conversation can then be an editorial according to the “Jian school of thinking”.
    I call bullshit on that. Couldn’t he be handing in an “editorial” every Mon-Fri ?

  • Anonymous says:

    Good point, Poongirl since, as Wikipedia defines it, an editorial is “an opinion piece written by the senior editorial staff or publisher of a newspaper or magazine. Editorials are usually unsigned and may be supposed to reflect the opinion of the periodical.” Is it an editorial if it’s just the transcription of an interview?

  • PoonGirl says:

    I meant to type, why is a transcript of his interview with L.C. considered an editorial anyways ?

  • Anonymous says:

    I’m trying to wrap my little brain around the concept of Jian sharing the stage with Bob Dylan.

    Is there any hard evidence of this Dylan/Ghomeshi onstage collaboration a la Lennon/McCartney, Jagger/Richards, Simon/Garfunkel, etc.? Something like that would surely be documented (by Jian).

  • Fake Melville Dewey says:

    A search of GALE Newspapers in English finds only one article published to the Guardian by Jian.

    I know it’s not as thorough as a Lexis Nexis to the solar plexus. But don’t worry, I sent a request to the Guardian for a complete list of stuff Jian has done either in print or online, in hopes of buying the content. So we’ll just see what they have on offer …

    I’ll report back when they reply. Maybe I’ll solicit dontations a la Joe Clard for the special project of licensing all the great editorials Jian has written for the Guardian, to be repub’ed here on TM.

  • Anonymous says:

    Can the current version of the CBC be trusted as a news source if it’s giving it’s “on air personalities” such a wide berth to perpetuate “pseudo-facts” (or at the very least a loose interpretation of actual facts)?

  • Anonymous says:

    You are aware that frequently online archives are less than complete, yes? Rights to store or reprint/archive are entirely dependent on the agreement at the time. There are articles that appear in print versions of the paper which never show up online. The Globe and Star both do this. If you want to be sure you are searching the whole archive, you have to use lexis nexus.

  • Fake Terry Gross says:

    I thought Noam Chomsky was going to interview Cohen.

  • PoonGirl says:

    How was a transcript of his interview with B.C. an editorial anyways ?

  • Sherlock Motherfucking Holmes says:

    Internal searches on guardian.co.uk for ‘Jian Ghomeshi’, and Ghomeshi, yield 2 pieces – Jian’s Cohen interview and a piece by someone else about Jian’s Billy Bob incident.

    The problem the way I see it is that these young fucking ‘ironicals’ that work on Q were happy to morph the show into whatever the fuck they wanted it to be. That’s why the Guardian think irks.

    Cast your memory back to the early days of Q. Remember how J-Gho’s opening monologue often traipsed the line between current events and pop culture? How else would you be able to lure in listeners coming out of The Current?

    It’s not a big stretch to call shenanigans on that. Q could have gone either way – with Jian as some kind of self styled mega-intellectual, equally well versed in CBC news and CBC arts. Just look at his predecessors for his time slot for fuck’s sake. Instead, Jian’s uber-smart Q handlers (Borel?) were able to pull off a Billy Bob and cement Jian firmly in arts. To use a Trivial Pursuit term, they ‘pink pied’ him. But for a while, was he brown pie, or pink pie?

    It’s a bullshit 2+2=5 presentation. Oh, forgive me – a ‘mash up’ as the kids say.

    Wrote editorials for the Post +
    Had a fluff piece in the Guardian =
    Guardian Editorial Contributor

    Boo, CBC!

  • Anonymous says:

    Oops! I meant I agreed with the “contact The Guardian” comment.

  • Anonymous says:

    Agreed! Great solution to your dilemma, Allan.

  • Anonymous says:

    While I’m no fan of Allan’s method (& his lack of sense of humour), I agree with his observation that Jian is given free reign to relentlessly promote himself (& his client Lights) and that they both push the boundaries of credibility and authenticity. The question is when does hype become falsehood?

  • The Real Pioneer of Fake Pseudonyms says:

    I disagree. I’ve slammed Allan lotsa times myself, let’s be clear.But after KKKate and her army of knuckledragging hyper-douches tried to take of over the site a while back I realized it was time for a truce.

    The crux of Allan’s point is actually a good one. ‘How low can CBC go’ really is the question here. The real ‘fucking idiots’ in this situation are peeps who want to let d-grade talent like Jian get a free ride to promote himself.

    As for Allan’s writing being [airquote] humourless, he does a damn site better in the MIRTH category of the TM mandate than Fake Patrick Watson ever has. That dude is a disgrace to the concept of putting ‘Fake’ in front of a Canadian star’s name and using it as a pseudonym.

  • Fake Patrick Watson says:

    Once upon a time before the internet made everything more or less equal, Allan would be the guy who stood around outside the Broadcast Building handing out photocopied screeds, banging pots & pans, explaining how so and so was the worst thing ever. His own writing, and it’s obsessive, humorless, fact-free cant damns him. The difference here is he gets the occasional schmuck to validate him, while most simply shrug or write in, “WTF.” The difference is that Allan and his breed suck up the former like oxygen. When life gives you no validation, the internet is a surprisingly forgiving last refuge.

    Whether splitting hairs or confabulating accusations, Allan’s to be pitied more than censured.

    Alright. Maybe not. Cause let’s face it…he is a fucking idiot.

  • huh says:

    ask the guardian. If they say it never happened, then you really got him.

  • PoonGirl says:

    Oh my god, the word “zeal” made me laugh so hard. Imagine using that in a face to face argument ? I couldn’t keep a straight face.

  • Z.P. says:

    Allan, I think you need to go on a yoga retreat or something. All of this negativity hurts no one more than yourself.

    I most certainly do not take the position that it doesn’t matter whether Ghomeshi or the CBC tell the truth. This is the second time you’ve misrepresented my arguments in your response. Why do you not apply the same standards of accuracy to yourself as to others?

    Questing after truth and quibbling over semantics are not the same thing. There is no reason to get excited about someone referring to an article as an editorial. This is not a major inaccuracy and, if it bothers you, go to Wikipedia and change it. Also, I don’t hear anything in that clip to indicate that anyone agreed not to mention Thornton’s acting career. It sounds to me like Thornton and his people and the producers got their wires crossed somewhere. Sometimes people have misunderstandings in good faith.

    Now take some deep, cleansing breaths and think about finding a more worthy object of your zeal.

  • Anonymous says:

    Gee, how does he find the time to attend every party and awards show in Toronto?

  • Allan says:

    Better things to do, like immediately update his new status to “beautiful”, instead of confirming the accuracy of a claim that’s been there for months.
    You take the position that it doesn’t matter whether what the CBC and Jian says is true or not.
    I have a different view.

    During the Billy Bob interview, Jian said that “context” was important.
    You might think about that when reading what I was saying about Kim Campbell.

    Another “obsession” of mine is Tod Maffin, whom I’ve come to learn a lot about, and I can tell you that all of his claims about himself need a hell of a lot of “context” to be properly appreciated.
    Did you know he created a web site that was judged one of the top 3 in the world ahead of Microsoft?
    Tod wants you to know that.
    He’s less keen on telling you what that web site was for, and about the magazine that quickly went out of business shortly after making that statement.

    But this is about Jian.

    You think that what people say isn’t important?

    You’ll recall perhaps, these remarks:
    “As we’ve said, there were no preconditions with Billy Bob Thornton about the interview.”
    “Just to clarify questions around ‘preconditions’: the producers and host did NOT agree to any preconditions to not mention his acting career.
    ~ Qtv executive producer Arif Noorani

    Our policy is that we don’t allow anybody to tell us what we can and cannot say.
    ~ Jian

    I sat down and talked with this guy. He and his producers say, `We promise you we won’t say that’ (meaning references to Thornton’s acting career). The very first thing they said was that.
    ~ Billy Bob
    .

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qn-0R1RNqVk&feature=player_embedded

    and this, from a report about the interview, as stated by the CBC.

    Our policy is that we don’t allow anybody to tell us what we can and cannot say.
    ~ Jian

    “the producers told me that you didn’t want … and I’m cool with that”

  • Z.P. says:

    Dear Allan,

    Please calm down.

    First, I’m not sure what it was in my post that made you think that I am “trying to put an end to any discussion about Jian”. Discuss away, by all means.

    Second, no, I have never felt the slightest urge to accost Bill Maher or to explain the intricacies of the Canadian electoral system to America. Maher refers to Kim Campbell as the former Prime Minister of Canada because she is the former Prime Minister of Canada. What does any of this have to do with Jian Ghomeshi? Are Kim Campbell and Jian Ghomeshi doing it? Or is it Ghomeshi and Maher? Would you write gripping exposee on this subject, please? Mine their tweets for evidence!

    I think you should take a step back and calmly consider the possibility that the CBC and Ghomeshi’s ‘staff member’ aren’t taking your inquiries seriously because your quibbles are insignificant and they have better things to do with their time. Don’t freak out, just think about it. Might’n’t they have a point?

    Z.

  • Anonymous says:

    I know a roadie that once shared the stage with Bob Dylan. Jian should get together with him and compare notes.

  • Allan says:

    Perhaps I should question your motives for trying to put an end to any discussion about Jian or asking questions.
    I have no evidence of any deception on Jian’s part. I have not read every copy of The Guardian in the last ten years.

    Speaking of Kim Campbell, doesn’t it make your stomach turn when Bill Maher introduces her as a former Prime Minister of Canada?
    Don’t you want to stand up and say “hold on, America, let’s be clear that yes, it’s true she was the Prime Minister, but you need to know that she didn’t get there the normal way, and the minute the people of Canada had a choice in the matter, she was toast. This woman never represented our country according to any kind of popular vote, which is left out of that introduction by Bill.
    Our current Prime Minister, fairly and democratically elected, is nothing to brag about, but most people in our country saw Kim Campbell as one of the worst leaders we could possibly have. A horror show. Not be confused as a reflection of who we are and our values.

    In his chock-full-of-accomplishments Wikipedia entry, there’s very little room left for humility.
    Jian rattles off a list of newspapers that he says took his opinions seriously.
    I’ve read one piece of Jian’s that qualified as a kind of editorial, and I’m not afraid to say that it was pretty good. It was from before he joined the CBC. He had put a lot of work into it, and I liked it, a lot.
    But there are other pieces that amount to nothing more than vanity on parade.
    I’m sure Jian has seen his name in print many times.
    I’ve asked for one article from one newspaper, and what happens?
    I get ignored by Jian.
    I get ignored by the CBC.
    I get a three month round around from one of his courteous staff members, who doesn’t work for the CBC.
    What’s the problem here?
    The CBC itself is backing up the claims made by Jian, by posting it on their web site. Do they check what they publish? Or is it up to the audience to figure out/find out how much of it is true, accurate?
    Are they waiting for me to send them $5 and wait another year for the answer?
    Why all this bullshit?
    Is there a difference between a private broadcaster and a public broadcaster when it comes to responding to an inquiry?
    Is there supposed to be a difference?
    Is the CBC not always touting itself as having a higher ethical standard (as in not motivated by greed alone) and greater integrity and conscientiousness than the privates?

    My question is straightforward.
    And I expect an answer. I think I have a right to ask and a right to get a plain and simple answer from the CBC.
    I haven’t flipped out about this and gone running to the Ombudsman or Hubert. I went through the channels that I was directed to take to get an answer from Jian.
    He finds plenty of time to Twitter, but in three months nothing about my question.
    What’s the problem?

  • Z.P. says:

    Seriously, Allan, did Jian Ghomeshi fuck your wife or something? I’m perfectly willing to believe that this guy may well be an arrogant douchebag – I don’t know and I have no reason to care either way – but your little efforts to expose him, while amusing, border on the obsessive. And you never seem to have anything substantial to back up your vitriol.

    If you don’t like what his Wikipedia entry says, change it. That’s what Wikipedia is for. At best this is a minor inaccuracy. It takes an awful lot of bad faith – and pettiness, frankly – to interpret it as an intentional deception.

  • Allan says:

    it’s not unusual for Dylan to bring all the acts on stage at the end of the concert – why look, there’s Jian sharing the stage with Bob Dylan! Time for a “Me & B.D” piece for The Guardian.

  • WTF? says:

    When did Jian share the stage with Bob Dylan? That sounds like an even bigger fabrication than editorials and opinion pieces.

  • Anonymous says:

    The source of all of the dubious info on Jian’s Wikipedia page and his CBC/Q page is Jian’s own website, Jian.ca : http://www.jian.ca/about.php

    You don’t think that Jian would lie about himself or exaggerate his accomplishments and maybe tell a few brown lies on his own website, do you?

    Jian is too busy writing and producing “music through his company, Wonderboy Entertainment, and” managing “the career of rising international star, LIGHTS” and sharing the stage with “Bob Dylan” and appearing “as a contributor or guest on CNN Today and Late Night with Conan O’Brien”, not to mention hosting the show with “the largest audience of any cultural affairs program in Canada and has become the highest-rated show in its morning timeslot in CBC history.” to do anything like that.

  • Anonymous says:

    Always a douche, but a pathetic douche now? Oooh. Who would have thought Allan had further to fall?

  • Allan says:

    What would work best for me would be seeing the article.
    That way I would be once more assured that I can count on the CBC to put integrity and accuracy above trying to sell a product.

  • anonymous says:

    Should he even get credit for it at all? I’m sure the Q writers helped come up with much of the content.

  • Anonymous says:

    So if they change it to “…whose interviews, editorials and opinion pieces…” will you be able to sleep at night?

  • Anonymous says:

    People do get fired for fudging their resumes…..but the CBC lets “Teflon Jian” do anything his unethical heart desires.

  • Anonymous says:

    OOOOOOOOO I THINK YOU GOT HIM THERE THEY SHOULD HAACVE WRITTEN ARTICLE NOT COLUMN IN THE BIO MAN HE’LL BE FIRED AND KILLED FOREVER FOR THIS ONE GOD IS ANGRY YOURE A REAL SLEUTH YOU GOT HIM THIS TIME

    Get a life.

  • Allan says:

    We all know about the Leonard Cohen piece.
    This doesn’t qualify as an “editorial” or “opinion” piece as implied in the above sentence.
    I’m asking Jian to come forward with a clearer example.

    It takes five seconds to Google the words “jian Ghomeshi The Guardian” and find the Cohen piece immediately.
    It even appears at the start of the page …
    http://www.jian.ca/writer.php

    Yet his staff keep telling me they’re working on it.
    They’ve been unable to locate an “opinion/editorial” piece from The Guardian.
    So far.

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