Hello Mr. LeBlanc,
Someone brought to my attention your online article, "GAY BASHING
ATTACK IN FREDERICTON LAST NIGHT!!! WHAT A BUNCH OF IDIOTS!!!!" I am one of the owners of boom! Nightclub and was at boom! on the night in question. I could not agree more that the act of vandalism that night was stupid, but I wanted to clarify a couple of points.
First, you mentioned both Racines Restaurant and The Palate
Restaurant, but you do not make clear which restaurant owner you were speaking with about the details of the vandalism.
The photos accompanying your story are entirely of The Palate and its owner, and The Palate is the restaurant next door to us that got hit with eggs.
I do not know if Racines was also hit.
You go on to say, "From what I was told? Some youths decided that
they’ll wait near the building for a gay person who left the BOOM Gay
bar."
As far as I know the only people these youths would have spoken
to would be the police; anything else would be guessing.
You then say, "... a Gay individual finally walked by and he got
pelted with eggs." There were actually several people standing
directly outside our door who had been in our club that evening, and
one of them knocked on the door to let us know that some young people had gone by throwing eggs at The Palate; however, neither our club nor anyone standing in front of it had eggs thrown at them, only The Palate.
In addition, I have no idea whether the person who came to
our door is gay or not; we certainly welcome gay people to come to
boom!, but we are also a popular nightspot among a broad range of
people in general of all kinds.
Finally, you say, "The guy quickly turn around and when by to the gay
bar and told his friends." Once again, although we are proud to be
the only club in town that specifically welcomes gay people, even I
would hesitate to call us a gay bar, because such a broad range of
cool people party at our establishment.
Also, the guy came to our door to let me and the staff know, not his friends; if he brought other girls or guys with him to our club that night, they were long gone, as we were closed at that point. I only mention this because we take great pains to abide by the province's liquor regulations, and I would not want your readers to think we stay open after hours.
To summarize, you said at the start of your article, "...a gay
bashing attack happen last evening...".
In fact, not only is there no evidence that it was a gay-bashing, the facts all point to the exact opposite, since a gang of young people looking to bash gay people would surely have thrown their eggs at our club or at the people standing in plain view in front of it rather than the business next door.
I applaud the main part of your story, because throwing eggs at a
business and leaving a huge mess and then leaving a convenience store bag there with a time-stamped receipt in it sounds pretty lame to me too; but I just wanted to clarify the above details.
Thanks very much,
Steven DeWitt
9 comments:
Wow, maybe now you'll be a bit more careful before posting gossip and lies as fact.
Well...not really lies but I had the restaurant mix up. Sh@t happens.....I am sure not perfect.....It was nice of the guy to write a note on the issue....
Hey, this is what blogging is all about, you get it wrong and the real story gets posted. Heck, if this were the IRving press they'd have a main story and then their apology that they got it wrong buried on the back pages. Ain't blogging great?!
This is why you're not a real journalist Charles. You don't quote sources, you don't check your facts and you inject far too much emotion, rhetoric and opinion into your "news"
Do you ever wonder why real media outlets operate the way they do? Why they take their time with stories while you rush to post?
It's called trust. Everytime you screw up a story, you lose public trust. Also, when you print things like "Nazi" "bigot" or "racist" and name certain people, without having any real proof, you'll be sued. No one has bother suing you yet because you're on social assistance.
However, there may come a day when you rub the wrong indidividual the wrong way and they do decide to take you to court.
The lesson Charles is if you want to play journalist, you need to balance your freedom with your responsblity.
Hey? I could have ignore the email but I didn't.
I was told the story by someone who works inside the restaurant and blog it.
Anyone that knows more about the issue can leave a comment and this is exactly what happen in this case.
why would people throw eggs at a restaurant
Hasn't everyone heard of the saying... "Don't believe everything you read and/or everything you hear". It could very well be that Charles writes information on his website that is not factual, however, let's face it... the mainstream media does this as well. What gives us the right to decide who is a journalist and who isn't? Come on people. The world and the ways in which we receive our information has evolved. If a blogger does write without personal emotion, rhetoric, and factual error... does this make him/her a journalist over a blogger that writes personal opinions and makes errors/misrepresentation on facts? Who makes these decisions?
Well as a lesbian and a member of the Fredericton gay community AND someone who frequently goes to Boom,I am not impressed with Steves comment about not being a gay bar.Gay owned,Gay customers and friends of the gay community.....hummm sounds gay to me. If Boom is not a gay bar then what is it?
Yes Charles needs to be more carefull in reporting on stories without all the facts,But Steve and the owners of Boom need to get off the fence.
They wounder why the gay community is reluctent to support the bar,well this is exactly why. We want a bar the is known as a gay bar who welcomes the straight community,not the other way around. A gay bar with gay staff who are proud of their culture,instead of down playing their very important role in the Fredericton Gay Community. We have been fighting far to long to sit back and watch what could be a place where gays and lesbians can call our own slip though our hands just becauses are to afriad of hurting someones (a straight person)feelings. Most of the straight community that goes to Boom ,are students. Well forgive me but they already have a place to call their own it is called The Sub and The Cellar on UNB campus. Let us have our place and stop trying to appease the straight community, get a back bone and come out for godsakes. Thye time is now, be as gay as you feel free to be without fear and you will have the community behind you period.
AND start playing real music that moves the crowd. Most of the time that I have attended the bar the floor remains empty because it is hard to dance to music that is constantly changing beat in the middle of the dammmn song. You have some really good DJs but there is one or 2 that have got to go.
Hi "Anonymous",
Steve here. Sorry if you interpreted my comments to Charles negatively! I was just making a point. I didn't feel any need to be disrespectful to him, he was just expressing his opinions. Thanks for expressing your own concerns. My response to anyone that complains that I and/or boom! are "not gay enough" would be to invite you to read the About Us page at boomnightclub.ca. Then step forward and identify yourself the next time you are in so we can talk constructively in person about how we can make your experience at boom! better.
Post a Comment