scooter_the_shooter
08-25-2006, 23:39
In a thread at a gun forum I frequent some posters were talking about media bias and what happened to a pro gun advocate. Curious about this "incident I read on and some one posted a link to it a wiki.
At wiki I found a link to the first hand story.....
It takes a while to get into it but once you get there you'll laugh wether you know much about the gun debate or not.
enjoy
Folks, we’ve seen media abuse before, but nothing like this. This will take a bit to explain but by the time I’m done y’all will be picking your jaws up off the floor.
On the 8th of April ’04, I received the following Email from “jeff@debateshow.com”:
Jim,
I am a producer at a new television called The Debate Show and am putting together a panel to discuss voting reform. The focus of the discussion will be on electronic voting which is something that I know you are very familiar with. I was wondering if I could talk to you about possibly appearing on our show as a panelist. Please contact me so we can discuss this further.
The Debate Show is a project for Viacom that will air on one of the MTV networks. It is a show that promotes spirited discussion of the issues on society's consciousness. We will be taping our show on voting on Thursday, April 22 at 5pm. We would require that you be here at 4:15 and will probably finish at 6. We will provide a car service to and from any location in the Los Angeles area. We will be operating out of Hollywood Production Group Studios on North Vine St.
Sincerely,
Jeff Sammon
323-957-7603
In addition to “gun rights” (actually self-defense rights) activism, I deal with electronic voting issues as an unpaid volunteer activist…it’s something that sort of stems out of my past as a computer tech/systems administrator and a general interest in good government.
A later Email from Jeff included an MS-Word template questionnaire:
http://www.equalccw.com/votingapp1.pdf
I also sent a link to a 4.3meg video clip of my testimony at a California legislative hearing. I explained that it was on a different issue, “gun rights” (actually self defense rights, but let’s not quibble) – I’m a registered state lobbyist for the Citizen’s Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms.
http://KeepAndBearArms.com/video/AB1044.wmv
I included this because it’s the only video record of my debating abilities (on any issue) that I have.
Jeff Sammon soon called and said they’d rather have me on the gun-related show to be filmed a bit later, based on what they saw on the video. The shows themselves were supposed to air over the summer. “Debate Show” staffer Erika soon sent:
Jim,
My colleague Jeff suggested that I get in contact with you about the possibility of coming down to Los Angeles to take part in our debate show with the topic of “Guns.” Jeff said you are extremely passionate about this topic.
First, I want to make sure you are available to be in Los Angeles on Tuesday, May 18, 2004 for a 5pm taping.
Second, if you are available, I’d be grateful if you could fill out the attached application so we could get a better understanding of your opinions on the issues and you can get an idea of some of the topics that will be covered during the debate.
Hope to hear from you soon. Feel free to call me at the number below should you have any questions.
Best,
Erika
Erika Quinn
Producer, The Debate Show
erika@debateshow.com
Tel: 323-957-4171
Fax: 323-957-3931
I sent back her version of a questionnaire: http://www.equalccw.com/guestapplicationguns.pdf
In the phone calls that followed, it was understood that we wouldn’t know who the “opposition” was ahead of time. Fine by me - I have a particular “take” on the gun issue that I didn’t want the other side prepping for, involving patterns of cronyism and the apparent corrupt sales of gun carry permits to the rich’n’famous by sheriffs and police chiefs in California and elsewhere.
The Circus:
Once I got there, I was hustled into a private “dressing room” and segregated from everybody else. They were weirdly vague about what was going on or who else was present, and kept me incommunicado for the first 10 or 15 minutes or so.
Then it’s “my turn”.
On entering the set, I immediately spotted Andre Soto. I know Soto real well (http://www.keepandbeararms.com/information/XcIBViewItem.asp?ID=2017) and when he looked up and saw me, he muttered “oh shit”.
But other things were…puzzling.
There was a lady to my right who was supposedly pro-gun (some sort of RKBA button, American flag lapel pin, denim jacket and weird hair), introduced by first name only. To my left was the moderator, then past him was a guy in a tie, short-sleeve shirt and camo hat, then Soto at the end.
Wait…there’s supposed to be equal numbers of pro-self-defense and gun-grabbers…?
We start in, and the moderator gets in a conversation with the guy in the camo hat who turns out to be wildly against the second amendment, calling it the worst part of the BoR, outdated, a lie, just ranting and raving. I counter this by explaining that the parts of America with the most violence are the areas denied the 2nd Amendment for the longest – the urban inner-city areas. People in those areas can’t legally defend themselves, and therefore can’t safely complain about crime in their neighborhoods…having been stripped of their 2nd Amendment rights, they’re effectively stripped of the 1st Amendment too.
“Camo boy” then rips into me with extreme anger, yelling that I don’t trust the police whose job it is to defend us. I mention the 22 court cases that make it clear cops have no duty to defend us, therefore the only ones financially and legally liable for our personal defense is us. He blurts out that there are 23 cases the other way (a lie) and then goes into his REAL point.
He’s supposedly a psychologist who helps people with their “gun addictions”…by linking their “need for a gun” to their “sexual issues”.
In other words, it turned into one long grotesque genitalia joke. His first rapid-fire question to me was “when was the last time you had sex” I goggled at him a sec and then blurted out “a week and a half ago” (first thing I thought of) while grinning; the second involved whether or not I’d ever missed the toilet or not…I laughed, said “well ya, everybody misses once in a while” at which point he took that as “proof” that we can’t safely aim guns. The third question was “when was your first homoerotic experience” at which point I called him a nutcase and the “moderator” shut that crap down.
“Camo Boy” was then allowed to conclude his point about a gun’s barrel length being used to “compensate” – I laughed and said “you moron, my biggest gun has a two inch barrel” so he switched to “activity levels”.
He then blurted out “But I’m all for hunting! Not with guns though!”
“Yup! With ROCKS!”
What the…
They switched to a video of this idiot and two friends wandering through the woods throwing rocks at anything that moved…birds, fish, whatever. Soto looked like he was gonna die. The chick on my right screams something about how “you’ll go pretty hungry that way”…“Camo Boy” then starts naming his “prey”, mentions hitting a sparrow once (couldn’t find it afterwards) and “alpaca”. Soto looks at him in shock, I blurt out “that’s a farm animal!”, conversation dies on THAT subject.
Moderator takes us to a “gun safety expert” on live video feed who has this wonderful smartgun invention blueprint…all on ONE gun, he’s got three triggers, a safety on top of the safety, fingerprint recognition, breathalyzer, retinal scanner and microphone for your pass phrase.
I’m supposed to comment on this…shaking my head in disbelief, I mention that under New Jersey law, if something this stupid ever comes to market it’ll be required by law, except that cops won’t have to use ‘em, only regular folks. “Camo boy” starts screaming about “you don’t trust the police” again.
Then we went on break for a sec. Erika Quinn and her boss escort me out to the street so they could smoke, and I nearly bust a gut laughing on the way there. I was yelling something about how this was utter madness, a setup, there’s no way these guys actually believed their own bull(beep). They were trying to convince me this was all on the up-and-up…which given how weird grabbers can be was maybe, barely believable at this point…it hadn’t REALLY got weird yet, comparatively speaking.
I should have walked away right then. “See ya”. But…these guys had paid my transport/hotel costs ($200 plus the hotel room) so…I felt…”obligated”. Sigh.
So we go back on. “Camo boy” says he’ll make a deal with me…a month’s supply of penis enlargement pills if I’ll give up guns. I’m just disgusted at this point. Two months. “You idiot, those don’t even exist, they’re a fraud like you are” at which point he gets mad, reaches down into a bag and grabs this…thing. Vaguely medical looking. Hands it to me. I must have had a puzzled expression, then I realized what I was holding on national TV. A “penis pump”. I’ve heard of the concept but never actually seen one…there are freaks out there that turn their “gear” into something the size of a beer can with these things.
Once I realized what it was, I tossed it over my shoulder. The chick runs back and gets it, waves it around and screams something about “you think *I* need this!?!”.
By this point I’m right around mental shutdown. God only knows what I must have looked like on camera, I don’t want to even think about it.
They then switch to yet another “live video feed”…this time to an anti-gun African-American rap group. Not anti-VIOLENCE mind you, anti gun. They have no problems whatsoever “cruisin’ the hood” in a convertible while wearing neon pink and green feathers and warpaint and doing drive-by bow and arrow murders…with their “rap video” concluding with a black guy doing a cheesy fake death scene with fake blood and an arrow through the throat.
Their African-American “spokesman” comes back on camera still in silly feathers and bad warpaint and goes into an incoherent rant about guns being “from the white man” (my numbed brain was thinking “no, you idiot, the first guns were CHINESE!”). It was about as tasteless, vile and racist as it comes and concluded with a screaming match between the moderator and this “rap star”. Oh, until a fat Chinese guy in medical scrubs snuck up behind the idiot in warpaint, injected him in the neck with a hypodermic, idiot in warpaint goes “unconscious” ‘cept we can see him giggling while the guy in scrubs screams something about “I’m gonna bust a CAP in you CAPilary, booyeeee!” in a bad Asian/”ghetto” mix accent.
Let me make clear that at various points throughout this mess, there’d be brief breaks wherein we’d all still be sitting there at the table, but each of us had our own “handlers” coming in and trying to…”boost us up”, sort of like how a boxing coach tries to verbally “buck up” a banged-up fighter between rounds. It also means I didn’t get a chance to get my head straight, I’d have Erika in my face saying things like “It’s going great but you’ve got to make your points, talk about all those things we talked about over the phone” yadayadayada, basically talking non-stop over my objections to the general insanity and trying to stir me up while they did makeup touchup, etc. Otherwise I’d have been able to get my bearings better. Instead it was just a blur of non-stop chaos.
Folks, it wouldn’t even OCCUR to me to screw with somebody’s head this way. I’m just not wired to be able to do that to somebody for ANY reason and…well, that’s what’s really got me pissed off here. They played me like a fiddle, VERY professionally, with techniques very similar to how a car salesman brings his boss in at key moments…keep people “mentally off their feet” – whenever Erika started to lose control over me she’d go get a boss and double-team me in the same way.
I did NOT CONSENT TO BE FIND!@#$ LIKE THIS!
As credits rolled on this train wreck, “Camo boy” pulls out a large rock about the size of an Altoids can and makes throwing motions with it while growling and snarling at me from four feet away. I’m trying to figure out if he’s gonna brain me with it while sticking my hand in my pocket just in case…I came within an inch of pulling a 4”-class folding knife on the moron and telling him to drop that rock. (Back in the dressing room, I told Erika that I had felt physically threatened enough by that rock (and lunatic) to consider pulling a knife…I’m now told that they’re shocked I was armed. Gee, guys, I said I wouldn’t bring a GUN, other than that you might have checked my own website: http://www.equalccw.com/knifelaw.html - esp. section six…oh and Erika, Federal railway regs limit pocketknives to 4”…if I’d driven down there instead of coming by train, I’d have my usual carry piece on me…a 5.5” blade hand-ground $200+ folder. Tell “Jeff” who was shocked that “I’d have a knife on a TV set!” in a phone conversation today that I always have cutlery on me, period, and I’d never threaten anybody with it unless faced with deadly force. A rock that size qualifies when being waved around by a (literally) growling maniac who claims to pelt farm animals with rocks for a hobby.)
Conclusion.
If you haven’t figured it out by now, “Crossball” is meant as a spoof of the debate show genre, intended for Comedy Central all along. I wasn’t told this and apparently neither was Soto. Obviously, the madwoman they put up against him probably made gun owners look like turds. She was introduced as “Mary Clarke” with “Women and Guns” – she doesn’t turn up on google so she’s another imposter.
I haven’t been able to sleep properly since this mess two days ago. I am beyond furious. If this trash airs, nobody who’s seen it will be able to look at me with a straight face ever again.
Susan Marie Weber was the “unwitting straight guest” on the elections/voting segment of this show. She wrote me the following in Email:
Hi Jim
Yep, I figured out in the first 3 minutes that it was a joke, and that
everyone was in on it except for me. Oh well.
It was totally silly - the only reason I didn't walk off the set, was because I figured if at least ONE person in the audience heard what I was saying about the electronic voting, it was worth it.
At the first break when they came to powder etc, I said, this is a joke show, and as you commented below, they kept saying, no, no this is serious. But the man I was supposedly debating was having a hard time insulting me, because he realized that I was answering seriously to his comments. And, I was laughing so hard at the silly comments he made, I don't think they expected that.
When I signed the release, I even asked the lady whether or not my comments were going to be taken out of context and goofed up.
The other two people they interspersed to "debate" discussed the voting age. A Young Republican and a man of 36 who argued that people should be 26 to vote. During a break he and I were discussing the Libertarian Party - but who knows if he was telling me the truth.
I have doubts that any of the stuff I did will ever be shown, although I must confess, I have gone over it several times with my friend to figure out what they could manipulate and make fun of. I don't think I would call any of it vile. The other two debators were a little crass, and I thought about walking off the set again - but, I stayed.
They paid a LOT of money to make these shows.
What would you want to do about it? I'd have to dig out the release I signed to see what I agreed to let them do with the filming.
By the way, we refused the $200 "honorarium", and the "free ride". They insisted on picking us up, so we parked a couple of blocks from the studio, and rode there in a town car.
Susan Marie
Another example of the same stunt: http://www.veggieboards.com/boards/showthread.php?t=17659 (page two of this thread talks about how it turned out to be a joke…)
All this while describing it as “on MTV” in private to me, and publicly as in this blurb:
The article http://www.equalccw.com/thedebateshowfiasco.html
The wiki link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crossballs
Now this guy is on my side in the gun control debate but.....I almost died laughing when I read this.:laugh4:
Yeah I know I screwed up the title....but I just now noticed and it won't let you edit titles.
At wiki I found a link to the first hand story.....
It takes a while to get into it but once you get there you'll laugh wether you know much about the gun debate or not.
enjoy
Folks, we’ve seen media abuse before, but nothing like this. This will take a bit to explain but by the time I’m done y’all will be picking your jaws up off the floor.
On the 8th of April ’04, I received the following Email from “jeff@debateshow.com”:
Jim,
I am a producer at a new television called The Debate Show and am putting together a panel to discuss voting reform. The focus of the discussion will be on electronic voting which is something that I know you are very familiar with. I was wondering if I could talk to you about possibly appearing on our show as a panelist. Please contact me so we can discuss this further.
The Debate Show is a project for Viacom that will air on one of the MTV networks. It is a show that promotes spirited discussion of the issues on society's consciousness. We will be taping our show on voting on Thursday, April 22 at 5pm. We would require that you be here at 4:15 and will probably finish at 6. We will provide a car service to and from any location in the Los Angeles area. We will be operating out of Hollywood Production Group Studios on North Vine St.
Sincerely,
Jeff Sammon
323-957-7603
In addition to “gun rights” (actually self-defense rights) activism, I deal with electronic voting issues as an unpaid volunteer activist…it’s something that sort of stems out of my past as a computer tech/systems administrator and a general interest in good government.
A later Email from Jeff included an MS-Word template questionnaire:
http://www.equalccw.com/votingapp1.pdf
I also sent a link to a 4.3meg video clip of my testimony at a California legislative hearing. I explained that it was on a different issue, “gun rights” (actually self defense rights, but let’s not quibble) – I’m a registered state lobbyist for the Citizen’s Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms.
http://KeepAndBearArms.com/video/AB1044.wmv
I included this because it’s the only video record of my debating abilities (on any issue) that I have.
Jeff Sammon soon called and said they’d rather have me on the gun-related show to be filmed a bit later, based on what they saw on the video. The shows themselves were supposed to air over the summer. “Debate Show” staffer Erika soon sent:
Jim,
My colleague Jeff suggested that I get in contact with you about the possibility of coming down to Los Angeles to take part in our debate show with the topic of “Guns.” Jeff said you are extremely passionate about this topic.
First, I want to make sure you are available to be in Los Angeles on Tuesday, May 18, 2004 for a 5pm taping.
Second, if you are available, I’d be grateful if you could fill out the attached application so we could get a better understanding of your opinions on the issues and you can get an idea of some of the topics that will be covered during the debate.
Hope to hear from you soon. Feel free to call me at the number below should you have any questions.
Best,
Erika
Erika Quinn
Producer, The Debate Show
erika@debateshow.com
Tel: 323-957-4171
Fax: 323-957-3931
I sent back her version of a questionnaire: http://www.equalccw.com/guestapplicationguns.pdf
In the phone calls that followed, it was understood that we wouldn’t know who the “opposition” was ahead of time. Fine by me - I have a particular “take” on the gun issue that I didn’t want the other side prepping for, involving patterns of cronyism and the apparent corrupt sales of gun carry permits to the rich’n’famous by sheriffs and police chiefs in California and elsewhere.
The Circus:
Once I got there, I was hustled into a private “dressing room” and segregated from everybody else. They were weirdly vague about what was going on or who else was present, and kept me incommunicado for the first 10 or 15 minutes or so.
Then it’s “my turn”.
On entering the set, I immediately spotted Andre Soto. I know Soto real well (http://www.keepandbeararms.com/information/XcIBViewItem.asp?ID=2017) and when he looked up and saw me, he muttered “oh shit”.
But other things were…puzzling.
There was a lady to my right who was supposedly pro-gun (some sort of RKBA button, American flag lapel pin, denim jacket and weird hair), introduced by first name only. To my left was the moderator, then past him was a guy in a tie, short-sleeve shirt and camo hat, then Soto at the end.
Wait…there’s supposed to be equal numbers of pro-self-defense and gun-grabbers…?
We start in, and the moderator gets in a conversation with the guy in the camo hat who turns out to be wildly against the second amendment, calling it the worst part of the BoR, outdated, a lie, just ranting and raving. I counter this by explaining that the parts of America with the most violence are the areas denied the 2nd Amendment for the longest – the urban inner-city areas. People in those areas can’t legally defend themselves, and therefore can’t safely complain about crime in their neighborhoods…having been stripped of their 2nd Amendment rights, they’re effectively stripped of the 1st Amendment too.
“Camo boy” then rips into me with extreme anger, yelling that I don’t trust the police whose job it is to defend us. I mention the 22 court cases that make it clear cops have no duty to defend us, therefore the only ones financially and legally liable for our personal defense is us. He blurts out that there are 23 cases the other way (a lie) and then goes into his REAL point.
He’s supposedly a psychologist who helps people with their “gun addictions”…by linking their “need for a gun” to their “sexual issues”.
In other words, it turned into one long grotesque genitalia joke. His first rapid-fire question to me was “when was the last time you had sex” I goggled at him a sec and then blurted out “a week and a half ago” (first thing I thought of) while grinning; the second involved whether or not I’d ever missed the toilet or not…I laughed, said “well ya, everybody misses once in a while” at which point he took that as “proof” that we can’t safely aim guns. The third question was “when was your first homoerotic experience” at which point I called him a nutcase and the “moderator” shut that crap down.
“Camo Boy” was then allowed to conclude his point about a gun’s barrel length being used to “compensate” – I laughed and said “you moron, my biggest gun has a two inch barrel” so he switched to “activity levels”.
He then blurted out “But I’m all for hunting! Not with guns though!”
“Yup! With ROCKS!”
What the…
They switched to a video of this idiot and two friends wandering through the woods throwing rocks at anything that moved…birds, fish, whatever. Soto looked like he was gonna die. The chick on my right screams something about how “you’ll go pretty hungry that way”…“Camo Boy” then starts naming his “prey”, mentions hitting a sparrow once (couldn’t find it afterwards) and “alpaca”. Soto looks at him in shock, I blurt out “that’s a farm animal!”, conversation dies on THAT subject.
Moderator takes us to a “gun safety expert” on live video feed who has this wonderful smartgun invention blueprint…all on ONE gun, he’s got three triggers, a safety on top of the safety, fingerprint recognition, breathalyzer, retinal scanner and microphone for your pass phrase.
I’m supposed to comment on this…shaking my head in disbelief, I mention that under New Jersey law, if something this stupid ever comes to market it’ll be required by law, except that cops won’t have to use ‘em, only regular folks. “Camo boy” starts screaming about “you don’t trust the police” again.
Then we went on break for a sec. Erika Quinn and her boss escort me out to the street so they could smoke, and I nearly bust a gut laughing on the way there. I was yelling something about how this was utter madness, a setup, there’s no way these guys actually believed their own bull(beep). They were trying to convince me this was all on the up-and-up…which given how weird grabbers can be was maybe, barely believable at this point…it hadn’t REALLY got weird yet, comparatively speaking.
I should have walked away right then. “See ya”. But…these guys had paid my transport/hotel costs ($200 plus the hotel room) so…I felt…”obligated”. Sigh.
So we go back on. “Camo boy” says he’ll make a deal with me…a month’s supply of penis enlargement pills if I’ll give up guns. I’m just disgusted at this point. Two months. “You idiot, those don’t even exist, they’re a fraud like you are” at which point he gets mad, reaches down into a bag and grabs this…thing. Vaguely medical looking. Hands it to me. I must have had a puzzled expression, then I realized what I was holding on national TV. A “penis pump”. I’ve heard of the concept but never actually seen one…there are freaks out there that turn their “gear” into something the size of a beer can with these things.
Once I realized what it was, I tossed it over my shoulder. The chick runs back and gets it, waves it around and screams something about “you think *I* need this!?!”.
By this point I’m right around mental shutdown. God only knows what I must have looked like on camera, I don’t want to even think about it.
They then switch to yet another “live video feed”…this time to an anti-gun African-American rap group. Not anti-VIOLENCE mind you, anti gun. They have no problems whatsoever “cruisin’ the hood” in a convertible while wearing neon pink and green feathers and warpaint and doing drive-by bow and arrow murders…with their “rap video” concluding with a black guy doing a cheesy fake death scene with fake blood and an arrow through the throat.
Their African-American “spokesman” comes back on camera still in silly feathers and bad warpaint and goes into an incoherent rant about guns being “from the white man” (my numbed brain was thinking “no, you idiot, the first guns were CHINESE!”). It was about as tasteless, vile and racist as it comes and concluded with a screaming match between the moderator and this “rap star”. Oh, until a fat Chinese guy in medical scrubs snuck up behind the idiot in warpaint, injected him in the neck with a hypodermic, idiot in warpaint goes “unconscious” ‘cept we can see him giggling while the guy in scrubs screams something about “I’m gonna bust a CAP in you CAPilary, booyeeee!” in a bad Asian/”ghetto” mix accent.
Let me make clear that at various points throughout this mess, there’d be brief breaks wherein we’d all still be sitting there at the table, but each of us had our own “handlers” coming in and trying to…”boost us up”, sort of like how a boxing coach tries to verbally “buck up” a banged-up fighter between rounds. It also means I didn’t get a chance to get my head straight, I’d have Erika in my face saying things like “It’s going great but you’ve got to make your points, talk about all those things we talked about over the phone” yadayadayada, basically talking non-stop over my objections to the general insanity and trying to stir me up while they did makeup touchup, etc. Otherwise I’d have been able to get my bearings better. Instead it was just a blur of non-stop chaos.
Folks, it wouldn’t even OCCUR to me to screw with somebody’s head this way. I’m just not wired to be able to do that to somebody for ANY reason and…well, that’s what’s really got me pissed off here. They played me like a fiddle, VERY professionally, with techniques very similar to how a car salesman brings his boss in at key moments…keep people “mentally off their feet” – whenever Erika started to lose control over me she’d go get a boss and double-team me in the same way.
I did NOT CONSENT TO BE FIND!@#$ LIKE THIS!
As credits rolled on this train wreck, “Camo boy” pulls out a large rock about the size of an Altoids can and makes throwing motions with it while growling and snarling at me from four feet away. I’m trying to figure out if he’s gonna brain me with it while sticking my hand in my pocket just in case…I came within an inch of pulling a 4”-class folding knife on the moron and telling him to drop that rock. (Back in the dressing room, I told Erika that I had felt physically threatened enough by that rock (and lunatic) to consider pulling a knife…I’m now told that they’re shocked I was armed. Gee, guys, I said I wouldn’t bring a GUN, other than that you might have checked my own website: http://www.equalccw.com/knifelaw.html - esp. section six…oh and Erika, Federal railway regs limit pocketknives to 4”…if I’d driven down there instead of coming by train, I’d have my usual carry piece on me…a 5.5” blade hand-ground $200+ folder. Tell “Jeff” who was shocked that “I’d have a knife on a TV set!” in a phone conversation today that I always have cutlery on me, period, and I’d never threaten anybody with it unless faced with deadly force. A rock that size qualifies when being waved around by a (literally) growling maniac who claims to pelt farm animals with rocks for a hobby.)
Conclusion.
If you haven’t figured it out by now, “Crossball” is meant as a spoof of the debate show genre, intended for Comedy Central all along. I wasn’t told this and apparently neither was Soto. Obviously, the madwoman they put up against him probably made gun owners look like turds. She was introduced as “Mary Clarke” with “Women and Guns” – she doesn’t turn up on google so she’s another imposter.
I haven’t been able to sleep properly since this mess two days ago. I am beyond furious. If this trash airs, nobody who’s seen it will be able to look at me with a straight face ever again.
Susan Marie Weber was the “unwitting straight guest” on the elections/voting segment of this show. She wrote me the following in Email:
Hi Jim
Yep, I figured out in the first 3 minutes that it was a joke, and that
everyone was in on it except for me. Oh well.
It was totally silly - the only reason I didn't walk off the set, was because I figured if at least ONE person in the audience heard what I was saying about the electronic voting, it was worth it.
At the first break when they came to powder etc, I said, this is a joke show, and as you commented below, they kept saying, no, no this is serious. But the man I was supposedly debating was having a hard time insulting me, because he realized that I was answering seriously to his comments. And, I was laughing so hard at the silly comments he made, I don't think they expected that.
When I signed the release, I even asked the lady whether or not my comments were going to be taken out of context and goofed up.
The other two people they interspersed to "debate" discussed the voting age. A Young Republican and a man of 36 who argued that people should be 26 to vote. During a break he and I were discussing the Libertarian Party - but who knows if he was telling me the truth.
I have doubts that any of the stuff I did will ever be shown, although I must confess, I have gone over it several times with my friend to figure out what they could manipulate and make fun of. I don't think I would call any of it vile. The other two debators were a little crass, and I thought about walking off the set again - but, I stayed.
They paid a LOT of money to make these shows.
What would you want to do about it? I'd have to dig out the release I signed to see what I agreed to let them do with the filming.
By the way, we refused the $200 "honorarium", and the "free ride". They insisted on picking us up, so we parked a couple of blocks from the studio, and rode there in a town car.
Susan Marie
Another example of the same stunt: http://www.veggieboards.com/boards/showthread.php?t=17659 (page two of this thread talks about how it turned out to be a joke…)
All this while describing it as “on MTV” in private to me, and publicly as in this blurb:
The article http://www.equalccw.com/thedebateshowfiasco.html
The wiki link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crossballs
Now this guy is on my side in the gun control debate but.....I almost died laughing when I read this.:laugh4:
Yeah I know I screwed up the title....but I just now noticed and it won't let you edit titles.