Thursday, November 22, 2007

A Sad Day on eBob

I've been a frequent denizen of the chat board for Robert Parker's Wine Advocate. I've learned a tremendous amount and made a bunch of friends...and as the things we love and value disappoint us the most...it is with great regret that I note that Lyle Fass has been banned from the board. I've learned a tremendous amount about wine from reading his posts and blog (Rockss and Fruit), as well as visiting him at his shop.

Mark Squires had best remember the words of John F. Kennedy. “Those who make peaceful revolution impossible, make violent revolution inevitable.” As competing voices are drowned out it only reinforces the (erroneous) notion that M. Parker is trying to dictate taste in the wine world. Alice Fiering spoke on her blog of her banning. Even when snarky and condescending, as I often find Ms. Fiering's writing to be, I am drawn to it for no other reason than it is deemed taboo. I've even learned a thing or two, although I have as yet caught the disease that makes good people reject fruit as a flaw (see I can be reductive and marginalize points of view too). The more voices the better. We should not be afraid of ideas and we must always have the courage to confront our own beliefs and examine whether they stand scrutiny.

Mostly, we must fight for those that disagree with us, lest we become what we have beheld in horror. In the words of Keith Levenberg (or was it Niemöller), "First they came for Merlot and I did not speak up because I was not Merlot."

5 comments:

Brad Coelho said...

get outta here? Why'd he get the boot?

Steve Eisenhauer said...

As someone who has experienced Mark's heavy hand of censorship, I can guess.

Brad Coelho said...

what guess is that Steve? I'm jonesin' for some soap operatic tidbits...

Steve Eisenhauer said...

If Mark feels your posts are too negative towards Parker and his ratings (especially if the post has some actual data behind it), he will, if you started the thread, either bury the post (by merging), close the thread or delete the thread altogether (if he deletes your thread, he doesn't even tell you).

If your post is in an established thread, he may email you to let you know he's deleted your post. If you follow up, he will respond with some nasty comments about how stupid you are not to know your post was inappropriate (like there's some kind of objective standard).

It can get nasty. If pushed, he'll tell you it's "his board" and he can do what he wants - including kicking you off.

So my guess is that the interaction with Lyle/Mark followed to one of its logical conclusions.

Ben said...

See Rockss and Fruit for a full explanation and Squires own site for a rebuttal.