People should read âpihtawikosisân’s splendid follow-up piece, responding to the National Post’s reprinting of her original article without permission and misattributing it as well.
She’s now been outed, with far more attention that she ever expected or wanted, and she’s already become the target of hate messages from the scuttling creatures who hang out in the Post’s comments section. (Fortunately, these have been few in number, however: most of the hundreds of commenters she attracted have actually wanted to engage with her.)
The National Post has apologized and said it was all a “misunderstanding.”
I at this point cop to a misunderstanding of my own. Brett Hodnett, who was given the byline in the Post re-print, turns out to be a complete innocent in this affair. Like so many others, he had been taken by âpihtawikosisân’s article on Attawapiskat, and sent it to NaPo, with a link, for their edification.
He didn’t rip off the article at all, and I apologize to him for being too hasty in my earlier post on the subject.
Here he is, in his own words:
Hi, I’m the one who sent the link to your blog to the National Post, hoping they could use the excellent information when they were reporting on this issue. I don’t have any relationship with the National Post, or any other media for that matter. They mistakenly assumed I wrote it and credited it to me. I noticed it on the site and emailed them to tell them that I didn’t write it, and they had my name removed from it within minutes. So I can’t fault them for anything other than just a mistake.
I apologize if it appeared that I was trying to take credit for it, I didn’t intend that.
I’m just some guy that happened across your blog and thought that finally someone had written something sensible about the issue and I wanted it more widely read. Thanks for writing it.
âpihtawikosisân, unsurprisingly, responds with her trademark graciousness. And in her later piece, she says:
I really want to clarify something here. The fellow who had his name attached to the article was not trying to pass himself off as the author. He came across the post the same way most of you did, and sent it to the National Post who didn’t fact check rigorously enough and published it with his name. I appreciate that people were upset, but this guy shouldn’t be blamed for what happened.
Well, “what happened” brought her to the attention of people across the country, most of whom, I suspect, were as impressed as I was when co-blogger Balbulican alerted me to her blog. âpihtawikosisân has one of the most truly humane voices I’ve ever encountered, anywhere, and I have a few years under my belt. I look forward with anticipation to reading her blog regularly.
Blogroll this person, or you’re missing a bet. She’s the perfect antidote to misunderstandings of all kinds.
[H/t reader Peter1]