In my last article I exposed amateur journalist and z-list science fiction author Jason Sanford’s misleading recent article about Baen Publishing’s webforum, “Baen’s Bar”. In this second (of at least three) articles, I deal with the aftermath. A third article will deal with some of Sanford’s writing that is, in my opinion, sexually problematic, racially insensitive and offensive to people with some disabilities. There may be a fourth article but I am still investigating. Anyone who has felt that Jason Sanford has dealt with them inappropriately in any way (but especially at conventions), is invited to get in touch in confidence via the email on the, ‘About’ page.
Jason Sanford’s Linkedin images are shown here for the purposes of criticism and review. Sanford, who works for the Ohio News Media Association, is clearly not the snappiest of text writers and either his head is weirdly elongated or the aspect ratio is slightly off. His job is to do … marketing content, including graphics. (Click for full size)
Since Jason Sanford’s article misinformed but zealous readers of his have inundated the organisers of WorldCon 2021, a science fiction convention, with complaints to the extent that Baen Publisher Toni Weisskopf has been uninvited from being a guest of honour. The problem is that the allegations are, largely, just not true. At the same time, darker and darker information is emerging about Sanford. I have received a statement from lawyers for Sanford’s employers, the Ohio News Media Association (ONMA) trying to distance themselves from the scandal. However, given they are a media organisation, given Sanford uses his employment with them to advertise himself and given his followers standard of tenuous-guilt-by-association, that position seems untenable. These events can only reflect badly on ONMA, Sanford’s boss Monica Nieporte (ONMA President) and Discon III Chair Bill Lawhorn.
So, when I put up my first article about Jason Sanford’s unethical behaviour, no response was received. I offered the subjects an extension of time and I know they saw it. I also spoke to Monica Nieporte on the telephone. The day after publication, I received the following statement from lawyers instructed by ONMA –
This is the official statement from ONMA’s lawyers. Click for full size.
Jason Sanford’s conduct is outside his employment at ONMA, they say, and nothing to do with them. Now, Baker Hostetler is a large law firm but that does not mean I intend to fall over. I set out why I respectfully disagree, below. Now firstly we should make clear why ONMA would want to disassociate themselves from Jason Sanford’s article. It is a shoddy piece of journalism that no reputable media organisation would want to be associated with. The article has been debunked by a stellar list of science-fiction luminaries –
“Baen’s Bane: Jason Sanford of Ohio News Media Association (ONMA) and his Unethical “Journalism”” – Matthew Hopkins News – (archive)
“Author Jason Sanford Accuses Baen Books’ Forums Of Being “Used to Advocate for Political Violence” – Spencer Baculi – BoundingIntoComics.com – (archive)
“THE CONTROVERSY ABOUT BAEN’S BAR” – Eric Flint – EricFlint.net – (archive)
“PUBLISHING HOUSE BAEN BOOKS ATTACKED BY CANCEL CULTURE” – Larry Correia – monsterhunternation.com – (archive)
David Weber, author of the Safehold series weighed in on Facebook– (archive)
“Don’t Mess With An Author’s Source of Income” – Jason Cordova – jasoncordova.com – (archive)
“CANCELING BAEN BOOKS” – Sarah Hoyt – madgeniusclub.com – (archive)
“Baen Books” – Cedar Sanderson – www.cedarwrites.com – (archive)
“Baen’s Bar Fight” – Leona Wisoker – www.leonawisoker.com – (archive)
“Baen’s Bar taken offline due to whiny Progressive totalitarian” – The Angry Webmaster – angry.net – (archive)
“The fight to save Baen’s Bar is ON!” – The Angry Webmaster – angry.net – (archive)
“Disinviting Baen” – Vox Day – voxday.blogspot.com – (archive)
“Baen under SJW assault” – Vox Day – voxday.blogspot.com – (archive)
So, to analyse ONMA’s claims. Was Sanford’s article written as part of his paid employment for them? No. Are they legally responsible? No. Does it raise questions about their reputation and integrity? Yes.
Jason Sanford is a self-defined journalist. He works for a media organisation in a creative role. So, the conduct in which he has behaved unjustly is directly related to his work and his suitability for same. Furthermore, Jason’s online profiles such as his LinkedIn profile (currently down) advertise his personal brand with his work for ONMA in tandem with his science fiction work. Finally, Jason himself and his friends take the view that associating in any way with someone who has behaved (in their view) unethically is complicity. So, WorldCon 2021 had to be inundated with complaints until Toni Weisskopf was removed. Now, Monica Nieporte finds herself in a symmetric position.
By Jason Sanford’s dystopian ideology, Monica Nieporte is morally responsible for all of his acts and omissions that are thought to be unethical until she fires him. Her difficulty is that now I am looking deeply into Sanford. There are other problems. The details of his problematic writing are something that I will include in my third article. I will need to put the allegations to Interzone, the magazine that has (up until now) been enabling him.
So obsessed are Sanford’s fans that they are even now trying to cancel me! A fan of Sanford tweeted as follows (archive) –
Matt Doyle, an extremist supporter of Jason Sanford, attempts to cancel me. I have been in touch with my hosting company’s support team who are aware (click full size).
Matt is entitled to his views but I have been in touch with my hosting company support team and they confirm my article is ToS compliant. Polite petitions using public information are not doxxing. This is what they said –
The hosting company confirms my polite petition campaign is ToS compliant. Click for full size.
Matt should have thought twice before making false statements and trying to no-platform an innocent blogger. This is a law blog. I went to law school. I have been literally praised in Parliament for my legal skills helping vulnerable people, for example a woman wrongly accused of lacking mental capacity by her own lawyer (Hansard link here). My previous article is about me suing someone for defamation and having their defence struck out (demurrer, I believe they call it in the US). That article is here and the judgement is downloadable from it. Matt talks tough, but will he talk so tough if a process server hands legal papers to him, or if Patreon discovers any problems with his webcomic about “polyamorous” adventurers?
Regardless, I am busy so hopefully Matty will take the hint and save me the effort of dealing with him. In the meantime, my third article about the sexual, racial and ablist issues with some of Jason Sanford’s so called, “writing” is coming soon.
If you would like to email ONMA, Jason Sanford’s employers, to politely and respectfully raise concerns, a list of email addresses (only publicly available ones) is here.
First, the comment you posted has been approved. It seems that Skynet….Discus puts a hold whenever links are included.
Second, I didn’t realize you waz frum England. That explains why you talk and write do good. 😉
Third, I finally connected with Swarth Vader via Linked In, something I should have done years ago, (In my Real World Persona) I would love to have him come to the States and join the company I work for. He would be one heck of an asset.
I am going to buy $100 of books from Baen. I do this in honor of AOC whose stupid comments about a company making Mexican food resulted in a massive increase in business for the company. Not only will my personal library grow with some very good books, it is a way for a non-legal type such as me to poke the eye of the “woke” fools
I wish you all the luck in the world with your campaign. You are on the side of angels (you may not believe in them but you are still fighting on their side).
I find it extremely amusing that you’ve included my blog post in this list, since it’s clear you didn’t read it at all. I am most definitely not debunking Sanford; I agree with most of what he’s saying, and I find the outrage you’re attempting to generate to be dishonest and distasteful.
Hi Leona,
I included your article, essentially, because of this quote, “Sanford’s post is not terrific. It has flaws: generalizations, lack of supporting data presented, at least one factual mistake. As an investigative report, it’s kinda messy.”
There are parts of your post I disagree with, “recruited into the right-wing militias because they would make great cannon fodder”. I do not agree that is a reasonable paraphrase. It looks more like invention.
However, it is not necessary to agree with me 100% to be included. I found it amusing that even supporters (for varying values of ‘supporter’) acknowledge the weakness of Sanford’s so called ‘journalism’.
I wonder whether you will still be so keen to be associated with him later once I have completed my analysis of some of his fictional writings in my forthcoming article.
It’s called “fair and balanced reporting”, ma’am. 😃
Interesting phraseology: “the outrage you’re attempting to generate” you say. I note that those attempting to generate outrage want others to react out of anger, not permitting their brains to apply the cold balm of reason to the situation.
In the original article we read “For those who are concerned, including aggrieved users of Baen’s Bar …, readers may contact by email …” Those readers inclined to agree with the author’s conclusions might interpret that as enabling a response that they already wished to make. Readers not so inclined might interpret it as encouraging/inciting such a response.
However, at the bottom of the original article we read “Readers are requested to be polite, respectful and courteous” and in the article above we read “… to politely and respectfully raise concerns …”. Such statements make it very clear that the author wishes any responses not to be generated out of anger, but instead desires reason to dominate. It is very clear from these statements alone that the author is not attempting to generate the outrage that you claim that he is.
There seem to be a number of potential conclusions that could be drawn: (1) You didn’t read the entirety of either article; (2) The meanings of certain key phrases are very different in your dialect of English than they are in the one I speak/read/write; (3) Something else logically consistent with the above (only included because I’m not infallible, I can’t think of such an alternative).
Since someone accusing another of not reading their article in full wouldn’t dream of doing the same in return (that would be hypocrisy) I’m inclined to believe (2) – and if this is the case would you please do us all the courtesy of supplying the variant interpretations necessary for you to reach your conclusion.
Hi Leona, I blogged about your “Baen’s Bar Fight” post after seeing it here. I restricted my comments about your post to the comment I made at your site.
You can leave in in moderation if you like, I just thought you’d like to know I talked about it elsewhere.
Mr. Smith, nice blog post. Keep up the good work, sir.