Will CBG Cover Controversial Issues?

[esquirecomics]

Awe4one started an interesting thread in the CBG forum about controversial topics and whether CBG would ever cover them in the magazine. This includes pressing, resubs, PCS and Ewert. CBG staff actually responded.

 

Since no doubt some of you would be interested in their response, here are the posts.

 

Subject: Why Has CBG Not Addressed Various Issues In This Hobby?

[tth2]

Thanks Mark, that was... uh, interesting. And thanks to Jim (awe4one) in pushing the issue with them.

 

Is it me, or is CBG the most cautious media organization in America? Their self-censorship standards remind me of newspapers in the PRC.

[esquirecomics]

Is it me, or is CBG the most cautious media organization in America? Their self-censorship standards remind me of newspapers in the PRC.

 

Kinda funny when you think about it. They are writing about comic books and related items. Geez.

[johnenock]

Since, they haven't had any staff to research the issues...it took them 1 1/2 years to write something on Dupcak...we should see an enlightening article on these "minor non-interesting to their subscribers" issues around 2008?

[Scheradon]

Thanks for the link Mark.

 

I like this paragraph:

 

Pressing, in particular, has been talked to death in our pages. Maggie has written of that panel she ran at San Diego where everyone agreed that pressing is not restoration -- or at least should not be a mark against a book -- and that's long since ratcheted way down the list of topics of likely interest, both to ourselves and, we believe, the majority of our readers. Our audience is more mainstream than it was in the newspaper days, and this is pretty esoteric for our crowd.

 

So Maggie ran the panel huh? And everyone agreed?

 

I'm very glad you came on there and set that straight.

 

So, is it this:

 

We haven't wanted to say anything about it because we very much expected (and still expect) to get our ducks in a row -- but it does explain the situation.

 

or that they don't have the staff to take it on. I mean, that's fine to cover your legal rear end and get all your facts together, but you're not going to get your ducks in a row, if no one is working on lining them up.

[jbud73]

Looks like the current answer to the question in the title in NO. The reasoning applied? We dont have the time or the staff / resources. Looks like we can count on more Puff pieces in CBG in the near future.

[tth2]

Is it me, or is CBG the most cautious media organization in America? Their self-censorship standards remind me of newspapers in the PRC.

 

Kinda funny when you think about it. They are writing about comic books and related items. Geez.

I know! When I read their responses, my first thought was that Woodward & Bernstein worked on a storyline that brought down a U.S. president, and it didn't take them 18 months to get it published. Although I'm no expert in media or defamation law, I don't think the applicable standard is that they must be absolutely certain of their facts before publishing, just that they didn't act negligently or wilfully.

[adamstrange]

Awe4one started an interesting thread in the CBG forum about controversial topics and whether CBG would ever cover them in the magazine. This includes pressing, resubs, PCS and Ewert. CBG staff actually responded.

 

Since no doubt some of you would be interested in their response, here are the posts.

 

Subject: Why Has CBG Not Addressed Various Issues In This Hobby?

 

Small circulation pubs like this don't live by subscriptions alone, advertising is a big part of why they stay in business. Nor are they particularly interested in lawsuits as even nuisance suits can result in substantial costs. I've heard lawyers are expensive.

 

It's a widely held view in the software biz that the dollars spent advertising impact the general editorial climate toward your product. If that's the situation in a much larger, more profitable publishing world than CBG, then their behavior, while disappointing, is not too much of a surprise.

[esquirecomics]

Anyone know what CBG's circulation is BTW?

[Davenport]

Thanks for the link.

Wow, that was some bizarre reading. A big yawn over pressing and no 'nads for reporting anything beyond a price guide.

Makes me wonder if they send out a legal team to look at the dead body and visually confirm before they'll write up a hobby-celebrity's passing.

[sckao]

 

The same topic was actually covered back in October 2005 in a thread started by stupidman.

 

They pretty much say the same thing as the current thread.. almost the exact same wording, etc.

 

http://www.cbgxtra.com/default.aspx?tabid=42&view=topic&forumid=33&postid=4540

[Red Hook]

Jim and Mark, I applaud you both. Super job! Anyone over the age of five can see that CBG has lost their direction. They have let the collecting community down on several fronts here. You guys could not have addressed it any better. The logic they present for their inaction is pathetic.

 

And to CBG I say this....

 

If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem.

 

Brad

[Timulty]

So, that brings us to this point...Who here wants to start a rival publication? The time and resources involved....well it would be a daunting task but it seems this is necessary. Perhaps, this should be part of the new association? A newsletter, that can be made available at the large cons? It would be a start.

[Sal]

ooh, this is my favourite;

 

Think back to the Dupcak piece. We spent a LOOONG time on that one because one of the major elements was that the online dealer people were associating with him had been accused of restoring books. But it turned out that, after talking to a lot of dealers, we did not have a photographic before-and-after look at a book that went through his hands -- which was a level of evidence we would have been comfortable with. The result was that our piece had to focus instead on proving that, despite his denials, there was a connection between the dealer and Dupcak. We never ourselves made any kind of statement about the quality of his wares; only about the veracity of his claim. We made the case, so that's what we went to press with.

 

boy, it's too bad they don't have this kind of evidence with regards to Ewert...heeeey, wait a minute

[Red Hook]

I think their rationalization for not alerting the collecting community to these stories is embararssingly weak.

 

All they have to do is report on the facts, without editorializing. Don't forget. The Ewert story is still very much alive, and has been time sensitive from the start. Ewert books continue to be disseminated through the collecting community with the passive assistance of publications like CBG and other sources.

 

Of course reporting on the story would also alert the wider community that certain forms of trimming can not be detected.

 

From their answers it just reinforces my opinion that CBG is nothing more than an industry bullhorn and is not to be taken as a source of serious journalism.

 

A pox on their house.

 

Red

[Mr. Zipper]

Makes me wonder if they send out a legal team to look at the dead body and visually confirm before they'll write up a hobby-celebrity's passing.

 

 

This just in....

 

From the CBG Newsline...

 

CBG --- William Gaines has died. --- CBG

[Mr. Zipper]

I think their rationalization for not alerting the collecting community to these stories is embararssingly weak.

 

All they have to do is report on the facts, without editorializing.

 

 

Exactly. The issue has been made public and reported elsewhere... most notably on these boards.

 

CBG doesn't have to do an investigative report on Ewert... just report the controversy.

 

The fact that CGC issued a public statement banning a Charter Member due to suspect trimming patterns is reason enough to do a story.

[esquirecomics]

There are a few more CBG responses now posted. I'll let you all be the judge as to how you interpret them.

 

I would recommend, however, that anyone who has an interest in these topics start posting responses in that thread. Show CBG that there are many people who do take the issues seriously and want to see reporting done on them.

[OldGuy]

[embarrassing lack of self control] CBG.

[Mr. Zipper]

There are a few more CBG responses now posted. I'll let you all be the judge as to how you interpret them.

 

These guys just don't get it. No one is asking them to personally investigate the charges against Jason Ewert, et al. -- just report the FACTS to the collecting community at large, e.g. CGC Has Banned Ewert, Will Re-examine his books free of charge, etc. Where is the liability in reporting an official CGC company announcement and policy? I can understand being journalistically cautious, but these guys take it to the extreme.

 

Good thing they weren't in charge of the Washington Post during the Nixon administration. We'd just be hearing about Watergate in 2005 after Mark Felt (Deep Throat) decided to publicly confirm everything.