Attacked by Alan Kurtz
Last month my book, Hard Time, was reviewed at Blogcritics by Greg Barbrick. This week I received an invitation from Blogcritics to submit reviews, which I accepted.
With 1 in 100 adults in prison in America, interest is high in prison memoirs. Having read that genre extensively, I figured it would be in the public interest to write my first review about the prison memoir I enjoyed the most, which happens to be Mother California by Kenneth Hartman. I submitted my review last night, and went to bed.
I woke up this morning to an article written by Alan Kurtz who is banned from Blogcritics. He is accused of creating “a personal site solely to embarrass and diminish the reputation of our writers.” Which is exactly what he has tried to do to me.
By focussing on my crimes and the crimes of the author of Mother California, Alan hasn’t balanced his article out by stating how myself and Kenneth Hartman have and are still presently taking measures to redeem ourselves. Kenneth, who is never getting out of prison and takes full responsibility for his life sentence, is constantly campaigning for human rights. I’m getting emails all week long from students who have heard my talk to schools such as this one a few days ago:
You came into my school this week to talk about your life so far. Firstly your talk was amazing (and so was your life it would appear) it was the highlight of almost everyone’s day. Secondly I have also recently started taking some of the less hardcore drugs as a follow on from smoking. I didn't really see how a few highs here and there could cause a problem, but your story really spoke to me. Thanks for taking the time to come in to my school
Alan also seems surprised that my prison blog features stories about criminals. Well, duh! By focussing on BHF’s story as told by BHF, Alan implies that I somehow condone BHF’s acts of violence and torture, which is simply untrue. Alan even extends this implication to the reader comments following BHF’s story.
Alan this may be news to you but Jon’s Jail Journal is a platform for prisoners to share their stories, and for readers to make their own minds up and post their opinions.
Alan, you might stand a chance of getting reinstated as a Blogcritics writer if you stop diminishing the reputation of writers by painting biased pictures of people to suit your own purposes.
Shaun Attwood
Last month my book, Hard Time, was reviewed at Blogcritics by Greg Barbrick. This week I received an invitation from Blogcritics to submit reviews, which I accepted.
With 1 in 100 adults in prison in America, interest is high in prison memoirs. Having read that genre extensively, I figured it would be in the public interest to write my first review about the prison memoir I enjoyed the most, which happens to be Mother California by Kenneth Hartman. I submitted my review last night, and went to bed.
I woke up this morning to an article written by Alan Kurtz who is banned from Blogcritics. He is accused of creating “a personal site solely to embarrass and diminish the reputation of our writers.” Which is exactly what he has tried to do to me.
By focussing on my crimes and the crimes of the author of Mother California, Alan hasn’t balanced his article out by stating how myself and Kenneth Hartman have and are still presently taking measures to redeem ourselves. Kenneth, who is never getting out of prison and takes full responsibility for his life sentence, is constantly campaigning for human rights. I’m getting emails all week long from students who have heard my talk to schools such as this one a few days ago:
You came into my school this week to talk about your life so far. Firstly your talk was amazing (and so was your life it would appear) it was the highlight of almost everyone’s day. Secondly I have also recently started taking some of the less hardcore drugs as a follow on from smoking. I didn't really see how a few highs here and there could cause a problem, but your story really spoke to me. Thanks for taking the time to come in to my school
Alan also seems surprised that my prison blog features stories about criminals. Well, duh! By focussing on BHF’s story as told by BHF, Alan implies that I somehow condone BHF’s acts of violence and torture, which is simply untrue. Alan even extends this implication to the reader comments following BHF’s story.
Alan this may be news to you but Jon’s Jail Journal is a platform for prisoners to share their stories, and for readers to make their own minds up and post their opinions.
Alan, you might stand a chance of getting reinstated as a Blogcritics writer if you stop diminishing the reputation of writers by painting biased pictures of people to suit your own purposes.
Shaun Attwood
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