'Thug' Comment About Unions Appears in NetCoalition Handout
Group Apologizes, Say Blog Piece Was Circulated Under Its Letterhead by Outside Consultant for Conservative Event
John Eggerton -- Multichannel News, 1/26/2012 8:29:15 PM
A blog posting on news publisher Andrew Breitbart's website and reproduced for circulation as a handout under NetCoalition letterhead takes aim at the backers of antipiracy legislation, identifying them as the Motion Picture Association of America, the Recording Industry of Association of America, and "a host of union thugs."
The NetCoalition was a major player in the pushback against the Stop Online Piracy Act and the PROTECT IP Act that resulted in both bills being tabled -- at least for now. Members of the coalition, according to the group's website, include Google, Yahoo!, Amazon.com, eBay, IAC, Bloomberg LP, Expedia and Wikipedia.
Among the unions that supported the bill were the American Federation of Musicians, American Federation of Television and Radio Artists,, Directors Guild of America, International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, Moving Picture Technicians, Artists and Allied Crafts of the United States, Its Territories and Canada, Screen Actors Guild, and International Brotherhood of Teamsters.
Scott Harbinson, point person on the bills for union IATSE, saw the handout and was not happy. "It is an outrage that people who ostensibly fought the fight against [antipiracy legislation] on free speech grounds turn around and characterize working people who exercise their own free speech rights to advocate for a bill that will help preserve and expand their jobs as 'union thugs.' What the hell is that?"
A spokesperson for the coalition said the document was prepared from the blog for the coalition by an outside consultant and they were not happy with it.
In a follow-up statement, NetCoalition executive director Markham Erickson elaborated and apologized for the way the piece was circulated, which also did not identify that the text was from Breitbart.
"On Wednesday, a NetCoalition media consultant, Black Rock Group, prepared a handout in connection with an appearance before a conservative organization," said Erickson in a statement. "The handout is a reproduction of a blog post that ran on Andrew Breitbart's "Big Government" website on January 23, 2012. The blog post contained a derogatory reference to union members. NetCoalition neither wrote nor approved the blog post or its appearance on NC letterhead.
"This should never have happened and we are stunned and deeply sorry that it did. Throughout our efforts on piracy legislation, we have kept our objections focused on policy, rather than politics. We remain committed to achieving consensus on legislation to address the issue of online piracy. We recognize that consensus is achievable only when all parties are treated with respect. The events of yesterday have no place in that effort and we again sincerely apologize for them. We have adopted internal controls and taken other steps to ensure that nothing like this ever happens again."
Harbinger was not assuaged, saying he did not see a disavowal in the statement. "One of the things that struck me as ironic was that while the NetCoalition seems perfectly willing to call the men and women who will soon be getting Oscars for their contributions "thugs," there is no denouncement of cyberterrorist group, anonymous, which took down the Web sites of groups who were pushing this bill."
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