Monday, January 08, 2007

The Angry Files 1

Right this second, I'm watching this ridiculous Dr. Phil show. I'm angry at myself for tuning in because now I'm actually angry - like screaming at the TV angry - over this outrageous debate that he's got going. And because I cannot scream directly at the moron woman on the show, I'm going to have to do it here. Here's the background: this woman has a website that is set up so that women can go on, in a public forum, and post pictures and full names of guys they've dated and warn other girls to stay away. The woman who runs this website does not claim that anything on the website is true, and she says that it's not her responsibility to make sure that the information is accurate. She's simply providing this opportunity for scorned and victimized women to stand up to the men who have done them wrong. Of course, these women can remain anonymous. The men get their names and pictures published, even though this woman running the site freely admits that she's not certain and cannot verify that any of it is true.

So, this one guy, a very well-spoken lawyer, finds out that he's on the site - and he claims the information isn't true. He calls up the woman who runs the site and asks her to take down the information. She says no and tells him to respond to the information by posting a "rebuttal" on her website. He says that will do nothing - claiming that he's really not gay or bisexual and that he doesn't have an STD will just add to the he-said she-said back and forth. Because she refuses to take down the post, he starts a lawsuit.

As soon as this show begins, I'm on the side of the guy, because I can't get past this: while I understand having this public forum for women to go on and talk about these awful guys and what they've done, I cannot understand how she can justify allowing these women to post pictures and full names of these guys when she freely admits that she cannot verify that the claims are, in fact, true. I am at a loss how anybody can see it differently, but apparently, this woman who runs the site is not only a moron, but also a total bitch.

She goes on and on about how it's her right to allow these women to have free speech. I agree with the whole free speech argument, but I cannot accept that it's okay to write whatever you want about someone on the internet, for anybody to look up and read, when it's not necessarily true. Anybody who runs a website where these things happen should be held accountable!

I was pretty annoyed by this woman and I was in shock that she thought she could justify her position. I kept thinking that the lawyer guy was so well spoken and he brought up all sorts of good arguments: if he has a client, his client might decide to google him or research him and this is what would come up. Obviously, this might cost him business. The woman could not understand why he would not just post on the site. He brought up that it's not right for him to respond to these anonymous cowardly posts because there's really no way to post anything without giving credibility to the forum that this woman has created, which he definitely does not want to do. So I'm watching this stupid show feeling worse and worse for this guy who is saying that he's been begging to have the information removed, who says he just wants to be happy and not worry about potential clients or dates or even family members finding the false information.

Then this woman goes on to say this stupid gem: she says she finds it ironic that he is suing her - in effect, asking for money, she says - for having this website that allows women to put up "questionable information" when he is a criminal defense attorney for a living and he makes his money defending rapists and murderers. Umm, what?!?! She's saying that because he is a criminal defense attorney, it's hypocritical of him to ask her for money for what he thinks is putting up false statements that might be damaging. That doesn't even make sense to me! Talk about delusional and hypocritical: her entire defense about this lawsuit is the constitutional right for free speech. Well, guess what, you stupid moron, it's someone else's constitutional right to have an attorney and be defended in a court of law!!!

I think this Dr. Phil show might be old, so I went to google and tried to figure out what happened in the lawsuit, but so far, I have been unsuccessful. Hold on a second though, I'm going to check again because I'm pretty riled up. OK, I just checked online and I couldn't find anything but I also got even angrier. (OH MY GOD RIGHT NOW THE SHOW IS GETTING ME EVEN ANGRIER!!! They have this couple on, well, excuse me, and ex-couple, and the girl is out for revenge when the guy cheated on her three times. Well, they go through this whole thing and she comes off as totally insane until at the very end, when he says he met her when he was 35. She was 17!!!!! His reasoning for getting together with her, and his justification for going for such a young girl? "Well, the mass media is always showing young women as marketed towards older men." What the FUCK is wrong with society?!?!) Anyway, my point is, I tried to find out what happened with the lawsuit but I couldn't find anything and then I even went on her dumb website and found the post so obviously nothing's really been resolved in any way that I think it should be.

Bottomline is, it's just not okay to have a website like the one this woman runs. And it's pretty disturbing that she thinks that free speech is a defense for her to put up such crap that may or may not be true but that is most definitely available to anybody that searches for a guy on the internet. With everyone into this google search for a background check of potential employees or dates or business partner, having false information about you online can be really damaging. This woman's driving a jaguar and has all this money, and she's making it off possibly-true statements and, if you want to be cheesy about it, the pain of these jilted women. I hate her.

I was having a fine night and then I watched Dr. Phil. That'll teach me.