Patrick Norton please apologize for Foxconn and Whitney Houston statements

[summerstormpictures]

Patrick, I was unpleasantly shocked at what seemed like your cavalier joking attitude toward the problems at Foxconn. There was far too much laughter and chuckling and a taking lightly of what to many who work there seem to have found traumatic enough to prompt suicide.

Then when you launched into your rather insensitive joke about whitneyhouston.com taking people to a porn site, followed by an insincere tone in your ''apology'' to the family and friends of the Houston family, followed by more chuckling.

As someone whose family has experienced suicide, your comments have frankly prompted me to consider unsubscribing to Tekzilla. Furthermore, anytime you appear on TWIT or some other tech video podcast, I would definitely not watch the episode.

This is just how angry and hurt I am right now and I know there are others.

You could go a long way toward mending fences with me and with others by taking a couple minutes in the upcoming episode to make a sincere apology.

I have found that one of the most satisfying experiences in life is to know when I have done a wrong and to go above and beyond in mending fences. It has served me well.

Please do the right thing.

Geoff

[mikec]

Geoff, name one person who hasn't had a friend or family member or coworker kill them self? I seriously think everyone in this country has had some person take their own life. I have known three people that have killed themselves. Two from the same family. They were related to me by marriage.

I didn't find anything Patrick said to be offensive. Of course, some people think you must apologize for everything. Sorry, you don't. Somewhere around here I have a hurt feelings report. I can find it for you if you really need it.

[summerstormpictures]

Originally Posted by mikec

...Somewhere around here I have a hurt feelings report. I can find it for you if you really need it.

I appreciate your response and your position, but you posted in a forum. What happened and is the issue happened during a video podcast.

Forums have, for better or worse, rather broad latitude and contributors can often walk the fine line between offensive and extremely opinionated. There I completely agree with your position. But as an avid viewer of Tekzilla, I was really and frankly unpleasantly surprised, and while I probably would have simply brushed off just one instance, there was a second instance and it just surprised me.

I really don't want to turn this into a debate between forum members because I fear it will quickly become elevated into strongly defined camps. My message really is intended specifically for Patrick. He needs nobody to come to his defense. I also don't think this is an accurate representation of his ''normal'' behavior, which is why I decided it needed to be addressed.

[mikec]

If you want to talk to Norton, use Twitter or email him. Posting here is silly.

[rfm33428]

OMG, an insensitive host on Tekzilla! After posting this.... I'm gonna disconnect my computer, throw it in my Pelican case & beat the hell out of it with a sledge hammer. After all of that, I'm gonna reconnect my system & continue watching Tekzilla.

[summerstormpictures]

Patrick was kind enough to respond personally to me over this whole thing and I feel it is appropriate and proper to post what I wrote back:

Hey Patrick…

Thanks for taking the time to write back. On reflection, it is possible I read more into that segment than was there. I'm as human as the next person, as are we all. I appreciate your candor and want to put this all behind with the following:

My strongest reaction was over the Foxconn remarks.

I know what the family and friends of those at Foxconn faced. Suicide has touched my family, and I can tell you with complete honesty and candor, that the shadow it casts over the lives it affects lasts a lifetime. An unfinished life is deeply personal, and the guilt over the question ''is there more I could have done?'' never finds full closure.

As for Whitney Houston:

One really doesn't know the real person behind the celebrity image. I am acquainted with a few celebrities as a personal friend, and one thing that often goes unrealized is that behind all the media and hype is a real person and a real family.

A celebrity is not the person the media portrays, good or bad, but a soul somewhere in-between. They are manufactured and curated by the media and their handlers and the industry as a whole. Their very individuality is forced into the shadows. It's a perfect storm that some can weather and others, not. Subtract fame and fortune and they all have the same strengths and weaknesses as anyone else. They are also just as different from their own peers as you or I are from each other. Sadly, some very good souls are simply broken by the world.

I consider this resolved.

Sincerely, and thanks again,

Geoff