The Ishmael Email
(Originally published at 2:07pm, then re-scheduled to appear at 11:07pm)
Mick (aka Heatseeker), who obviously has no Christmas spirit, sent in this email at 4:15am on Christmas day, in reply to my email to John Kerr about regular pest caller Ishmael. (I’ve removed a derogatory reference to a valued contributor).
From……: Mick
Email…..: Mick@stickmyheadupaturkey.com
Url…….:………………………………………………….
Subject…: Ismail
………………………………………………….Samuel, it’s probably “Ismail”, and those type of comments are exactly the type you ban people from your site for … unless of course you happen to be # ###### ### ####### #### ########.
Anyway, I would have logged on to post this coment, but there’s really no point, as it would never have seen the light of day, and I would have immediately been purged.
What’s it like lviving in a bubble?
You sir, are a bigoted weirdo!
The reason I have decided to publish this email is that Heatseeker clearly has no understanding of the context of the Ishmael email, and many others have followed his lead of misunderstanding.
Ishmael (there is definitely a “H” in there, it might end with “il” instead of “el”, but as it is radio I have no way of knowing) is a serial pest caller on 2UE who calls up to make all sorts of outlandish (generally racist or religiously prejudiced) comments. Occasionally he calls up to actually discuss something rather than make outlandish comments. When he does call up to make outlandish comments he usually gets into a debate with whoever the host happens to be at the time, but to date has not been cut off.
Generally people of Ishmael’s ilk would be cut off for their racist or religiously prejudiced comments, but Ishmael, without fail, manages to deflate his own arguments, he will also generate calls from people who either want to disagree with him, or want to partially agree with him.
On this particular occasion, Ishmael got annoyed with John Kerr because he usually gets calls from the same group of people week in, week out, and those calls often involve a discussion of the events of these peoples’ lives. John probably has a higher percentage of regular callers than most other talkback hosts because of the time of day that he is on. That being said, John has plenty of other callers as well.
Usually I can put up with Ishmael because he is just another person with another opinion, he is also a tad entertaining. It wasn’t him getting annoyed with John that annoyed me, it was him singling out three or four regular callers for a taste of his bile that annoyed me. I wasn’t one of his targets, but on a morning where most calls to John started with people wishing him and all the listeners a Merry Christmas, his call was very poorly timed and really annoyed me.
For the record, my email wasn’t read out, and I didn’t expect it to be read out, I mainly sent it to show John what I thought, but felt compelled to copy it to the blog. Also for the record, Ishmael won, he turned a nice morning into three hours of people ringing up to tell him off.
I defend what I wrote, Heatseeker can think what he wants of me, I really don’t give a stuff about a prize goose like him. I have an archive of emails Heatseeker wrote to me around the time of the Spin Starts Here debacle…don’t make me publish them.
Update 2:12am December 26: Oh ye gods, Ishmael lives here in Canberra…AAAAAAAAAAAARGH! Apparently he now wants us to ban Santa, and people who are alone at Christmas need a thicker skin. Serial Pest! End Update
Update 1:27am January 10, 2007: Since publishing the Ishmael email Ishmael has contacted me and we have had some discussions. I have come to the conclusion that whilst I disagree with a lot of Ishmael’s opinions, he isn’t the stark raving mad lunatic I portrayed him as, and actually seems like a fairly reasonable individual.
My description of Ishmael as a “serial pest caller” was harsh and unwarranted, especially seeing as there are plenty of callers who actually do fit that category, and it is unfair to compare Ishmael to them when Ishmael actually calls to make a point rather than a nuisance.
I still think the choice of timing of Ishmael’s exchange with John Kerr was poor, but I do now see where he is coming from.
Whilst Ishmael understands that I won’t be taking down any of what I wrote, I would like to publicly apologise to Ishmael for being a bit too harsh in my comments. End Update
Samuel
2 comments December 25th, 2006 at 11:07pm