Your Vue

Just when you thought it was over...

Publication title: Vue Weekly
Page: 5 
Publication date: October 21, 1999
Document type: Opinion
Transcribed by: MW

I just read your latest installment in the Rantin' Raver saga, in which you published several of his e-mails to Keith Rubuliak ["The PLUR thickens," Your Vue, Oct. 14]. I was insulted to see the slanderous way you handled the input of someone who is probably a very loyal Vue reader.

I've read a lot of Jeff Anger's letters, and I agree with some of it, and I disagree with some of it. I agree with most of what he says about Keith Rubuliak, and I think Rubuliak's editorial response shows what kind of self-promoting git he really is.

People of Vue, I give you this challenge. If you want to be fair, publish Rubuliak's response to Jeff Anger's e-mails, the e-mail he originally sent after getting Anger's e-mails, not the published response he had a team of analysts working on over the course of an evening.

Why is Vue protecting Keith Rubuliak? There are less pretentious fights to be fought. And I never would have expected you guys to resort to the mudslinging tactics you've used against Jeff Anger, a.k.a. Rantin' Raver.

I was raised on the value that if you're going to make some noise, you better be prepared to put your name behind it. I've signed my real name, and you can publish any part of this letter you want. I welcome any response I may get. —J. D.


...it isn't.

I've been following this PLUR extravaganza since it began many weeks ago. First of all, kudos to you, Vue Weekly—by giving a regular space for letters to the editor, it's obvious that people are more willing to write, since they know the space is there to be filled.

I honestly don't understand why Jeff Anger/Rantin' Raver has such a problem with Keith Rubuliak. Because he hasn't been part of "the scene" since the beginning, he's not allowed to be in it now? What kind of elitist attitude is that? And how is this "scene" supposed to grow if you don't allow new people in it? Yeah, so Rubuliak's had his fingers in a lot of different pies, and yeah he probably doesn't have the same self-sacrificing esteem for electronic music that the original underground ravers have. So fucking what?

Rubuliak has just as much right as anybody to put on shows and make a living doing what he wants. It's called a free market in a free country. I'm a professional publicist, and I don't always "believe" in what I'm publicizing, but I do my job and I do some good for the acts I'm working for. I've had to deal with Rubuliak from time to time, and yeah he can be pretty pushy and grating at times, but I'll take that any day to kind of pretentious, anti-democratic attitude Jeff Anger exhibits.

Rubuliak is bringing acts into town that benefit the fans of urban music, and he's making some money at the same time. If that's being a poseur—well, Keith, keep on posin'. —NAME WITHHELD BY REQUEST (Hey, I still gotta do business with the guy!)



Editor's Note: After a conversation with Jeff Anger—past, that's riot his real name—on Monday, I told him this thread had run its course and his name would never again appear in Vue Weekly. So as soon as I hang up the phone, two more letters come in on the subject, making me out to be a liar.

Mind you, Anger considers me worse than a liar. He called me a "dick." And hey—he's absolutely right. I've gone out of my way to push his buttons—that's part of alternative journalism, giving something edgy and morbidly entertaining to the reader. If you want boring-ass letters about the latest City Council decisions, read the Journal.

Anger called to find out "what possible journalistic justification" I could have for printing his "private" e-mails to Keith Rubuliak. Well, as I explained, they're not private—once they're sent, they're Rubuliak's to do with as he chooses, and he chose to forward them to Vue Weekly. Newspapers publish third-party correspondence all the time. While a few vitriolic e-mails may not be on the some level as, say, a leaked internal military memo, its the some principle insofar as our right to print them.

Actually, our conversation ended up being rather pleasant. I told Anger I quite understood why he was so, well, angry with me. I've been a complete asshole to him. But he supplied the ammunition; me, I'm doing my job. A bit overzealously, perhaps, but that's why they pays me the big bucks.

And in response to Mr. Dunbar: first of all, we're being libellous, not slanderous. Yeesh. Secondly, if Rubuliak (or, for that matter, Anger—hint, hint) had sent us other e-mails, we would have printed them. But we can only print what we're sent. This is hardly 'protecting' Rubuliak—it's Rubuliak (with or without a highly dubious "team of analysts") being smart and protecting himself.


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