Give David George-Cosh a break, he's trapped at the bloody Pest!

As unlikely as it is to imagine, I feel the need to come to the defence of National Post Pest tech reporter David George-Cosh. If you aren’t one of the fewer than 100,000 people who obstensibly subscribe to that dying poster child of the DTM (Dead Tree Media), you won’t likely hear tomorrow that his employer apologized earlier this evening for Mr. George-Cosh’s egregious Twittering, under the name “Sir David” of all descriptors. It seems as though Mr. George-Cosh was having a bad day, and took it out on marketing consultant April Dunford. Four letter words and all.

The story is that Ms. Dunford got an earful from Mr. George-Cosh for not returning his telephone call in a timely manner. So she posted this on her Twitter account (hat tip to Media Style blog):

“Reporter to me “When the media calls you, you jump, OK!?” Why, when you called me and I’m not selling? Newspapers will get what they deserve”

There are times when I get a similar “When we call, you jump!” feeling when the Globe and Mail’s City Hall Bureau Chief calls me about the Toronto Port Authority (see prior post “‘Public Service’ — easier said than done” Sept 9-08), but I digress. Here is the Twitter exchange that followed between Mr. George-Cosh and Ms. Dunford:

sirdavid: @aprildunford what the fuck. I called you for comment two days ago. What did you expect when you called me back? Don’t post that shit online

sirdavid: @aprildunford furthermore, I called you several times in the afternoon. Don’t be condescending to me when I actually wanted to talk to you

sirdavid: @aprildunford how about you stop blasting personal conversations on twitter and call me back. what the hell is wrong with you.

aprildunford: @sirdavid All I did was return your call. I didn’t expect you to do anything. Wow. Like, seriously, calm down.

sirdavid: @aprildunford & then repost everything? & then hang up on me & don’t call back? I’ve recorded everything. U don’t look as nice as u put on

aprildunford: @sirdavid Dude – I never said who you were. Twitter meet David. David is having a bad day. David, meet Twitter.

sirdavid: @aprildunford hey april – fuck you. seriously. fuck you.

sirdavid: @aprildunford if u can’t handle any heat from what u post and immediate hang up, fuck u. u know my number. u call if you want to settle.

aprildunford: @sirdavid Re-read what you have just Twittered. Then re-read what I Twittered. Deep breaths David. Calm.

(Source: http://search.twitter.com/search?q=%40aprildunford)

Pretty hard to defend that, I know. But, let’s look at the context. That’s what some DTM journalists and their libel lawyers (Jacobsen and Robertson to name but two) always try to do, albeit after the fact, when they’ve defamed someone. So why shouldn’t we apply the same principle to situations such as this?

Mr. George-Cosh works at the National Pest, after all. What more context do you need?

He must know in his heart that time is running out for that particular corner of the DTM universe. He probably hasn’t seen a real raise for years given the paper’s financial strife. The travel budget is nil — so no trips to CES in Vegas unless they can swing a contra deal with some industry mag. Unlike the Globe, the Pest has no business television network relationship to supplement his income. And to make matters worse, he has to share a newsroom with that known libelist, ambulance chaser and all-round prima donna, Theresa Tedesco.

Of course he had a bad day today. EVERY DAY is a bad day for a hardworking Pestie. The man was bound to break eventually.

As apologies go, this wasn’t the most on-hands-and-knees-grovelling-type-apology the Pest has published this decade. We know who holds that award. But, Ms. Dunford can tack that scalp on her wall, declare victory, and accept their apology with grace. Anyone who works with early stage tech companies is popular in this square of the blogosphere.

As for Mr. George-Cosh, cut the man some slack. It was nothing more than a cry for help.

MRM

(Hat Tip – A)