JMS on CompuServe (Mar 10, 1996) *POSSIBLE SPOILERS*

[Brent Barrett]

 THE FOLLOWING MATERIAL IS THE COPYRIGHT OF THE
 RESPECTIVE MESSAGE AUTHORS AND CANNOT BE 
 REPRODUCED IN ANY FORM WITHOUT THE EXPRESSED
 PERMISSION OF THE AUTHOR.  
 
 Note that JMS has expressed his public permission 
 that all of his messages may be reproduced freely.

 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WARNING !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 The following posts may contain SPOILERS for
 upcoming Babylon 5 episodes.

 Continue at your own risk.

 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 S
  P
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         P
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 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 [ Note from Brent: Before you ask, no I cannot forward
   your questions to JMS.  He has asked that questions
   not originating from CIS accounts not be posted to
   CIS.  He encourages all of us to wait for the
   moderated USENET group, to which he plans to
   subscribe. ]
   

#: 467187 S5/Babylon 5: General
    08-Mar-96  23:59:11
Sb: #467186-#The Future of B5
Fm: WILLIAM H. DIPAOLA

>> Then let me put it as straightforwardly as possible: I *hate* loose ends,
and thus the odds of very many things left dangling at the end of the story are
fairly small.<<

        Thank you for the response and don't take offense. Like I told you, I
was only wondering about a matter of degree. You're a fine writer and I
appreciate not only the manner in which you craft your stories, but the way in
which you build the tension as well.    ;-)


#: 467513 S5/Babylon 5: General
    09-Mar-96  17:28:19
Sb: #467187-The Future of B5
Fm: J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI

       No offense was taken; I was just trying to be clear; it was an important
question, and I wanted to get across how strongly I felt on it.

                                                                       jms



 [ Summary: Asks if some black t-shirts for sale at his local store are legit. ]

#: 467514 S5/Babylon 5: General
    09-Mar-96  17:28:19
Sb: #467261-B5 T-shirts
Fm: J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI

       If they're from All-U or Creation, they're legit; if not, not.

                                                                       jms




 [ NOTE: I don't have a clue what "such a series" is. -- BB ]
#: 467366 S5/Babylon 5: General
    09-Mar-96  12:18:21
Sb: #467199-#Enjoying Babylon 5
Fm: BRUNO  MELANCON

Now that computer sfx is available and affordable, Warner Bros. (is it?) would
be more ready to accept such a series...

Andorian


#: 467515 S5/Babylon 5: General
    09-Mar-96  17:28:22
Sb: #467366-Enjoying Babylon 5
Fm: J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI

       Problem isn't WB, it's the shrinking syndication marketplace that's
making it more difficult for shows not affiliated with one of the webs or
weblets to find a home.

                                                                       jms



 [ Summary: Long, very ugly slam against JMS detailing events that happened
   regarding the WGA and its BBS several (apparently) years ago.  The poster
   is supposedly quoting what was said to him by one "Buzz Dixon," and it is
   chock-full of poster-censored vulgarity. ]

#: 467727 S5/Babylon 5: General
    10-Mar-96  02:13:08
Sb: #467715-Violating Your Privacy
Fm: J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI

As usual, Buzz Dixon's hold on reality is tenuous at best.  He is engaging in
the same tactics that tore apart the Guild, in part because he was one of those
directly involved in the smear campaigns involving the BBS in question.

It's ironic...a BBS is found in which messages from WGA users have been
slandered, their sexual, drug, personal and work habits not only openly
ridiculed but *catalogued* in library archive files...constituting a de facto
blacklist...and this is revealed...and somehow by virtue of showing how a small
group of people were maintaining a system dedicated to slander, libel and
character assassination itself characterizes an attack on them is mind boggling
to say the least.

Yes, a user gave me full authorization to access a particular BBS, where I
found that members of the WGA Board of Directors, the head of the WGA BBS and
others were involved in actions against their fellow members, outright libel,
and in violation of Guild rules.  I reported this to the Guild, which for
political reasons chose to do nothing, leaving me with no choice than to go
public with this.  Because careers of other writers were being systematically
undermined.  It was the right thing to do, and I'd do it again.

If Buzz is saying that these messages were "selectively edited," then he is
lying through his teeth, plain and simple.  The entire text, with every single
comma in place, was made available to the WGA, and if anything had been taken
out of context, all the sysops of this system had to do was to give the WGA
access to the message base to prove it.  They never did this, and swiftly wiped
out the libraries in question, purged the message base, and quickly changed the
name of the BBS itself.  Becuase they'd been caught doing something utterly
reprehensible and indefensible...except by those people directly involved,
who're still trying to cover their butts, and smear others in order to protect
themselves.  As is being done here.  Every so often, this thread reappears, the
same BS stuff gets posted.  Ain't no big deal.

I have not "deliberately lied about scores of other writers."  This is an
outright lie itself.  If I had done so, I would have been sued out of business.

The majority of the other points raised are the usual distortions,
fabrications, petty lies and bigger ones, which are trotted out on a regular
basis by a very small group of dysfunctional individuals bent on revenge
because I exposed their little smear-club in front of the whole of the WGA. The
story was reported upon in the trades, in the local press, even some national
press.  And, in fact, it led to a "writer" who was in fact NOT a writer, but a
convicted felon who'd snuck into the WGA on fake credits, being exposed and
removed from the WGA.

And yes, absolutely, several Guild members took the WGA BBS to court because it
was engaging in illegal business practices.  It issued a User's Agreement which
was against labor law, in that it restricted message topics and discussions on
the WGA BBS, which as a union house cannot legally control or restrict
information by union members on its property.  This prior restraint was tacitly
illegal, and a simple attempt to restrict criticism of Guild officials.  So if
you've got something illegal...you take it to court.  And the court was about
to rule that it WAS illegal when the WGA abruptly dropped the UA and shut down
the BBS in a move not unlike the current situation in Utah, where to avoid one
student group existing, the state shut down ALL student groups.  The fee asked
for in the suit was to cover the expense of filing a suit against the Guild,
which is more than $1, as Dixon well knows. But, again, the facts aren't at
issue here.

The tactics of the BBS I stumbled upon were to assemble a series of outright
lies, innuendo, misinformation, disinformation, and bile into a collected form,
which they could use at whim to discredit, harm, or otherwise smear their
fellow WGA members.  I'm not at all surprised to see that those who were
involved in that practice are still continuing it, and that they have dragged
this out into the public again.  They got caught with their genitalia in the
door, and they will never forgive the public humiliation that came when the
facts came out.

If I had done anything amiss, the Guild or other members had the right to file
charges against me.  Nothing has ever happened.  Because they were in the
wrong.  The Guild shut down its own BBS rather than allow members speak openly
about Guild policies *as required by union law*, engaging in the kind of
censorship and prior restraint which any writer must abhor.

So now, all we have left is the sour grapes, bile and hatred from those who got
exposed.  These are sad creatures, really.  I feel great pity for them, and do
hope they seek counseling for this sometime soon.  They know that what they say
isn't true; they just hope that by putting it out there, that this will be
enough to cause trouble, which is their fondest hope.  To smear.

What actions I took in this were legally, morally and ethically correct, and
it's all very old news.  Buzz should get a life.  Preferably one that does not
involve the continued habit of his peers of smearing other WGA members, as he
does here, with half-truths, untruths, distortions and nonsense.  This
particular act has gotten *real* old.

                                                               jms

 [ Summary: Says her husband teaches script writing at Houston Community
   College and wishes JMS' script writing book was still in print, as he used
   to use it as a text in his class.  She teaches psychology and wishes she
   could use more of B5 itself as a reference. ]

#: 467728 S5/Babylon 5: General
    10-Mar-96  02:13:09
Sb: #467662-Thought from jms
Fm: J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI

   Thanks.  As for the script book, a new and expanded edition will finally be
coming out this Fall, totally rewritten and expanded (by 100,000 words), with
new chapters and info.

jms


/*********************************************
 * Brent Barrett    brent.barrett at 24stex.com *
 * Senior Software Engineer   Automedia, Inc *
 *          -- Watch Babylon-5! --           *
 *********************************************/

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