4.8
February 7, 2012

John Friend Update.

John Friend’s responses to my questions are coming tomorrow, Wednesday, I’m assured, by 3pm. I understand that he needs some time to communicate with his community first.

I’m not expecting much in the way of transparency, since I’m sure they wlll have had to lawyer up at this point, given the nature of jfexposed‘s anonymous accusations.

That said, I asked the simplest, toughest questions I could and am hoping to be pleasantly surprised by receiving earnest, forthright answers from John.

I will not be adding anything new to elephant, nor will our writers, since we won’t have anything new until tomorrow at 3.

You can click here to see information from “both sides.”

Statement of position: elephant is not partisan here—so far it seems to me that most of the anonymous jfexposed criticisms are a mixture of fact and agenda-driven assertions. Personally, my only loyalty is to giving John a fair hearing—and fairness of course has to include honesty and transparency—otherwise we will not be able to move forward as a community, nor will John as a teacher (or human).

For those who mistake elephant’s ongoing goal of fairness and fact-seeking (instead of rumor-mongering or anonymous-comment-slumming) for sycophancy, that’s your prejudgment. That was an awesome sentence.

On the other hand, for those fans of John who mistake my journalistic goal of fairness for support, you will be disappointed by my critical questions.

My interview questions should help to allay doubts on both sides. This is how we do it, and what we do: responsible reporting from a middle ground. It is my sincere supplication to John to tell his lawyer friends to leave the room and offer answers that will help us all learn from this as a community. If those answers are fulsome, then and only then can we all begin to move on.

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