The Source of More Controversy
While perusing the news wires to see what’s going on in the world of music today I came across something that I found to be beyond exasperating. It seems The Source just can’t seem to keep its arse out of the news and every time it’s been in the news of late, and by of late I mean in the past half decade or so, it’s never been about anything positive. The Source feeds the homeless? No. The Source to give more up and coming MC’s a helping hand? No. The Source teaching kids to read in the park? Nope, wrong again. This time around it’s The Source being taken back to court by former editor-in-chief Kim Osorio and onetime VP of marketing Michelle Joyce, and the reason isn’t pretty.
According to an article by Charlie Amter of E! Online, Osorio and Joyce have stated "that (Dave) Mays routinely ‘yelled and cursed’ at female employees; that (Raymond "Benzino") Scott allowed other male employees to threaten women with physical violence and to repeatedly harass women inside the magazine's New York City office without reprimands from the magazine's HR department."
If you’re The Source what’s the smart thing to do in this situation? The smart thing to do is deny the claims, wish the women well in their future endeavors and say they’ll see them in court. That would be the smart thing to do, if they wanted to attempt to look good. So what does The Source do? They release this statement:
"It is a fact that Osorio had sexual relations with a number of high-profile rap artists during her employment as editor-in-chief. We also suspect that Joyce falsified health claims in an effort to attack The Source when she learned that she was going to be terminated. We look forward to our day in court on this matter."
Real classy, the old "she’s a whore" attempt at discrediting someone. I won’t even go into the double standard that I’m sure everyone sees that while there’s a good chance Benzino has tried to sleep with all the girls from his videos, and if he has in fact accomplished this feat probably thinks of himself as some sort of alpha male because of it, but when the shoe is on the other foot and the thought is a woman has slept with some folks all of a sudden she’s a whore and should be cast out of society with a red letter A on her chest.
If Osario had slept with rappers and then given them better placement in the magainze, or given them placement period, then that’s a major issue, nobody can dispute that, but The Source should really think before it writes a release like that. First off, this is a woman who stood by The Source and tried her best while Benzino was making a fool of himself trying to battle Eminem and destroying the publication’s credibility by having huge articles attempting to discredit 50 Cent and pull-out posters of Benzino killing Eminem. Second, if they knew she was sleeping with rappers why didn’t they fire her for that, for compromising her journalistic standards? The Source’s statement creates a lose-lose situation for the magazine. Either the two women win their case and the magazine is exposed as a misogynistic place where women are treated unfairly, or The Source wins and it’s exposed that they knew their former editor slept with rappers, affecting what went into the magazine.
At this point I think working in the PR department of The Source ranks about as high on the job like-ability scale as Iraqi porn theater mop boy. I can’t imagine a bigger fall from grace in the publishing world. Martha Stewart went to jail and her company is making MORE money than before. The Source, however, seems to have made too many mistakes at this point and without a full regime change there is little hope left for the publication that once topped Rolling Stone in sales and was considered the top reporter of Hip-Hop culture. Please don’t think I’m reveling in this or happy about this in any way. I’m 26 and grew up reading The Source. These kind of stories surrounding it sadden me, unfortunately they no longer surprise me, but they still sadden me.
These kind of stories also really make me wish I had the money to start my own publication. I love Hip-Hop and one of the reasons I write about Hip-Hop is because I want to show people the positive things going on within it and because of it. I want to expose people to what I feel is really and truly Hip-Hop. I know this is an uphill battle, and deep inside sometimes I wonder if it’s all worth it, but I can’t have an affect if I don’t at least try. I guess that’s what keeps me going. I heard from RIME that they’re getting a huge positive response from my article on Ali Shaheed Muhammed, so I know at least some people still care.
Fantasy Update: I dopped Brain Fuentes today to pick up Mr. Reliable Mike Remlinger. There’s something about Remlinger, he’s just the kind of reliever where you know he won’t pick up more than a handful of saves, but at the same time you know he’s not going to hurt you in any way.
In other pitching news Mike Hampton pitched beautifully again last night, though one of these days one of my pitchers has to start striking some people out, and Brad Penny is going to make two minor league starts before coming back to LA which means I won’t get stats from him until the end of the month. A prime example of "you win some, you lose some," though my strategy of making sure I have Braves starters seems to be paying early dividends (fingers crossed).
Stat Attack: Russell Branyon yesterday, 2 HR’s 4 RBI’s and I had him sitting on my bench. Argh!
According to an article by Charlie Amter of E! Online, Osorio and Joyce have stated "that (Dave) Mays routinely ‘yelled and cursed’ at female employees; that (Raymond "Benzino") Scott allowed other male employees to threaten women with physical violence and to repeatedly harass women inside the magazine's New York City office without reprimands from the magazine's HR department."
If you’re The Source what’s the smart thing to do in this situation? The smart thing to do is deny the claims, wish the women well in their future endeavors and say they’ll see them in court. That would be the smart thing to do, if they wanted to attempt to look good. So what does The Source do? They release this statement:
"It is a fact that Osorio had sexual relations with a number of high-profile rap artists during her employment as editor-in-chief. We also suspect that Joyce falsified health claims in an effort to attack The Source when she learned that she was going to be terminated. We look forward to our day in court on this matter."
Real classy, the old "she’s a whore" attempt at discrediting someone. I won’t even go into the double standard that I’m sure everyone sees that while there’s a good chance Benzino has tried to sleep with all the girls from his videos, and if he has in fact accomplished this feat probably thinks of himself as some sort of alpha male because of it, but when the shoe is on the other foot and the thought is a woman has slept with some folks all of a sudden she’s a whore and should be cast out of society with a red letter A on her chest.
If Osario had slept with rappers and then given them better placement in the magainze, or given them placement period, then that’s a major issue, nobody can dispute that, but The Source should really think before it writes a release like that. First off, this is a woman who stood by The Source and tried her best while Benzino was making a fool of himself trying to battle Eminem and destroying the publication’s credibility by having huge articles attempting to discredit 50 Cent and pull-out posters of Benzino killing Eminem. Second, if they knew she was sleeping with rappers why didn’t they fire her for that, for compromising her journalistic standards? The Source’s statement creates a lose-lose situation for the magazine. Either the two women win their case and the magazine is exposed as a misogynistic place where women are treated unfairly, or The Source wins and it’s exposed that they knew their former editor slept with rappers, affecting what went into the magazine.
At this point I think working in the PR department of The Source ranks about as high on the job like-ability scale as Iraqi porn theater mop boy. I can’t imagine a bigger fall from grace in the publishing world. Martha Stewart went to jail and her company is making MORE money than before. The Source, however, seems to have made too many mistakes at this point and without a full regime change there is little hope left for the publication that once topped Rolling Stone in sales and was considered the top reporter of Hip-Hop culture. Please don’t think I’m reveling in this or happy about this in any way. I’m 26 and grew up reading The Source. These kind of stories surrounding it sadden me, unfortunately they no longer surprise me, but they still sadden me.
These kind of stories also really make me wish I had the money to start my own publication. I love Hip-Hop and one of the reasons I write about Hip-Hop is because I want to show people the positive things going on within it and because of it. I want to expose people to what I feel is really and truly Hip-Hop. I know this is an uphill battle, and deep inside sometimes I wonder if it’s all worth it, but I can’t have an affect if I don’t at least try. I guess that’s what keeps me going. I heard from RIME that they’re getting a huge positive response from my article on Ali Shaheed Muhammed, so I know at least some people still care.
Fantasy Update: I dopped Brain Fuentes today to pick up Mr. Reliable Mike Remlinger. There’s something about Remlinger, he’s just the kind of reliever where you know he won’t pick up more than a handful of saves, but at the same time you know he’s not going to hurt you in any way.
In other pitching news Mike Hampton pitched beautifully again last night, though one of these days one of my pitchers has to start striking some people out, and Brad Penny is going to make two minor league starts before coming back to LA which means I won’t get stats from him until the end of the month. A prime example of "you win some, you lose some," though my strategy of making sure I have Braves starters seems to be paying early dividends (fingers crossed).
Stat Attack: Russell Branyon yesterday, 2 HR’s 4 RBI’s and I had him sitting on my bench. Argh!
Comments
You are right, The Source is a embarrassment and the statement they put out concerning those allegations are deplorable. When Benzino used The Source as a propaganda piece to attack eminem that is when I really stopped supporting them. Not because I am a huge eminem fan, but because journalistically it was petty and unfair. Sorry for the long rant bro, I guess you struck a nerve..lol Peace.
The Source has put itself through so much and I just can't understand why they keep shooting themselves in the foot. From the Made Men incident to the Em stuff and now this. Ugh. It all makes me really wary of pitching them.
BTW, I checked out your blog, good stuff. I have a few MC's I'd like to add to your list of most underrated... OK, a few dozen, starting with The Fresh Prince, who I feel never gets the props he deserves.
The Source is a mess. But remember the movie "High Fidelity" where John Cusack has a list of his dream jobs? Well, my dream job would be to own The Source, and turn that magazine back to a respectable publication.(even though the first year of being the owner would be spent apologizing to shitloads of people..lol)
He has a nice chapter on the Source fiasco.
Iselfra, I haven't checked out Chang's book yet (partially my town's fault for having our library under construction for the past year), but I plan to. Didn't he write for The Source at one point?