As Mr. T would say ...

It's true. I am indeed in love with Tod Maffin.
As I am with all of the creatures who inhabit our planet.
But that doesn't mean that I'm going to buy into stupidity, deceit, religious fanaticism, or Brian Mulroney's sworn testimony.
Maffin is of special interest to me because of what it says about the CBC and it's management, as well as what it says about how people manipulate, exploit and just plain fool the trusting souls who haven't learned to apply a critical eye and mind to what they are served by media.

I have many, many issues with Tod Maffin as a representative of the CBC, and as someone who sets themselves up above others as a techno-wiene, and manipulates information to make things appear to be something other than what they really are.

A good example is provided even in just the simple drop-in by Tod above.
When you look at the web page of insidecbc, it is clearly stated that this site is "penned" by Tod Maffin ... well, actually, it was until a few minutes ago.
He's suddenly changed the credit to include others.
Suddenly, he wants to distance himself from the stupidity of some of the things written there.
But until now, Tod was the sole writer of everything there, at least he was yesterday.
For more than a year, the credit has read
"Inside The CBC is the CBC's official employee blog. It's penned by Tod Maffin, the CBC's national technology columnist."
and that's how it appeared on the day the "Gig Is Up Comrade" story was published.
Now that he's getting flack for his pea-brained idea of a joke, he suddenly comes forward to say that he may or may not actually be responsible for the article.
And he quickly changes a year-old credit to
"Inside The CBC is the CBC's official employee blog. It is written and moderated by a variety of CBC employees. Editor: Tod Maffin"

What kind of bullshit is that?

And worse, how does the CBC justify this kind of integrity and ethical approach to publishing information?

My problem with Tod Maffin came to a head when I wrote a remark about him at The Tea Makers blog, and Tod threatened legal action unless it was removed. So the blog owner removed it.
Hey man, that's my freedom of speech you're stepping on.
So I published the remarks again, this time on my own blog.
And what do you know, no lawsuit.
After almost 300 posts at my own attempt at "satire", Tod Maffin is now writing "love letters" to me, asking me to please continue exposing what a phony he is.
No problem. I've plenty of material to work with!

I'm particularly sensitive to people who use the internet to fool or abuse others.
I'm not unmindful that there's a difference between what's journalism and what's public relations - a field in which Tod Maffin considers himself an expert.

One day he claims that he writes everything, and when it suddenly suits his purposes, he claims that he doesn't.

That's Tod Maffin.
That's the CBC.
OK. That's the worst of the CBC.