Secrets of the City

MN Daily link, please.

Moore information please?

guerrilla marketing, bitch pleeeez

More details added.

This is going to be just awesome.

This site has the entire 12-page summons….
http://www.mplsmirror.com/joomla3/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=366:the-misadventures-of-johnny-northside-the-summons&catid=34:local-news&Itemid=103

“This lawsuit seeks to expand or modify the law, or to clarify it. It seeks a judicial determination of the definition of ‘press’ for purposes of First Amendment and statutory protections. It seeks to create a vehicle for citizens to challenges [sic] the ‘anonymous’ defamation that floats in the blogosphere.”

Alrighty then.

Jerry Moore sounds like a horrible human being. D’Oh! Now he’s going to sue me!

Where is anonymity involved? Shouldn’t that be “pseudonymity”?

Be that as it may, anyone who believes anything written by an anonymous contributor — anywhere — has only their own intelligence and gullibility to blame. It’s like having a complete stranger come up to you on the street to tell you something useful. Or useless.

Meh. This should be dismissed soon enough.

Regardless, something about Johnny Northside still annoys me. I just can’t put my finger on it. Also, being locked in a tiny room for days looking at a computer has made me inarticulate.

Here’s a timely explanation regarding anonymity on the Internet. It appears that Section 203 of the Communications Decency Act “provides virtually airtight immunity from defamation suits for web sites that re-publish material provided by others.”

@Bixby: I agree … with both your opinions.

Oops. That should be Section 230.

Not be confused with Section 230 in the Metrodome.

“The blog is a mouthpiece for [Hoff’s] own views and agendas,” the civil complaint states. “Hoff makes little, if any, attempt to get the ‘other side,’ of any story.”

I think I can agree with this, based on what I have read on his blog.

I agree with this as well. On the other hand, he has no reason to get the other side of any story. He is not even obligated to.

Exactly. Blogging is not the same as reporting. It’s more akin to writing a letter to the editor or composing an Op-Ed piece.

Even so, reporters are not necessarily obligated, either, to get “both sides of the story.”

Very true, but then I would assume he isn’t surprised to have gotten this summons…

Well, he’s not obligated to getting “another side of the story.” But I hope he’s gotten a lawyer.

Anna Pratt’s blog has good details.

The most important thing she mentions is:

What does the U of M have to say? Daniel Wolter, the U of M’s news service director, responded via email that Moore was hired in mid-May “by UROC for what is called a “casual temporary” job. It’s typically used for very short-term work, usually specific to a particular task. His job was reviewing and analyzing newspaper content under the supervision of an academic researcher. His work has been completed and he was given notice on June 22. His leaving University employment was not related to performance issues. The University was unaware of the allegations against Mr. Moore at the time of the hiring and is currently not aware of the details of the allegations — nor are we in a position to comment on them.”

In other words, the guy was a temp and his assignment was up. Game over, he loses.

And what exactly are they suing Johnny Northside for? He is a graduate student who lives in a house he bought for $7000 and works for a student newspaper. I bet he is worth about negative dollars.

It was a brilliant move, assuming, of course, that Moore’s secret ambition was to personally contribute to Johnny Northside’s presumably skyrocketing readership numbers.

[Cue SFX] Violin

I saw this yesterday and read a lot of what he dug up about this character. Even though a lot of what he says on his blog sounds like ineffectual blustering, this Johnny Moore guy sounds like a real douchebag about 4 minutes away from being run out of NoMi on a rail.

Johnny Moore?

Sorry, Jerry Moore…it’s been a long day…

I put watching a movie about Johnny Northside somewhere below having my eyeballs scraped and somewhere above watching Transformers 2 on my To Do list.

@aliecat Okay that’s what I figured… but just checking!

@Kurtis Awww…

Yeah, I know he’s a friend of yours. Sorry!

And that you’re on the credits for the movie…

Eh, I don’t mind if people pick on Johnny (I do!) or on me either – I just want ‘em to watch the film.

I’ll work on that…

I think Johnny’s blog (and Johnny himself) does a great service to NoMi, it’s that he comes off a little too strong for my taste sometimes. Anyways, I hope he’s got a good lawyer.

Kurtis & I (et al) should be exempt from watching the movie since we already live in North Minneapolis.

@aliecat That’s a common sentiment, and I understand it. And yes -thankfully- he does appear to have a good lawyer.

@bixby Oh alrightttttt…

Ranty, and of course, I realize that I say that because I totally cannot relate to what it must take to live in North. I’m sure my blog would be similar if I lived there.

Most of the people who live here don’t think they need to blog about it. I’d rather watch a movie about any of them.

I don’t think it does a service to any community to exaggerate how awful it is and make it sound like a total cesspool just to make your own boring “story” of having bought a fixer upper more movie worthy.

My grandma lives closer to where Johnny Northside lives and her blog would be nothing like that. It’d pretty much have 5 tags: “My Topsy-Turvy Tomato Planter”, “Stuff I Saw On Daytime TV”, “You won’t believe the stupid shit my children/grandchildren did now”, “My garden not including my TTTP” and “White People”.

@Alie
It’s North Minneapolis not the war torn streets of Iraq. Really, I think you do know what it takes. Pretty much the same stuff it takes to live where you do.

@Kurtis
We should start a blog about our battles with loud playing music and ice cream trucks playing seasonally-inappropriate music in Camden. Then make a movie about it. Then blog about our movie about our blogging. It’ll be amazing.

I also don’t really know what Johnny Northside’s blog does besides make me want to punch him. Fighting crime in one’s neighborhood and working to improve it great but I don’t think the blog really helps anything.

If you want to see a blog that’s really changing a community, I think we can all agree that’d be the North St. Paul Fire Blog.

@Bix: Your gram should do a blog about her wild days of scotch and milk.

Oh, and the fun of 151 rum.

I don’t doubt for a minute that it would be one of the top blogs of the Twin Cities.

The tags on that blog would be: “You’ve Never Been Drunk Before”, “Designated Driving”, “Drinking With Relatives” and “Then We Went Dancing”

I’d read Gramma Bixby’s blog. I have my own observations about white people, and want to compare notes.

Don’t forget:
“My daughter can’t handle her booze”

and the one I laugh at the most:
“Last time I saw him he was sleeping off his drunk on the porch and then he went to Kansas City and I haven’t heard from him since.”

Oh wait, I forgot:

“I hate that ____ cat”

(as in Jonathan)

Bix- sometimes I wish I had started a blog when I lived in Stevens. There were some good stories there.

I’m much too boring to have a blog.

Also, I do have a blog.

I’m going to make a movie about my blog. It’s going to be me pushing around a stroller, ranting about crappy bus benches and NIMBY neighbors, ogling other people’s vegetable gardens, and maybe making a few nasty comments to stupid drivers just to mix things up. I can throw in some comments about white people and tomato plants if that would make it more exciting.

This is interesting.
He doesn’t own the domain name for his blog. In fact, it is registered to a past editor from the MN Daily.
http://www.domainsearch.com/cgi-bin/Domain_Search?action=whois&DomainName=johnnynorthside.com&AdCode=infobox2

I believe that’s because he used to work there. Try to keep up.

I’m not sure I follow what is interesting about that.

Just for the record, North Minneapolis consists of 13 distinct neighborhoods, all of which are different and many of which are utterly delightful. (I happen to live in one of those – it’s called Willard-Hay.)

John Hoff lives in Hawthorne, on the east end of the Northside. It is MUCH different from the others in MANY ways.

In fact, I’d go so far as to say that Hawthorne is the most impacted neighborhood (by foreclosure, vacancy, etc) on the Northside… perhaps in the city as a whole. (Though I’ve not sat down with number-comparisons to Central or Phillips.)

So, does John’s blog paint a general picture of North Minneapolis? No, certainly not.

But it definitely shows a heck of a lot of what’s happening in Hawthorne… and often in Jordan (just to the west) as well.

I do know that Hawthorne and Victory are at opposite sides of the NoMi spectrum, but still question how the blog or the movie is making the neighborhood a better place.

I cannot speak for John or his blog, but I don’t believe the movie ever claimed to make the neighborhood “a better place.”

It’s about telling a story – a story that nobody’s heard before, and that (at least to some people) is different, interesting, perhaps even funny.

I won’t say anything more about it. Good luck with the movie.

This is another example of Jerry Moore not giving full disclosure to the University of Minnesota.

They had no business hiring Moore in the first place. These “educators” did not bother to check out anyone. This is the problem with the Black community in North Minneapolis now. Self-appointed leaders jump to the head of the line with nothing to offer.

Of course they get paid, but the community suffers – there are never any successful measurable outcomes.

This lawsuit will provide a forum to ask the questions, ‘What happened to process, integrity, follow-through?”

Personally, I think the U of M should be in North Minneapolis. But just because you don’t agree with them, doesn’t mean they should ignore you.

I have had great ideas about the U of M. Some of their people aren’t used to being talked to, like I would need to talk to them.

John has a good attitude about this law suit thing. Why has this become the national sport on the Northside of minneapolis? Someone says something that you don’t agree with so you sue them?

That’s brotherhood. That’s neighborliness. We have very big issues to deal with in North Minneapolis. Let’s get over the comic law suits. OK?

Why has this become the national sport on the Northside of minneapolis? Someone says something that you don’t agree with so you sue them?

It’s the American way.