I have this self-imposed rule about not discussing Penny Arcade. This policy is not meant to be some direct reflection upon them or their product; instead, I am simply uneasy about discussing The Place From Whence I (Arguably) Came, much as they appear loathe to discuss Bluesnews. Today, I’m making a one-time exception to the rule.

Apparently, some kind of minor feud is brewing between PA and BJ Shea, a local male-oriented semi-shock-jock, over a scheduled appearance to talk about the excellent Child’s Play charity. Though it’s unlikely you’re reading about it here first, I’ll go ahead an paraphrase to the best of my ability: Apparently, someone in the legion of CP volunteers who organized the interview screwed up, and Gabe ended up calling in late, which as anyone who knows anything about radio will tell you is a big No-No. BJ got pissed off, denied him the interview, and ended up spending a portion of his call-in time ranting about lazy gamers who won’t get off their duffs to do the things they’re supposed to do. This morning, Gabe made some unflattering comments on his site, and BJ got a bunch of emails (surprise!) and started talking about it again, and… well, you get the idea.

Ordinarily, a tiff of this sort would register so low on the list of things I care about that it would barely register in my brain; it would be as though someone had brushed up against me in a crowded movie theater. Furthermore, I am just about the last Goddamn person on Earth who is likely to get all “Won’t someone think about the CHILDREN!?!?” on your ass, but here goes anyway. In my opinion, Gabe and BJ both have valid points, and they’re both being fucking cocks about this. It is clear that someone, somewhere on the PA side screwed up; this is a fact that cannot be argued. If we were talking about a charity for people with migraine headaches or people with really bad hangnails, I’d say go ahead and roast ‘em for being late. However, we’re talking about sick kids. I don’t even LIKE kids, and even I recognize the nobility in this effort. It would be totally awesome if folks could put aside their fucking egos for a few minutes and try to get the word out about this. There’s absolutely no good reason why Gabe — or anyone who reads or works for PA, for that matter — needs to opt to insult a radio host who has the opportunity to help them promote a charity. By the same token, there’s no reason why BJ can’t look at a calendar and decide to cut a charity organization a little slack two weeks before Christmas. To continue a petty argument like this when it’s an obstruction to people hearing about and being able to help out children’s hospitals can be attributed to nothing but needless arrogance.

Not that I expect either side to change their minds on this. BJ doesn’t have much incentive to relent because yelling and screaming makes for better radio than helping some kids out, and Gabe is… well, Gabe is Gabe.

I don’t think that posting this is going to make any sort of difference, and I doubt that anyone who actually cares will even read this. This is simply very unfortunate in the bigger scheme of things, and these sorts of things really aggravate me. I just had to say something to relieve my own internal pressure before something in my head popped and blood started rocketing out of my nose.

Safety Monkey has left the server.

This entry was posted on Friday, December 10th, 2004 at 3:16 pm and is filed under Misc.. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.