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Behringer Launches Bizarre Attack on Music Journalist Peter Kirn (CDM)

If behringer wants to play in the mud itll cost them a lot more than kirn.

Poor business move for sure, but kirn I'm sure is enjoying the extra publicity - especially since much of it was accompanied by sympathy.
 
Honestly I think behringer's reputation is a harsh one to repair, their products were cheap. poorly made, and support was non existant. They may have changed over the years but I'll never know.

This is just petty on a personal level
 
Behringer is garbage and I never use their stuff. I've no love for them but that doesn't change the fact that this wasn't anti-semitic. Uli has a history of pettiness and vindictiveness and that's what this was.

But boy oh boy, there sure is a ton of projection in this thread...

racially charged terms liberal.jpg
 
Behringer is garbage and I never use their stuff. I've no love for them but that doesn't change the fact that this wasn't anti-semitic. Uli has a history of pettiness and vindictiveness and that's what this was.

But boy oh boy, there sure is a ton of projection in this thread...

racially charged terms liberal.jpg
that is an actual caricature of the florida race for governor.
 
As a Jew who has spent time with holocaust survivors hearing their stories, and someone who is very knowledgable about these matters, I think I speak with some authority. I side 100% with the people who say it was not intentionally anti-Semitic.

For me, the real issue is that Behringer registered Kirn's name so that Kirn couldn't market his 10-year-old open-source product, the MeeBlip.

Kirn publishes all the information on meeBlip on the github and welcomes people around the world to use his technology, as long as they don't market it under the MeeBlip name. Behringer fully intended to sue Kirn to not only stop him from marketing the meeBlip, but from any music product, maybe even any product.

Behringer ONLY backed down from trying to destroy Kirn's business because of the outrage. This is not only about a video. This is not only about a drawing.

This was not only about his relationship with Kirn. I believe Behringer was hoping to limit criticism of his business strategy, by scaring other music journalists (who mostly make a pittance and do it out of love) and make them feel that it is not worth it.

The criticism that came in about this affair was 95% about the unpleasantness of a big company "punching down" at a solitary journalist. Look online and you'll see that's true. Very, very few brought up anti-Semitism. But those that did had loud voices.

In terms of anti-Semitism, I think this: when you act in a mean-spirited way, there are some people who will assume the worst about what you do. Others will give you the benefit of the doubt no matter how you conduct your life. Hence the debate in this thread. I personally don't think the drawing was consciously made to look like Nazi propaganda.

To those of you who are so certain that it doesn't look like Nazi propaganda, I ask: why is this so important to you? Who cares? It's not my job to stop playing music and dig up a pile of documentary evidence that it does. It's not my responsibility to persuade you. It's a non-issue. I agree with you--he didn't intend it to look like an anti-Semitic cartoon.

What does matter to me is not his original intention, but his response.

When the criticism came in about the anti-Semitism, he could have made a quick and sincere apology. He did not. He made a "no-apology apology" that took no responsibility and satisfied no one. Then he quickly took his "apology" down.

By the way, he has chosen this time to announce his own DAW. It will be free. But it is 18 months away.
 
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The world has, quite literally, gone mad with looking for offence - not that many are offended themselves - but they are getting offended on someone else's behalf (which of course isn't patronising at all).

People say and do stupid shit. If they are smart they apologise for it - yes I did/said something wrong/stupid and I shouldn't have - but large numbers of people want to ruin their lives/careers over it.

For those of you outside the UK who may have missed this, here is a clear example of this madness that only recently occurred. The Chancellor of the Exchequer put out a tweet that they were getting down to work on the new budget......

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He is a Northern MP - So Yorkshire Tea is a fairly local manufacturer to his seat.

Here are some of the responses.....

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As someone put it - they were shouting at tea......

I don't know how these people will cope when some serious life challenges come their way - I'm back in Sierra Leone later this month - a place where people who have real problems behave with a dignity we appear to have lost.

By the way, if anyone wants a masterclass in how to operate a corporate social media account, just see how this company responded :

Screenshot 2020-03-08 at 17.27.59.png
 
When the criticism came in about the anti-Semitism, he could have made a quick and sincere apology. He did not. He made a "no-apology apology" that took no responsibility and satisfied no one. Then he quickly took his "apology" down.

Personally speaking, his apology was enough for me as far as the anti-Semitic claims were concerned. He stated very plainly that the caricature was not anti-Semitic, and apologized to anyone who felt offended for thinking it was. He kept it simple and to the point. If anyone needs more of an apology from Behringer in regard to the alleged antisemitism, they should think about recalibrating the sensitivity of their hair triggers.

Behringer's big problem is that their public relations department apparently has not been granted the authority to regulate what the top brass says and does. The whole Kirn issue should have been run through their PR department and been met with a resounding NO, YOU ABSOLUTELY CANNOT POST THAT! But that never happened, so Behringer's narcissistic personality and questionable business practices are shining bright on social media for the world to see.

Behringer's PR department (if they haven't yet quit out of frustration) needs to be given total authority over all social media from here on out, as well as the authority to do whatever it takes to minimize the damage that was done. If Uli wants what's best for his company, he simply needs to get out of the way and let his PR team go to work.
 
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