Calling attention to quoting Cartoon Brew...

[GeorgeC]

I see that some of us have still not seen Cartoon Brew for what it is...

Listen, Whitney and so on can continue to be fans of that site, but take what Amid Amidi or Jerry Beck have to say with a grain of salt... especially Amid.

It's NOT a great idea to quote from that site on political/management matters at all. The Brew Masters get caught twisting things to their own ends all the time.

Amid does not write anything that doesn't benefit himself in some way... He creates controversy where there isn't any to bring traffic to Cartoon Brew and very often says controversial things just to stoke people's fire.

I'd call that firebombing.
It's also very irresponsible and smacks of the worst yellow journalism and lack of ethics.

Some of you are not aware of his history or have not had the pleasure of calling him on his hypocrisy and seeing that what you and I think does not matter to him at all... He's not a good guy or ethical.
He also frankly does not know what he's talking about half the time; he excels at blowing hot air up you-know-what's of other people.

One of the worst lapses in Amid's judgment that I personally witnessed was implying that the late Roy E. Disney (son of Disney co-founder Roy O. Disney) was racist for buying into the Harlem Globetrotters saying that it must tickle Roy to finally own a black man! Amid never apologized for that comment and he's made accusations as bad or worse against other figures in the animation industry since then.

(Admittance: I NEVER liked Amid that much to be honest. I always thought he was full of himself and close-minded. However, I never thought he was both stupid enough and so dishonest to discredit someone else just because of their family name! I lost all respect for him after the Roy O. Disney business.

(Roy O. Disney wasn't perfect, either... But he was 100 times the human being that a small-time book writer with a website will ever be. Roy was a billionaire but he was nowhere near as mean or vindictive as his no-nothing critics were.)

Please be aware of these issues... I would NOT quote Cartoon Brew on anything that wasn't news-related. Frankly, the Digital Domain story was political -- it's NOT a news item per se -- and probably blown out of proportion. It's dangerous to walk into minefields like that considering the source of that story!

Don't be naive about Amid and Beck...

[James]

You're welcome to post your opinion but it might be best to leave it at that. The last thing I want is an inter-animation website feud!

I will add, without getting into the crux of your issue, that I enjoy Cartoon Brew. They have a lot of good non-"political/management" content. While we're geared more to the general animation fan, those who are "deeper" fans will find a lot of interesting stuff there. I don't think I'ver ever met or had dealings with Amidi, but Beck has been nothing but kind in emails and the time we met him in person at Comic-con.

[Randall]

I would also add that the issue of using students as free labor is a real issue, and newsworthy for an industry site such as how CB has positioned itself. It's an important conversation to have, and the Brewmasters are free to initiate what they like on their site. (There are parallels in other industries, though. Just look at student nurses, for example. But we don't need to get into all that here.) However, we do normally avoid "politics", preferring to cover the product and the talent, and don't expect to be going into these political areas to any regular degree.

[GeorgeC]

All right, it's your site... Run it as you well.

But I think you're being naive about the Brewmeisters.

I hate to quote another site, but there was a thread on Animation Nation about this "new controversy" that Amid "uncovered." => http://www.animationnation.com/communit ... f392b02785

Very illuminating.

These guys have had their issues with the Brew guys, too, but they're not the only ones... Not by a long shot.

Again, a lot of the Brew articles are very self-serving and do nothing to improve labor conditions for anybody.

I'd be extremely wary of them.

It's warranted.

[Macaluso]

"What is Cartoon Brew?" - any normal person reading this website

[Neal]

I know very little about either Amidi or Beck, but I feel from just from reading their posts, Beck is a serious animated film fan/scholar. His posts are typically more relevant and offer some depth. I have always left reading Amidi's posts with a distaste. He just gets his kicks creating controversies out of nothing.

Why would Cartoon Brew need to improve labor conditions? They are an animation entertainment news blog, not an animation industry site. Read the blog for The Animation Guild for labor condition reporting.

[James]

Very much more so than us I would say the Brew is more of the personal blog of its creators. Therefore the topics they discuss are those that interest them.

[Randall]

Yeah, Cartoon Brew is whatever they want it to be. It's their blog, they can do as they wish. News and opinions, as well as personal crusades, get equal attention.

[Teshawar]

One of the worst lapses in Amid's judgment that I personally witnessed was implying that the late Roy E. Disney (son of Disney co-founder Roy O. Disney) was racist for buying into the Harlem Globetrotters saying that it must tickle Roy to finally own a black man! Amid never apologized for that comment and he's made accusations as bad or worse against other figures in the animation industry since then.