Belo Bottoms Out

Monday, Avi Adelman called in a bit of a panic to see if I had gotten a "cease and desist" letter from Belo. After all, Avi, Allen Gwinn and I make up the evil website triad so feared by Belo and Our Downtown Betters (the ODB) that Mayor PreTend Poss and the City Attorney hired an outside lawyer to get them an opinion to use to shut down our three websites.

Avi read his "cease and desist" letter to me (which he shares with you on BarkingDogs.org). After I stopped laughing, it occurred to me that DallasArena.com had been slighted by Belo since they did not bother to send me a "cease and desist" letter. Other than the fact that we are both short, Avi and I are not the same person. I'm a blonde, Methodist, perky female Spinster. He's an energetic Jewish father of three girls. Allen is also blonde and a father of two. But, we are three different people. Honest!

From: "Director, The Public Cause Network" <Director@ThePublicCause.Net>
To: <blc@belo.com>
Subject: Deep Linking
Date: Thu, 2 May 2002 17:30:39 +0100

Re: Deep linking to BELO web pages

To whom it may concern:

Should I ever have the desire to, I will not hesitate to hyperlink to BELO web pages other than your home page.

William Wilgus
The Public Cause Network
PO Box 1845, Silver Springs FL 34489-1845 USA
(352) 625-9646; Director@ThePublicCause.Net; http://www.thepubliccause.net

RALPH GOIN: Give it a rest! As a long time subscriber (because I lost my subscription to the other major newspaper that went under),

I appreciate the opportunity to get linked to an article that I had previously read, but have discarded the hard copy.

Also, if the link is to an article that I missed, and the hard copy is in the trash, it gives the same convenience. In the past, I have tried to use the DMN web site, and found it difficult to use. In my case, you are not loosing and advertising revenue, as I see plenty of ads in the print copy. I find it difficult to believe that Barking Dogs is such a big web site as to cost you any significant revenue.

One last point, when I use your web site, I don't pay any attention to the ads, as my purpose for being on the site is to find some information important to me, not to find opportunities to spend more of my money!

Your position as a monopoly makes me sick. GET OFF BARKING DOGS' *##!

Here we are in one room at the same time (back when City Hall tried to shut us down):

To date, Allen Gwinn has no Belo "cease and desist" letter, but he doesn't "deep link" them at the same level as www.BarkingDogs.org or DallasArena.com. So, how come they slighted me?

Has DallasArena.com become too nice since Laura Miller got elected Mayor? Why would The Dallas Managed News consider "deep links" on www.BarkingDogs.org more egregious than all the "deep links" you get from DallasArena.com?

Who knew the links to DMN articles were called "deep links"? That sounds so sinister -- so important.  What does it say about Avi that he connects anything "deep" to Linda Lovelace? A whole other story that only Avi can tell.

After all we have done to discredit The Dallas Managed News, you would think DallasArena.com had earned our own "cease and desist" letter. It's not fair for Avi and www.BarkingDogs.org to get all the attention. Of course, my brilliant attorney, James Murphy, is probably very happy for Avi to eclipse me as a website gadfly.

All kidding aside -- this is really a strange thing that Belo has done. It is odd for a respectable law firm like Jenkins & Gilchrist to get involved with this foolishness -- but times are tough and Belo is a big client. There are rumors and strange tales going around about the new guy being groomed to run things at Belo. Is this another one of his brainy ideas? If so, how much fun we are going to be having at Belo's expense.

It was obvious during the mayoral race that the Editorial Board's columns were being written (or at least re-written) by the top guy who controls the $$. His interference tarnished the DMN past any hope of ever being respectable again. This huffing and puffing at Avi Adelman is even worse because it is so funny!

Is this proof the Belo family has been marrying cousins too long?

Avi has this thing in proper perspective now! It is a joke! Site Barks About Deep Link By Farhad Manjoo (www.WiredNews.com) shows how shallow is the legal thinking behind Belo's barking at Avi Adelman.

Here's a question:   Has Belo sent a similar letter to The Drudge Report? On more than one occasion, Drudge has "deep" linked to a DMN article. Did that cost Belo advertising revenue? Or is a little local website an easier target than The Drudge Report?

At the end of the day -- Belo's management looks stupid and Avi Adelman gets more national attention for www.BarkingDogs.org.   Don't you just love it?