It’s not a win to have a large electronic music intstrument corporation attempt to delegitimize you as a journalist whose website/livelihood is literally based on reviewing and talking about electronic music making instruments (which, p.s. requires all journalists who do so to have at least neutral relationships with said companies). CDM is essentially a one-man operation, and even with its reach, he’s definitely not on a power/money level with Behringer.
This was childish, disgusting, and a huge power play by someone with far more power in this equation. If you don’t want to be critiqued, either for your product or practices, then fucking do better. Don’t launch a huge campaign aimed at one journalist for reporting on either/both.
Behringer can count on me never spending another dime on them again. This is shitty and beyond the pale. You get critique, you either let it roll off your back, or you rebut the review/story on the merits of the argument. What Uli did is what assholes do.
There have been plenty of pretty harsh comments towards UB IMO. Not necessarily by you, but there are plenty of Behringer haters out there.
I got to admit this whole Kirn episode is quite weird and they did go a bit too far with it. But I still don’t think it was mean-spirited. Certainly not antisemitic as some seem to suggest.
If nothing else, Behringer never seems to disappoint in terms of entertainment value. I guess they needed some way to get discussion around them going again, it was going a bit silent lately. They must have known their haters will get fueled by this
glad I have no real interest in the stuff B are cloning. I’m so much happier giving my cash to sound folk like elektron, soma, polyend etc etc (basically all the indies)
A journalist relies on trust to get access. Part of the trust is that they’re left to work, critiqued by peers, not from above. They’re inherently vulnerable.
Whatever Uli thinks he’s doing he needs a word with himself.
I hope I don’t have to point out the irony in Behringer of all companies calling someone a cork sniffer. Aren’t they the ones trying to sell people the idea that vintage analog synths possess special qualities that modern analog and digital synths lack?
Jeremy Blake had a great thread on Twitter today about the process of publishing videos in our modern corporate world.
One of my favorite comments was about how toxic the corporation must be for the the various hands this would have had to pass through and still made it out into the public.
At first i wasnt aware of the harshness of the video and thought it funny. I have however after doing reading and such come to the conclusion that it wasnt funny. It was in fact immature.
The thing is, thats on Uli and the people associated with the project. Id like to think there are plenty of good people who work there not connected to this project. I for one like what behringer has done. I am a fan of what they are doing, although not a huge fan of the buisness practices. My kids have some behringer gear and because of the affordability they can enjoy making music.
My hope os that Uli makes a video or something with a legit apology to Peter Kirn. It was ultimately his mistake for giving the green light on the project. He needs to own his mistake.
I didn’t get to see this video, but I saw a picture of the product. Wow what a jerk move. We all have bad days from people’s criticism but this company took it far. I’ll blow my money on other gear besides behringer now.
I must say, now that I looked a little into the topic and read some stuff kirn wrote, I find this video kind of funny. I didn’t see there antisemitism, but as an aged white man I am not here to judge about it.
I understand the idea of the marketing department of Behringer and as someone who worked in the marketing industry some times, I see how such projects are born and progress and get edgy some times.
Judging Behringer for doing something and totally ignoring the other side is something I don’t get. Kirn is using everything he is able to and Behringer responds (after years of “listening”) with stuff they are able to do. If you attack a guy that is way bigger than you for years, and some day the guy will “react” you cannot start to cry about how unfair it is, that the guy is so much bigger than you.
So no journalist should ever be even mildly critical of anything or anyone larger than themselves ever? Or at least be OK with getting this kind of attack if they do?
Oh, Journalists should always be critical! But critical journalism isn’t writing stuff, that the journalist believes in, journalism is all about researching and talking about facts!
And while Journalists should be supported in doing their thing, everyone else is allowed to resond to it. Be it just posting such response, or taking legal actions agains articles and stuff, that are plain wrong.
Journalism doesn’t mean: Write whatever you think and do whatever you want with the power you have!
I was never too bothered about Behringer until now but this is really nasty behaviour. it seems incredibly cocky to engage in shady business practices and then mount personal attacks against journalists who criticise you for it.
I know it’s a drop in the ocean but I won’t be buying any more of their products either
@t. There is a difference in being critical or writing biased one-sided sensation pieces to draw add clicks, without hearing the other party/investigating both sides of the story.
That is proper journalism! Real news sites are much more prudent in this and yet, bad articles still slip through the cracks ( intentional or not ).
Peter Kirn only answers to himself and just writes what he wants, without anyone vetting him.
Different with bigger magazines and newspapers that have Senior Editors vetting and approving articles that get published or not.
