Professor Plate gives me an 'F'

Tom Plate, the UCLA professor/journalist whose columns I critiqued last week posted a comment:

I will defend to my death your tight [sic] to post these comments, however juvenile and even libelous. They made my day -- the best laugh in a long time! Cheers

p.s. i agree about the pix, though

I wrote him back:

Thanks for writing. I'm glad you had a good laugh. If you'd care to write a more thoughtful response that goes beyond the slur of "juvenile" and the veiled threat of "libelous", I will be happy to post your reply.

his riposte:

It's hard to take you seriously, because of what you wrote. You can't seek to engage people at such a low level and expect a high level response. You have to grow up some time.

Cheers

I thought the final "Cheers" was a nice touch.

He's entitled to disagree with the form and substance of my critique, and he's entitled to have difficulty taking me seriously. But my comments were centered on specific things that he wrote. I think it's even harder, no, impossible, to take someone seriously when they dismiss a critic as beneath talking to and also hold themselves above responding to actual criticism. But then again that type of behavior is consistent with the authoritarian regimes whose censored newspapers help pay Plate's salary. (e.g. China, Singapore, Indonesia)

Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at October 23, 2002 12:10 PM