John Young's supporters are missing an important point.
This is not just about John Young.
Ian Gynther, Queensland's endangered species officer, put his reputation on the
line by coming out so strongly in support of John. He gave the claim a great
deal of credibility by announcing he was preparing a joint publication with
John.
So it's not just a matter of John having the luxury of "keeping his cards close
to his chest'', or wasting a politician's time.
John had given Ian an assurance that the photographs would be available for
scrutiny. Ian was given a detailed briefing by Gale Spring, during which Ian
was shown a series of images of John's (high resolution) photograph. That
briefing left little to the imagination. I was given a similar briefing by
Gale. He did not have to be a birding expert to identify obvious and serious
flaws in the photograph. (Remember, many others had expressed concerns before
Gale entered the picture.)
After the briefing with Gale, Ian met with John. The offer of access to John's
photographs was withdrawn. This was done in the full knowledge that the result
would be that the Queensland Government would effectively disassociate itself
from John's "discovery''. So Ian, who was prepared to take a big risk and stick
his neck out in support of John, was left stranded, high and dry.
This saga is more Monty Pythonesque than the obvious dead parrot. John has
likened his find to the Holy Grail. I'm reminded of the Monty Python movie
when the black knight has a leg cut off, then the other leg, then an arm... all
the time insisting he can still fight. A bit like some of John's supporters
really.
Greg Roberts
-----Original Message-----
From:
Behalf Of Tony Russell
Sent: Wednesday, 21 February 2007 9:54 PM
To: 'L&L Knight'; 'Birds'
Subject: John Young and his Parrots
Ok Laurie, I hope you can accept that I'm not defending or condemning
him. He may have misjudged how to announce his claims and is suffering
the consequences of that.
He may have risked wasting some politician's time but so what?
He may know more about the picture than he's letting on.
They are things for him to work through to the best of his abilities.
But I think it helps nothing at all for him to be publicly disparaged by
some people who seem to delight in doing so, almost as though they have
nothing better to do.
I think we should all get off his back and politely wait and see what
eventuates. Let's all be gracious in our tolerance of a possible blot on
what has otherwise been an enviable career. Maybe he's made an error,
maybe he hasn't , let's live with it.
-----Original Message-----
From:
On Behalf Of L&L Knight
Sent: Wednesday, February 21, 2007 6:45 PM
To: Birds
Subject: John Young and his Parrots
Yes, I take your point, Tony. However, let me put it this way.
If you were to put a message on BAus that you had found an interesting
bird that might be a fourth fig parrot and you posted a picture on
ABID, no-one would mind too much if it turned out that you were
mistaken, or more evidence had to be found to enable a judgement to be
made.
However, if you had a song and dance media event where the Minister for
Environment went on the record that you had found a new fig parrot and
it was said that the departmental scientific officer in charge of a fig
parrot recovery program was helping you to prepare an article for an
academic journal, then it would not be surprising that people started
to question your credibility if you didn't have the evidence at hand to
back up your claims.
If you have a gala opening for a new curry house with only lentils in
the larder, you can't complain that you are getting a raw deal when
people start asking "Where's the beef?". Even a "Charles Prentiss"
[Absolute Power] media campaign can only get you so far. In this era
of scientific determinism [how many of you are sweating on the next
Christidis and Boles taxonomic determination to bump up your life
lists?] you have to stump up if you make a big call.
It may be that this episode is the equivalent of a botched run-out
attempt [to use a cricket analogy]. Time will tell.
What does this all mean for twitchers? My view is that if you think
you've come across a rare vagrant [possibly a first for Australia] you
post a message on B Aus that you've seen an interesting bird with
characteristics A, B, C ... at location N and that you think it might
be species X [even if you are confident that it is X]. You don't jump
in and say "I've found species X ..."
Even when you use what you think is careful and precise wording, you
still need to have a thick skin, in my experience.
Regards, Laurie.
On Wednesday, February 21, 2007, at 09:14 AM, Tony Russell wrote:
>
> I have just re-read the report of John's findings on his website "John
> Young Wildlife Enterprises" to refresh my mind as to what all the
> current fuss is about. I have also reviewed most of the tittle tattle
> as to John's credibility currently being bandied about on this net.
>
> I must say I find myself shocked and disappointed that there seem to
> be some among us so determined to tarnish the name of such a highly
> regarded naturalist without anything to go on other than the fact that
> he is playing things close to his chest and hasn't yet revealed the
> full details or evidence ( presuming he has some) of his reported
> find(s). Is this suspicion born of envy or yet another example of how
> we in Oz just like to tear down tall poppies?
> Hey, let's give the guy the benefit of the doubt until he deems it
> appropriate to either tell us more or pull his head in and say sorry
> folks, my mistake. Let's stop being so impatient. Even if he backs
down
> we shouldn't lose our respect for him.
> My bet is that he's either sitting at home feeling sorry and
> embarrassed
> at having made a mistake and wondering how he can rescue the
situation,
> or he knows he's on safe ground and laughing his head off at all the
> petty nitpicking.
> I don't believe that any amount of badgering is going to get him to
> disclose anything further in public until he is good and ready, so
> instead of insisting that he "put up or shut up" why don't we just
shut
> up ourselves and wait for his next revelation, whichever way it goes.
> Don't we owe him enough respect and patience for that? If he is indeed
> on to something good I'm sure we'll hear about it eventually.
> Until he does tell us more all the positive or negative conjecture in
> the world isn't doing any good for anyone, not even those who like the
> sound of their own voices, but least of all for the reputation of
> Australian birders in the rest of the world.
>
> Tony.
>
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