Slate reports on the Ray Carney - Mark Rappaport thing

And now Slate magazine has reported on the Ray Carney thing:

http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2012/10/16/mark_rappaport_versus_ray_carney_did_this_film_scholar_steal_an_indie_filmmaker.html

I wish to heck Carney would just return the stuff.

Jon Jost now has an online petition you can get to through his blog:

http://cinemaelectronica.wordpress.com/2012/10/15/chained-relations-4/

And there is a long comment on Jost's blog from Paul Couture pleading on behalf of Carney. This thing will likely destroy Carney's career. I agree with some of what he says. The talk about other conflicts Carney has been in, with Gena Rowlands for example, is irrelevant. Carney may have been right in those cases even if he's wrong now.

I tend to side with Carney on the Gena Rowlands thing. Even if I'm wrong, Carney can make a pretty good case. It does no good to bring it up in regards to this case.

Couture wrote:

I wonder what incentive Professor Carney now has to return the materials. He has already been shamed by hundreds of people, many of whom he considers the greatest artists alive. His department is aware of the transgression and his alleged role in it. If he returns the goods will he be forgiven? Of course not. He’s already lost everything thanks to your efforts, except, likely, the Rappaport archives. Did you consider this consequence before you started along this path from which there is no return?

I’d also like to say that I believe, despite some confounding evidence, that Professor Carney may truly have taken himself off the grid. Just because he has access to email, telephone or mail doesn’t mean he uses them. Once when I was preparing a class I decided to use some compilations of essays of Professor Carney’s. This was in the Spring and I was preparing for a Fall term course. I wrote him indicating that I would like to order a good number of compilations of essays. Weeks went by and I wrote again, then again, then again. No response. Then, several weeks into the semester he finally returned my emails. He said he was genuinely sorry and that he was in Europe, if I recall correctly. That was fine. He lost out on maybe close to $1000 in sales and I used other course materials. Did he have access to email any of that time? Probably he did. But it doesn’t mean he had any negative intent either. On the contrary, he only hurt his own sales and the dissemination of some of his lesser known works.

To read Couture's entire comment, click the link to Jon Jost's blog above.

For the most part, Jon Jost has simply publicized the case. I don't know if Carney deserves the damage to his career and reputation and I'm sure we'll all be worse off because of it. But you can't sacrifice Mark Rappaport on the altar of Ray Carney. Rappaport needs his stuff back. It's not much to ask.