16 March 2015
My apologies to Vincent Ha and Goliath... I mean, Xiaxue
I want to ask, how did I get dragged into this?
But the thing is, I sorta dragged myself into this.
And what is "this"? The continuing Xiaxue-Gushcloud saga, of course.
On Saturday, Xiaxue (or Wendy Cheng) published a sequel to her Big Gushcloud Exposé.
Once again, local netizens went a little nuts over it. But a bit less nuts than before because after all, it's just a sequel. Many were also too busy hunting down the rude Chai Chee taxi passenger to crucify.
So a website called MustShareNews provided a summary of Xiaxue's second Gushcloud exposé as well as some commentary.
Then yesterday, another website, Mothership.sg, commented on the commentary by MustShareNews.
Mothership.sg said that MustShareNews covered the saga with a "defensive spin" and was downplaying it.
Mothership.sg also alleged that the reason MustShareNews was doing so is that MustShareNews belongs to Gushcloud, a fact that was not disclosed by MustShareNews, thus putting MustShareNews' objectivity in doubt.
To prove that MustShareNews is owned by Gushcloud, Mothership.sg reproduced a screenshot of the e-mail Gushcloud CEO Vincent Ha wrote to me asking me to be a contributor to MustShareNews.
And that was how I found myself dragged into the saga.
It's my own fault for publishing Mr Ha's e-mail on this blog in December in the wake of Xiaxue's first Big Gushcloud Exposé.
A part of me regrets publishing Mr Ha's e-mail because he had written to me privately and I betrayed that confidence.
Publishing a private e-mail someone writes to you is not cool and I want to apologise to Mr Ha for that. I guess I was caught up in all the leaked information about Gushcloud and wanted to be part of it, even though Mr Ha's e-mail to me is really quite innocuous.
That is, until Mothership.sg dredged it up as evidence that MustShareNews may be a little biased in matters regarding Gushcloud.
After I blogged about his e-mail in December, Mr Ha actually wrote back to me and apologised for not responding to my reply to his e-mail back in September. He seemed to have gotten the impression that I was upset with him for that, which I wasn't at all.
I was more upset with myself for giving the impression that I came up with The Noose, which I didn't at all.
But now I'm a little upset about something else.
So I tweeted about how surprised I was to be mentioned in Mothership.sg. And to my even bigger surprise, Xiaxue tweeted me back.
SM Ong @sm0ng
Woah... I'm mentioned in Mothership.sg regarding Xiaxue-Gushcloud saga
http://fb.me/3bw1qO6lp
♥‿♥ Xiaxue ★彡 ✔ @Xiaxue
@sm0ng time to share the article. Goliath commands you to.
♥‿♥ Xiaxue ★彡 ✔ @Xiaxue
@sm0ng I have printed out that cartoon of me looming over enemies and sent it to ICA to replace my IC photo but ICA rejected it.
This is getting awkward.
The "Goliath" thing is a reference to how I described her in my not-so-flattering New Paper column about her. The cartoon she mentioned is the one drawn by a New Paper artist to illustrate the column.
You know, when I write my "funny" column about local personalities such as Xiaxue, Glenn Ong and Baey Yam Keng, I like to pretend that no way they would read it. Lately, it's getting harder to keep up that pretence.
Glenn Ong has tweeted me. I went running with BYK. And now Xiaxue is following me on Twitter.
So, so, so awkward.
How did I get dragged into this?
I dragged myself into this.
Now how do I drag myself out?
Anyone got a slingshot?
Where's SMRT Ltd (Feedback) when you need them?
Oh yah, Xiaxue filed a Protection Order against them.
