Lately on Twitter all I hear from these guys @ryderjaphy and @wutangtulku is them whining that Kunzang Palyul Choling, or KPC as they apparently call it, sought legal counsel who then wrote a letter to the Elephant Journal warning them not to publish libelous material submitted by the same @ryderjaphy.  They even have the chutzpah to call it a SLAPP (strategic lawsuit against public participation), which is not what this is about.  A SLAPP is used by an organization to discourage critics by saddling them with endless litigation and legal fees.  Nothing like that happening here.  From what I can see, this is a legitimate act of self-defense.

First off, no legitimate publisher would ever publish anything without first checking the facts.  They have to do this for their own self-protection.  Look what happened to the New York Times when they published that series by Jayson Blair a few years back that turned out to be straight from the writer’s imagination.  It was a huge scandal and tarnished their publishing credibility for a long time.  

To knowingly publish lies about a spiritual organization like KPC, however, would be even worse and could very well mean the end of any publication that did it.  All KPC was doing was giving them fair warning that they had good reason to doubt the integrity of anything this particular writer was going to write in his so-called expose because he had never checked the veracity of anything with the organization (KPC) he was writing about. That obviously violates the very first rule of journalistic ethics, to always check the facts of any story.  

Obviously writing about facts is not a priority with @ryderjaphy.  In fact, it sounds like he is a collaborator in a smear campaign initiated by this Cassidy fellow, who is apparently the real face behind this @wutangtulku mask.  So obviously their whining about this alleged letter that KPC sent Elephant Journal is just a smoke screen to cover up their smear campaign and make them look like the injured party.  Trouble is anyone with half a brain can see through their little game.  I personally think it’s time they shut up and got on with their pathetic lives.