Wokeness in Overdrive: How Guitar Center Used George Floyd’s Death to Cover Up a Shoddy Business Deal

This article was originally written for Weird World Wire, where it is published currently, so I’ve taken it off of Medium, where it was only meant to stay temporarily. I guess I may as well take this opportunity to address some of the comments received about it.

· It seems to be a popular assertion that I was paid by Mike Fuller to write the story, or that Mike Fuller himself wrote it. Both assertions are completely false. I wrote this story after investigating the fallout between the two companies because it seemed suspicious from the beginning. If you follow gear as intensely as I do, you know that Guitar Center has never been the first to lead such a charge against a company. The whole thing stunk from the beginning, prompting my investigation.

· Another point that keeps coming up is that I haven’t published anything before. Well, anyone who walks took a first step once, anyone who drives sat behind the wheel for the first time once, and anyone who ever wrote a piece of citizen journalism wrote a story for the first time. I’m not really sure what else to say beyond that; it’s my first time.

· Folks also keep asking for “evidence” or to provide my email correspondence with the concerned parties. I’ll walk you all through exactly what I did: I emailed the sales email address on Fulltone’s website and indicated that I was writing a story and was seeking a comment; Mike Fuller responded and we struck up a conversation wherein he provided the details that I have presented in the story. Similarly, I emailed Guitar Center’s media email address and indicated that I was writing a story and was seeking a comment; they responded with a super brief remark and advised that they wouldn’t answer anymore questions. I gave them another chance to comment after my conversation with Fuller began to take shape, and they chose not to respond. I wish they had because there could very well have been a reasonable explanation for everything, but Guitar Center chose not to take the opportunity. It was all honestly that simple, people. There’s obvious opinion-editorializing in my story, but the representation of each party is accurate to what they told me, and commensurate with their level of participation in my questioning. If Guitar Center provided more comments, they surely would have been represented. I could very easily provide copies of the emails, but I find that to be an absurd demand. How many stories do you read online that come complete with audio recordings of full phone conversations or immediate access to full email threads from participants in the interview? If you don’t believe my reporting and want to hear the details of what went down from the sources, do as I had done and email both parties politely asking for a comment. It’s easier than I thought it would be!

· Given that the story was meant for Weird World Wire, I’ll close this page after a couple days. My next article is ranking which toilet papers are the kindest on my hemorrhoids. It’s a real cracker, so stay tuned and stay weird!