Sound Bites

I have an issue I need to work on. Every time I give an interview, I often try to make points using humor. Lately that has been the one piece of the interview that gets traction. the goofy off-hand comment gets picked up, and the larger point goes unheeded. As a result, I have decided to keep a running list of the absurd quotes that are attributed to me. Where appropriate, I’ll even include the redacted terms from the actual interview.

If nothing else, they might give you a good laugh. Enjoy!

From an interview about candidate MySpace sites and the problems they potentially create: Says Turk: “Associating with transsexual hookers [escorts] could very quickly become an issue, certainly in the Republican primary. The problem is, [a candidate] doesn’t have plausible deniability” to say he wasn’t aware of a posting, because the keeper of a MySpace or Facebook page controls who gets to be a “friend.” “Guilt by association is still a very powerful concept,” Turk says. – My Fellow Americans: Pls Post a Comment!, Washington Post, 3/25/07The reporter and I were discussing the extremes in the types of people with whom Presidential candidates have friended themselves. I mentioned a porn photographer and former Playboy model Tila Tequila (see below) and he mentioned SuziQ, a transsexual escort. “I said that’s exactly right…” and the rest is history.

From an MSNBC’s Hardball segment on the netroots: Tila Tequila the former Playboy model with 1.7 million friends outclasses the entire Presidential field, but I don’t think she’s going to be our next Chief Executive. – Hardball, March 23, 2007

We were discussing the problem with metrics for the online game and MySpace in particular. This is a point I have made both here and at TechPresident. I fundamentally disagree with using MySpace as a measure of political viability and this is why.

There have been a few more of these, but I have to go find them. In the meantime, as more pop up, I’ll keep you updated.