And In the Interest of Equal Time

I wrote my tongue-in-cheek suggestion about reality television researching literary scandals last night. This morning, I checked my email and there is a note from Geoffrey Knoop, one of the participants in the J.T. Leroy saga.

You might have first learned about Knoop when was most prominently interviewed in this New York Times article where he acknowledged that “on the business side, I ran a lot of the day to day. Sending things out and contacting people, making decisions about what we were and weren’t going to do.”

You might also recall that Craig Clevenger, author of Dermaphoria, posted an open letter about HIV/AIDS awareness on his website. In Clevenger’s post, he addressed Laura Albert, Geoffrey Knoop, and Savannah Knoop and stated, “I strongly suggest you follow the example set by your vast audience who gave so much to you, and in turn give at least a portion of your time and money to the people who are truly afflicted with the conditions which have been such a boon to your career.

In his email to me, Knoop said he would be happy to donate when he gets on his feet financially. He also stated that he did not believe Laura Albert was trying to exploit sympathies with the HIV rumor. Knoop’s email seemed honest and sincere and he requested that I post his communication on Slushpile.net.

It’s too early in the morning and I’m a little torn by this. I have no way of even knowing if this email is truly from Knoop or if it’s a hoax. I don’t really have any reason to doubt the veracity of that email, it’s just that you never know. So I’m putting this up, in the interest of equal time, and I’ll ponder on this a bit more throughout the day.