A Reply from Chris Bentley

Hi all,

Here is another message from Chris Bentley -- obviously that previous message
was meant to be edited/summarized, and I did not pick up on that. :-(

------------
Dear All,

My apologies that certain private remarks I wished to express to Marc have
instead been aired on the forum. As some of you have already suggested, some
things have lost perspective in the last few days.

It is entirely reasonable that people should question information that they
find on the internet and I applaud the general attitude that one should
disbelieve 90 per cent of the material that you find there - unless, through
experience, you have found the source to be one that you can trust
implicitly. As Marc has posted, Fanderson has, over the last eight years,
striven to become one of those sources and those of you who regularly read
our news pages will, I hope, have found the information to be - in the most
part - accurate and truthful, and that we go to a lot of trouble to update
or correct our reports if necessary as additional information becomes
available. Even so, those of you who have never visited our site before and
have done so for the first time at the advent of this terrible news were
perfectly correct to question if the information we provided was truthful in
the absence of any other reputable corroboration.

If I wasn't so emotionally involved in the news that we reported this week
perhaps I would have been able to keep to myself my anger and frustration
that some people were challenging what Marc, Helen, Paolo, Andy and myself
already knew to be horribly true. I am truly sorry if the inadvertant
publication of that frustration has upset those people, who were only
seeking to determine the truth for themselves.

I would hope that all doubt over the veracity of the news of the loss of Ed
and Mike has by now evaporated, and that we can all now come to terms with
that loss in our own way.

Kind regards,
Chris
---------

I appreciate Chris's clarification of his earlier message and I can
see how misunderstandings could have occurred. I understand that
although we are all saddened, those who knew Ed or Mike personally
will be most deeply affected. I'm sure Chris falls into that camp. Let
us all move on.

Best wishes,

David


--- In [hidden email], Marc Martin <marc@u...> wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> Here is another message from Chris Bentley -- obviously that
previous message
> was meant to be edited/summarized, and I did not pick up on that. :-(
>
> ------------
> Dear All,
>
> My apologies that certain private remarks I wished to express to
Marc have
> instead been aired on the forum. As some of you have already
suggested, some
> things have lost perspective in the last few days.
>
> It is entirely reasonable that people should question information
that they
> find on the internet and I applaud the general attitude that one should
> disbelieve 90 per cent of the material that you find there - unless,
through
> experience, you have found the source to be one that you can trust
> implicitly. As Marc has posted, Fanderson has, over the last eight
years,
> striven to become one of those sources and those of you who
regularly read
> our news pages will, I hope, have found the information to be - in
the most
> part - accurate and truthful, and that we go to a lot of trouble to
update
> or correct our reports if necessary as additional information becomes
> available. Even so, those of you who have never visited our site
before and
> have done so for the first time at the advent of this terrible news were
> perfectly correct to question if the information we provided was
truthful in
> the absence of any other reputable corroboration.
>
> If I wasn't so emotionally involved in the news that we reported
this week
> perhaps I would have been able to keep to myself my anger and
frustration
> that some people were challenging what Marc, Helen, Paolo, Andy and
myself
> already knew to be horribly true. I am truly sorry if the inadvertant
> publication of that frustration has upset those people, who were only
> seeking to determine the truth for themselves.
>
> I would hope that all doubt over the veracity of the news of the
loss of Ed
> and Mike has by now evaporated, and that we can all now come to
terms with
> that loss in our own way.
>
> Kind regards,
> Chris
> ---------