Readers of my blog may remember a late update to a recent blog post about the Wack Pack and their probable involvement in orchestrating the racist harassment of Kelly Marie Tran, in an effort to malign and purge the older portion of the fan base.  That late update was in reference to a second hand story about a conversation with Pablo Hidalgo in a podcast station.   An anonymous inside Star Wars contributor had read about it, and relayed it to me as best as they were able to recall.

We now have that story as it was told verbatim, and best of all, it comes from the public Facebook group, New Republic Historical Office.

 

 

The vast majority of my readers are smart enough to know that the Facebook post below may or may not be a genuine account of events, and to take the information presented below with that in mind.  They don’t have to be told that.  However, there are from time to time naive SJWs who do read this blog also, so a trigger warning in remedial English needs to be typed out.  Therefore, SJWs reading this have been warned.

This story comes to us from a fan named Ken Tomlin on Facebook, who claims to have been good friends with Arnie C of Star Wars Action News.  Ken would occasionally sit in on Arnie’s podcasts from time to time according to him.  Ken claims to have been present in Arnie’s studio during an online conversation between Arnie C and Pablo Hidalgo after recording for the podcast was finished, and he relates that account below.

Readers may recall from the aforementioned recent blog post, that Arnie and his wife Margie C created the #ForceOutHate hashtag as a method to harass Rebel Force Radio.

A couple of things here to keep in mind while reading this account.  This Facebook post was made in April of 2018, and recounts events that allegedly took place a few years earlier.  Also, PH = Pablo Hidalgo.

Here is the direct link to the post.

I’ve copied and pasted the text of the post for easier reading, which is as follows:

Ken Tomlin I’m not surprised by his change of “heart”, I’m only shocked it’s taken this long. I know I’ve told this story before ( maybe, not on this exact page ), but I think it should be told again. If, for no other reason than to make others aware. I’m sure, some of you know Arnie C., the guy who runs SW action news podcast/website along with his wife. I USED TO be good friends with him ( more on that later ), we worked in the same bldg for the same company here in Springfield, Illinois. I used to go to house and hang out while he did his podcasts. Around, the time of the buyout/ cancellation of the EU, I was over there for a podcast talking with PH about the future of SW. PH was his normal “put on fake face/voice for the listeners/ fans” that he always is. When, the recording process was over, and PH was just talking to Arnie about it “off the record” his/LFL/Disney’s true intention/feelings came out. * side note *- ( I’ve been asked before if I have actual “written/audio” proof of this. No, I’m sorry I don’t. I had no idea that this conversation was even going to happen. Whether, you want to believe me or not is entirely up to you. I gain nothing either way.)

I’m not going to go question/reply, since this comment is already long enough. Just remember, that all this, was being said during the time when the buyout/cancellation had just happened and at that time all comments about the EU coming out from LFL/Disney were: “ not at this time”, “no plans right now”, “maybe, in the future”!

Here’s the highlights:

EU will NEVER be continued.

EU characters/stories will be brought into the “canon” and reworked/rebooted.

PH made it abundantly clear that all this was geared towards new/younger fans. I’m quoting him here- “ all the fans who seen the OT in theaters and followed SW for close to 40 years are all getting up there in age. Honestly, how much longer will they be alive?! 15-25 years?! We don’t and won’t concern ourselves with these fans”! “ we/LFL/Disney want to indoctrinate the youth into our SW”!

It was at that point, I spoke up, and he heard me and realized him and Arnie weren’t alone.

I said- “ Indoctrinate?! When, I hear that word, it brings to mind Nazi Germany! That’s the word they used in their “education” of their children. I guess, I shouldn’t be surprised since Disney had close ties to the 3rd Reich that they’d continue to keep that type of mentality even today”!

PH was furious and basically threatened me, if I ever said any of what was spoken. Arnie, kept apologizing and kissing his ass and then PH hung up the phone.

Arnie, basically never talked to me again and avoided me at work. I know, since he’s tight with all of them at LFL, he’ll never confirm anything I’ve said. That’s fine. I know what was said, and I hold no hard feelings towards him. SW and his access to it, is part of how he earns a living.

Anyway, thought I’d share this with you all. All I can say, is that everything PH said was going to happen back in then, has come to pass.

Here are screen captures of the Facebook post for those who want to see them:

If this Ken Tomlin’s account is genuine, then one wonders how much of this mentality also went beyond the Legends EU, and into the making of the feature films, and coming television series.  Are the SJW savages who recently excoriated Jon Kasdan over a silly joke representative of the newer younger fan that Lucasfilm is now attempting to appeal to?

Another Facebook user in this group later made the following comment, in regards to attempts to bring back the Legends EU as the primary canon:

I’m not sure that Pablo ever hated the EU necessarily, as much as he may have been in love with the idea of remaking it through the lens of his own wacko ideology.  To a large extent, he’s succeeded.  “Kylux Sex” is now Pablo Hidalgo’s enduring Star Wars legacy.

I’m also reading unconfirmed rumors around the interwebs that Lucasfilm will soon be removing the Legends EU from reprint in Europe and Australia.  Is this why Jason Ward and his Wack Pack worked so hard to malign and suppress pro-Legends activist efforts?  To help make way for Pablo’s unwarranted ego as he worked to remake the EU?  Was the Legends material only meant to be kept around temporarily as a stopgap until Pablo had enough published DisCanon material to replace it entirely?  Who knows.

But given the likelihood that this newer younger audience will jump ship from the Star Wars franchise in about a year after Episode IX is released to pursue whatever new fad is trending at that moment, Lucasfilm may have to bring back the Legends EU at some point, whether it wants to or not.

UPDATE 1:

After informing the Ken Tomlin account that Arnie C claims to have no relationship or knowledge of any Ken Tomlin and giving him the Twitter link to Arnie C’s public statement on Twitter, the Ken Tomlin account responded:

Ken Tomlin Itchard Bacca course not. I said he’d deny it. Doesn’t matter to me. I know him. Like I said, I worked in the same building with him, but in a different department. Whether he’ll admit to knowing me or not, doesn’t change the fact of what I heard. Arnie, was always a cool guy, and I have no ill will towards him at all. It is what it is. Since, I’m not on Twitter, I can’t nor would I respond.

It frankly:

One, doesn’t matter to me, and two, it all comes down to he said/she said drama. Which I’m not getting involved with. The only reason I relayed the story, was to show that the cancellation of the EU was planned from the beginning. Believe it or don’t. I won’t be losing any sleep over it.

http://archive.is/jlXPH

UPDATE 2:

Ken Tomlin makes no mention of an exact date as to when this conversation would have taken place.  He does offer a vague comment, “Around, the time of the buyout/ cancellation of the EU…” and “…that all this, was being said during the time when the buyout/cancellation had just happened…”

Regardless, Arnie C attempted to find a podcast from that time, saying “For giggles I pulled the original audio recording of our call back in Sep ’12 (cuz I keep everything).”

Deadline reported in October 2012 that Disney confirmed it would acquire Lucasfilm, and that Kathleen Kennedy would serve as executive producer on Episode VII and future Star Wars films.  So that lines up nicely with Arnie’s attempt to find a podcast from Septermber 2012.

However, starwars.com put out a press release on June 1st, 2012, stating that Kathleen Kennedy would become co-chair of Lucasfilm.

UPDATE 3:

The New Republic Historical Office has made a statement on recent events and this blog post:

In a post on this page on April 4th, in the comments, a person named Ken Tomlin made an allegation that he used to work with noted Star Wars blogger/podcaster Arnie Carvalho and claimed he overheard a telephone call between Mr. Carvalho and Pablo Hidalgo regarding the future of Star Wars.

I won’t repeat the claims of Mr. Tomlin, as they are baseless and unsubstantiated. I ignored the claim in the comments when Mr. Tomlin initially made it.

A few days ago, another blogger writing under the pseudonym Itchard Bacca unearthed these old claims and reprinted them in a blog, treating the comments of some random poster on a Facebook page as essentially truthful and the allegation as a revelation about the inner workings of Lucasfilm.

This has lead to a war of comments and allegations on this page in the last couple of days (in the comments of old posts).

Ken Tomlin, if you have any way to substantiate your claims, please post them or retract your allegations regarding Arnie Carvalho. You have apparently blocked him when he asked for some substantiation of your claims, now I’m asking for it as well.

Arnie Carvalho, please don’t post asking people to come to this page to harass anyone nor come here to harass anyone yourself. I ban and/or block people engaging in harassment and/or trolling on this page immediately and without warning.

If you are coming to this page to harass or troll anyone, you will be banned immediately, with no warning. This page has a longstanding zero tolerance policy regarding antisocial behavior.

Please do not use the comments of this page to spread baseless hearsay. The “I just happened to overhear a personal conversation with someone at LFL saying something juicy” concept doesn’t lend itself to believability.

Also, bloggers should engage in responsible journalism and not take random wild allegations or rumors from someone on Facebook, without prudent fact checking, as fact and repeat them. Some random person on Facebook saying they just happened to overhear a conversation with someone on the Lucasfilm Story Group about the future of the Star Wars EU is too good to be true, and any claims to that effect should be treated as such.

Here is my response:

Hello. I have to take exception with this statement:

“A few days ago, another blogger writing under the pseudonym Itchard Bacca unearthed these old claims and reprinted them in a blog, treating the comments of some random poster on a Facebook page as essentially truthful and the allegation as a revelation about the inner workings of Lucasfilm.”

And this statement as well:

“Also, bloggers should engage in responsible journalism and not take random wild allegations or rumors from someone on Facebook, without prudent fact checking, as fact and repeat them. Some random person on Facebook saying they just happened to overhear a conversation with someone on the Lucasfilm Story Group about the future of the Star Wars EU is too good to be true, and any claims to that effect should be treated as such”

In my blog post which can be seen here:

https://disneystarwarsisdumb.wordpress.com/2018/12/24/a-pablo-hidalgo-christmas-miracle/

You will find the following paragraph written by me:

“The vast majority of my readers are smart enough to know that the Facebook post below may or may not be a genuine account of events, and to take the information presented below with that in mind. They don’t have to be told that. However, there are from time to time naive SJWs who do read this blog also, so a trigger warning in remedial English needs to be typed out. Therefore, SJWs reading this have been warned.”

That paragraph represents the exact opposite of “…treating the comments of some random poster on a Facebook page as essentially truthful…” That paragraph did in fact treat any claims to that effect as potentially too good to be true. In addition, I also present the statements from the other side on the same blog post.

So a retraction and correction is in order.

New Republic Historical Office responded:

New Republic Historical Office No, there will be no retraction or “correction” from me. I have no reason for one. If anyone, you need to be apologizing to me for dragging this page into the mess you’ve created, and Mr. Carvalho for reporting posting baseless rumors like a cheap tabloid.

You took a baseless claim made by an unknown party (I have no clue who Ken Tomlin is, or if that’s even someone’s real name) that was made in the comments of this page over 8 months ago, then repeated it a few days ago as part of a blog post as you made an argument.

A little disclaimer doesn’t absolve you of dragging this page into the mess you created, nor of dragging Mr. Carvalho into this mess. It’s sloppy journalism. A random comment on a Facebook page is hardly reputable journalism and mentioning it at all is rather irresponsible on your part. Some random person claiming they know and work with a well-known podcaster personally and that they overheard a conversation between him and Lucasfilm is an extraordinary claim, and extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof.

Did you ever try to contact Mr. Tomlin to get him to substantiate these claims? Did you try to do something to get him to verify that this actually took place? Did he provide any information to substantiate his allegations, like some form of proof that he actually worked a the same place as Mr. Carvalho as he alleged? According to Mr. Carvalho, Mr. Tomlin blocked him on Facebook when he contacted him to seek any confirmation that Mr. Tomlin even personally knew Mr. Carvalho and wasn’t just some random person on the internet claiming that he knew him. Responsible journalism would have involved some measure of fact checking, even if it was discussing this with Mr. Tomlin to have a measure of confidence in his claims.

Given that the Star Wars EU/”Legends” movement has suffered from being misrepresented by poor journalism in the past, I would have hoped a blogger writing about our cause would hold to higher journalistic standards.

I responded again:

Itchard Bacca New Republic Historical Office Of course you have a reason for a retraction and correction. What you posted here was incorrect and untrue as I have demonstrated. That little disclaimer presented the Facebook post as something that “may or may not be genuine,” rather than treating it as something that is “essentially truthful.” To stand by your statement it is to stand by a lie, and literate people can see that plainly.

I plainly stated that the claim may or may not be genuine for my more naive readers, so no apology from me is warranted. I reposted a public statement that was made available on a public forum which is available for all to see. So there is absolutely nothing wrong with what I’ve done whatsoever, even if you may not personally like it. The fact that the Facebook post was made 8 months ago, has no bearing on anything. Even writers in the legacy media write about rumors all of the time. It’s routine stuff.

And frankly, given that Arnie C and Pablo Hidalgo have both falsely accused many in Star Wars fandom of racism, misogyny, homophobia, etc., not to mention Arnie’s harassment of RFR, I find myself wholly unsympathetic to accusations of “dragging” him into anything. He dragged himself into this long ago.

Though its not proven that Ken Tomlin’s claims are false. It’s a he said/she said scenario instead. But if you want to get into fact checking, then we should be asking, aren’t you aware of the personalities posting in your own forum? As far as journalistic standards, I’m not a journalist. I’m an investigator. My intent was to present the the claim which may or may not have been genuine, and provoke unprepared unrehearsed responses from both parties. To that end I have succeeded.

So again, a retraction and correction is in fact in order, given that what you’ve posted here is demonstrably incorrect and untrue.

FINAL UPDATE:

Stephanie Janiczek comments on this story:

Originally published here.