Chapter 123
At the beginning, Arnold was still very confident.
After old Matthew's funeral, he made a serious promise in front of Su Ning, Shen Mingzheng and others, and appeared very serious.
"I will protect this award, no matter what it takes," he said. "Please trust me."
He trusted people who had talked to old Matthew, but he was still a little unfamiliar with people like Su Ning and Shen Mingzheng, but he did not show it on the surface.
From Arnold's perspective, other people have their own companies to manage and are not the person in charge of the Thorn Award. It is good enough for them to express their willingness to support, and there is no need to bother them with specific matters.
Shen Mingzheng and Su Ning saw his current mentality, but they didn't explain anything at that time. It was useless to say anything at this time, so they just kept it in mind.
At that time, nothing really happened and everything seemed calm, but the incident with the judges happened too quickly.
The number of judges for each Thorn Award is not fixed. Sometimes there are a dozen or so people, and sometimes there are more than 30 people from various countries. When Fu Jing was invited by old Matthew to join again, she was already the 27th one, and the last one of this session.
27 people is not a small number. According to the previous rules, no more people should be added. However, not long after old Matthew died, someone wanted to take action in this regard.
Although the Thorn Award has strict rules, the judges are always selected by humans, which leaves loopholes.
This time, the person who tried to squeeze himself in met all the judges' requirements in terms of hard conditions and was indeed a well-known figure in the entertainment industry.
——Raymond, he was a journalist when he was young, and later became a documentary director. He has made many works, some mediocre and some good works that can win awards. In recent years, he has opened his own channel on the short video website.
He has traveled far and wide and knows a lot of things, which makes him very suitable for self-media. He now has tens of millions of fans on the Internet and is a big blogger who can make things happen.
Theoretically, there is no problem with his qualifications, but at this point in time, it is somewhat strange.
There are many staff members in the Thorn Award. Under the chairman there is a vice chairman, and under the vice chairman there are various staff members in the permanent office. They all have certain powers.
Although old Matthew has tried his best to clear it out, he cannot prevent some people from hiding and not being exposed until now.
When one of the vice-chairmen recommended Raymond to Arnold as one of the new judges, on the grounds that he wanted to make good use of the power of self-media in the new era and expand the influence on the Internet, the concept was very good, but Arnold instinctively felt that something was wrong.
He has a good character, but he is not stupid.
He kept in mind all the instructions given by old Matthew. Now he just wanted to follow in the footsteps of his predecessors. Besides, twenty-seven judges were enough and there was no need to add more.
So, Arnold refused on the spot.
But obviously those people did not give up because of his refusal. Instead, they seemed to have expected this and did not insist on the issue on the surface. They also did not bring it up again to Arnold.
Raymond has a lot of drama. As expected of a self-media person, he is very good at creating momentum for himself.
He and old Matthew had met before and had some superficial communication. Even though old Matthew had a bad temper, he was a decent person in formal occasions, so the two of them had several photos together and looked like they were very close.
When old Matthew passed away, Raymond was extremely sad. He first stopped updating his social network, which used to contain seven or eight updates a day. Then on the third day he appeared haggard and expressed his grief. When he spoke about his sorrow, he burst into tears, which was very touching to watch.
Among so many people who mourned, he was unique and stood out.
There is one thing that is special about Raymond. He doesn't just express grief, he also uses the wind to tell stories.
The stories he told were half true and half false, and he told his relationship with old Matthew from various perspectives.
For example, he said that the two people actually had a good personal relationship, which was false, but a dead person could not stand up to refute him. He also said that he had been funded by the Thorn Prize, so he had deep feelings for this award. This was true. His works had indeed been exhibited by the Thorn Prize, and he got investment when he was the poorest, and that was more than ten years ago.
It sounded really weird, and after he said this, he slowly and imperceptibly tied himself to Old Matthew and the Thorn Prize.
Moreover, at this time, it is difficult for the descendants of the Thorn Prize and old Matthew to refute the rumors. After all, many things in it are true.
Moreover, many people who really cared about old Matthew were immersed in grief at that time. No one would explain this matter one by one and deliberately distinguish the truth from the falsehood.
But this is just a prelude to Raymond's momentum.
Some time later, when he was interviewed by the media, based on these many stories, he mentioned that someone recommended him to be a judge for the Thorn Award.
He is very happy about this and has made a lot of preparations for it. He also posted some content on his own media, which shows that he attaches great importance to it and works very hard.
At this time, Raymond also mentioned ambiguously that Matthew had invited him before he died, and he would definitely carry on this legacy at the Thorn Award. Although he kept saying it was "possible", his actual actions showed that it was a foregone conclusion. Many fans were moved by his story and chose to support him.
At this time, many social media also began to promote Raymond's various works. He was said to be the one supported by the Thorn Award, and now returning to be a judge was a "beautiful cycle", which made everyone accept this emotional response, as if he was an extremely suitable judge.
Things have come to this point, and the organizers of the Thorn Award naturally discovered it. Arnold is a very determined person. Since he has refused, he will not change his mind just because of public opinion.
Therefore, at this time, there was no delay and the rumor was refuted on social networks, saying that Raymond was not a judge of the Thorn Award and the organizers had never planned to invite him.
This matter should have ended with this statement, but it is not so easy to resolve.
Arnold's refusal again seemed like falling into a trap.
Obviously, the other party was not easy to deal with. Raymond did not confront Arnold, but apologized on social networks, saying that he had misunderstood and expressed regret.
Fans were shocked, but naturally found it strange.
Soon, someone took a photo of the vice chairman's recommendation letter and posted it, showing that Raymond had indeed been a candidate for the jury, but was vetoed by the current chairman.
As soon as this incident happened, it instantly caused a lot of discussion.
Then, some people questioned that Arnold was too arbitrary. The chairman of the Thorn Award is not a one-man show and should be fair and just. Now many people think that Raymond is very suitable to be a judge, so why not consider everyone's opinions?
After this question was raised, they started to take advantage of the emotions aroused among the audience and fans.
Then, some well-known celebrities stood up to support Raymond, hinting that the Thorn Award was too harsh on him, and even began to steer the matter towards a sensitive topic.
Only at this point did the real purpose come to light.
Raymond is a person of color, born in a slum, and he is also a disabled person. He was injured while filming a documentary. He is blind in one eye, has obvious scars on his face, and has lost three fingers on his left hand. He has always presented himself as a charitable person on the Internet, which is a very attractive and sympathetic character.
It can be said that he was carefully selected by certain people.
In comparison, Arnold seems too perfect, and this perfection makes him look too "superior".
His family background is so perfect that no one would sympathize with him compared to Raymond's personality. Once such a comparison is made, the new chairman is labeled as "discriminatory", even if Raymond cannot be a judge this time, the Thorn Award will have a loophole.
Arnold had never expected that this situation would come so quickly and so violently, but he did not back down.
He has been explaining on the official platform, citing various regulations of the Thorn Award, using actual circumstances to illustrate that it is unnecessary to add judges at this time, and that he did not mix any personal emotions when making the decision.
However, this "rational" explanation, driven by some distorted media, does not have enough power to resist the misguided public sentiment.
Although some people believed his statement after reading it carefully, and Arnold also had the media that he could mobilize, he was not powerless, but facing the real public, his response was not enough, and the storm was not suppressed.
After several arguments, Arnold even had the upper hand.
Many people think that adding a judge is nothing, and Raymond seems to be very suitable, as if he has become a kind of representative, so they cannot understand Arnold's stubbornness and persistence.
If things continue to develop in this way, no matter what the outcome, it will be a huge blow to the Thorn Prize.
Su Ning and Shen Mingzheng soon found out about this.
Fu Jing had been following the judges' matter over there, and she quickly passed on the news. Su Ning did not take it lightly at the beginning, and he even asked Wellington about it specifically.
According to Wellington's investigation, there is someone behind Raymond. Since he started his own media, he has always had capital support behind him.
Although Wellington was not sociable, his family had a long history and he had his own information channels in this country. Moreover, after this period of cooperation, he had already trusted Su Ning very much.
Although he did not have such a strong belief, since he had promised Old Matthew, he would do it to the end, and people with a technical background never disdained such dark forces behind the scenes.
It's no big secret that there's someone behind Raymond. It's normal for stars and celebrities to have capital support, but the person behind Raymond is someone old Matthew has always been at odds with.
But the general public is unaware of these internal twists and turns, and it is not realistic to explain them directly to the public, who will not understand unless they are involved in them.
It's not like Arnold hasn't done this before. He has tried to explain it to everyone in a logical and concise way, but few people fully understand these things before expressing their opinions. Many people won't spend so much time thinking about it and will be carried away by emotions when they are quoted out of context. This cannot be changed.
But this matter cannot be left unaddressed.
When Su Ning and Shen Mingzheng were discussing this matter with a group of people, they said, "There is no need to explain the rules of the Thorn Award to everyone. The opponent's game must be broken by his own methods."
“Things caused by emotions should be solved with emotions themselves.”
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