It Stinks When They Lie ...
Lies are nothing new to the Left. We have dealt with these lies for some time, and we have even seen it on the Lefty blogs like DailyKos and Atrios. (No, there will be no links to either one.) But, when Arianna Huffington stated that she was going to put her blog together, a warning was issued from this site, and a number of others.
We will be watching. And this scrutiny does not come from jealousy. We are bloggers who are intellectually honest, and expect those that wear the moniker proudly in an equally honest manner. Those to the left side of our site under "LINKS" are such bloggers, and we are still adding more. The MSM comes in dead last on the links section for obvious reasons.
As Arianna collected a number of high-profile pundits on her site, we knew that this would not be easy. Many of these people, when called on their misstatement, will recant that they were "taken out of context." This is one of the many reasons why Thomas, Sabrina, and myself agreed that if we were to quote a news story that it would be copied and pasted in it's entirety. We have only not abided by this once; no one wants to read four pages of pure drivel.
But today, Arianna Huffington was forced to post up a "clarification" of George Clooney's non-blog blog on her site.
When I first invited George Clooney to blog after a screening of Good Night, and Good Luck in New York a few months ago, he said he wasn't sure how a blog worked.
So we put together a sample blog from answers he had given on Larry King Live and an interview with the Guardian in London, and sent it to him to rework in any way he wanted.
A publicist who was working on the promotion of Good Night, and Good Luck, emailed back saying, "I will get it to him and get back to you as soon as I hear anything." Three days later, she emailed again, approving, without any changes, what we had sent: "Of course this is fine, Arianna!"
And once we had the approval, that's what we ran: George Clooney's words put into blog form.
This was an honest misunderstanding. But any misunderstanding that occurred, occurred between Clooney and the publicist. We based our decision to post on the unambiguous approval we received in writing. There was no room for misunderstanding in that.
Update: A number of commenters have asked me to clarify the process by which our bloggers post. 99% of our bloggers blog directly onto the site (they have a password that enables them to post on their own; the first time we see their posts is when you do -- when it goes up on The Blog). Of the other 1%, some e-mail us their posts, one or two fax them, and, if they are away from a computer, some HuffPosters will occasionally phone in their takes, which we publish for them -- again without any editorial input. Very, very rarely (in 10 months, it's fewer times than you can count on your hand), we will work with a first-time blogger the way editors do in other, traditional media -- suggesting ideas and offering direction on what makes a blog different from, say, a New York Times op-ed. Part of what we've always tried to do with HuffPost is bring to the blogosphere some of the most interesting voices of our time that are not already there. This is the first time there was no back and forth with the writer -- our sample was approved 'as is' -- which is where the misunderstanding occurred.
Regardless of the spin she puts on this, the simple fact is that Clooney did not blog on the site. His words were used without his direct permission. A publicist's approval does not equal his. Arianna screwed up. She got caught. Nice clarification, but one nonetheless that should not have had to be posted. Maybe this will serve as a lesson to her that unless your blog works like a well-oiled machine (like ours, PowerLine, Confirm Them, and Pajamas Media, then your blog will not work with multiple people. Thomas and I set this site up, and while he was "appointed" editor-in-chief, I face no "editorial control." I post what I wish. All I have to do is abide by the rules. Thoimas has to, and so does Sabrina.
We post what we want provided it is: A) relevant, B) accurate, and C) free of hard profanity. We work with one another on a daily basis, and do the best we can to provide our readers with some of the best insight and commentary we can.
Despite her best efforts, Arianna cannot.
The Bunny ;)
Lies are nothing new to the Left. We have dealt with these lies for some time, and we have even seen it on the Lefty blogs like DailyKos and Atrios. (No, there will be no links to either one.) But, when Arianna Huffington stated that she was going to put her blog together, a warning was issued from this site, and a number of others.
We will be watching. And this scrutiny does not come from jealousy. We are bloggers who are intellectually honest, and expect those that wear the moniker proudly in an equally honest manner. Those to the left side of our site under "LINKS" are such bloggers, and we are still adding more. The MSM comes in dead last on the links section for obvious reasons.
As Arianna collected a number of high-profile pundits on her site, we knew that this would not be easy. Many of these people, when called on their misstatement, will recant that they were "taken out of context." This is one of the many reasons why Thomas, Sabrina, and myself agreed that if we were to quote a news story that it would be copied and pasted in it's entirety. We have only not abided by this once; no one wants to read four pages of pure drivel.
But today, Arianna Huffington was forced to post up a "clarification" of George Clooney's non-blog blog on her site.
When I first invited George Clooney to blog after a screening of Good Night, and Good Luck in New York a few months ago, he said he wasn't sure how a blog worked.
So we put together a sample blog from answers he had given on Larry King Live and an interview with the Guardian in London, and sent it to him to rework in any way he wanted.
A publicist who was working on the promotion of Good Night, and Good Luck, emailed back saying, "I will get it to him and get back to you as soon as I hear anything." Three days later, she emailed again, approving, without any changes, what we had sent: "Of course this is fine, Arianna!"
And once we had the approval, that's what we ran: George Clooney's words put into blog form.
This was an honest misunderstanding. But any misunderstanding that occurred, occurred between Clooney and the publicist. We based our decision to post on the unambiguous approval we received in writing. There was no room for misunderstanding in that.
Update: A number of commenters have asked me to clarify the process by which our bloggers post. 99% of our bloggers blog directly onto the site (they have a password that enables them to post on their own; the first time we see their posts is when you do -- when it goes up on The Blog). Of the other 1%, some e-mail us their posts, one or two fax them, and, if they are away from a computer, some HuffPosters will occasionally phone in their takes, which we publish for them -- again without any editorial input. Very, very rarely (in 10 months, it's fewer times than you can count on your hand), we will work with a first-time blogger the way editors do in other, traditional media -- suggesting ideas and offering direction on what makes a blog different from, say, a New York Times op-ed. Part of what we've always tried to do with HuffPost is bring to the blogosphere some of the most interesting voices of our time that are not already there. This is the first time there was no back and forth with the writer -- our sample was approved 'as is' -- which is where the misunderstanding occurred.
Regardless of the spin she puts on this, the simple fact is that Clooney did not blog on the site. His words were used without his direct permission. A publicist's approval does not equal his. Arianna screwed up. She got caught. Nice clarification, but one nonetheless that should not have had to be posted. Maybe this will serve as a lesson to her that unless your blog works like a well-oiled machine (like ours, PowerLine, Confirm Them, and Pajamas Media, then your blog will not work with multiple people. Thomas and I set this site up, and while he was "appointed" editor-in-chief, I face no "editorial control." I post what I wish. All I have to do is abide by the rules. Thoimas has to, and so does Sabrina.
We post what we want provided it is: A) relevant, B) accurate, and C) free of hard profanity. We work with one another on a daily basis, and do the best we can to provide our readers with some of the best insight and commentary we can.
Despite her best efforts, Arianna cannot.
The Bunny ;)
posted by Syd And Vaughn | 12:52 AM
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