Posted on 08/30/2010 6:24:16 AM PDT by kristinn
Edited on 08/30/2010 11:25:08 AM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
In the wake of Glenn Beck's hugely successful Restoring Honor rally held in Washington, D.C. this weekend, the Huffington Post has published an offer of $100,000 to anyone with evidence that would destroy Beck's reputation and take him off the political/cultural battlefield.
An essay written by Beau Friedlander, the last editor-in-chief of Air America before it shut down this year, was posted in the Politics section of the Huffington Post today with the title, $100,000 For Glenn Beck's Sex Tape.
Friedlander says he will not use his own money for the hit, but that he will "broker" the deal.
It is time to pop the tea baggers' favorite balloon (so what if it will be replaced by another?), and with that in mind I hereby offer to negotiate a $100,000 payday to the person who will come forward with a sex tape or phone records or anything else that succeeds in removing Glenn Beck from the public eye forever. I am not offering the cash myself, but I will broker the deal and/or raise the money for what you bring to the table. (And it better be good.)
If you have the goods, or if you want to contribute to a slush fund to buy more takedowns (probably not tax deductible), please contact me at: glennbecksextape@gmail.com.
Friedlander couches his offer in the context of Andrew Breitbart's offer of $100,000 for the Journolist listserve messages, but this is more in line with pornographer Larry Flynt's blackmail campaign against Congressmen during Bill Clinton's impeachment, which followed a threat from Clinton conveyed by George Stephanopoulos to expose their sex lives.
Likewise, the Huffington Post has ties to the Obama White House, raising the question of whether the White House is behind this targeting of Beck.
Exposure by Free Republic Forces Huffington Post to Pull Article Threatening Glenn Beck: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2580103/posts
“Just to be fair, this isn’t unlike the efforts to reveal the truth about Kerry in ‘04”
It is VERY different. Kerry lied about fellow soldiers, probably causing the deaths of many, and causing great damage to morale both among the soldiers as well as the entire nation.
You want to compare that to some indiscretion Beck might or might Morgans had?
Please.
Maybe there were too much “dirty” sex laundry in Arianna Huffington’s sex life to be exposed, LOL???
Well, maybe, but as I remember it, the Swift Boat sailors were virtually trampling each other in their eagerness to tell the truth about Ensign Bandaid and his three fraudulent purple hearts.
I used to believe that no matter how bad things are, they can always get worse. I worked in DC at that time. I don’t believe it anymore, though. I actually KNOW it.
They’re getting scared to resort to this.
Sent the following to Mr. Friedlander:
Mr. Friedlander:
I read your article before it was pulled by the Huffington Post. You have single-handedly proven what I have suspected for quite some time. Journalism is dead. Excellent journalists no longer exist. What passes for journalism today would have been labeled something far worse than “yellow journalism” in years past.
I quote you as I fastidiously clean my keyboard afterwards with Clorox wipes: “It is time to pop the tea baggers’ favorite balloon (so what if it will be replaced by another?), and with that in mind I hereby offer to negotiate a $100,000 payday to the person who will come forward with a sex tape or phone records or anything else that succeeds in removing Glenn Beck from the public eye forever. I am not offering the cash myself, but I will broker the deal and/or raise the money for what you bring to the table. (And it better be good.) “
Mr. Friedlander, is this that to which you aspired so long ago when you forged your way through college classes? Is this the kind of thing your mother brags about to her friends? “Oh, yes! Our Beau is offering to bring down someone by trying to find sex tapes! I’m so proud! What?....debate the issues through his writing? Oh, no, our Beau doesn’t do that!” As a mother, I find it hard to picture.
It saddens me to see this kind of offal passed as journalism when I grew up reading and listening to some of the best in the history of journalism. Very sad indeed Mr. Friedlander.
I think this is why I, as an independent, have a hard time warming to the liberal agenda. So, perhaps this does their cause less good than you might have thought. Whether of not I agree with Mr. Beck is not going to be determined by some porcine rooting through the dregs of society to try to drum up innuendo about his life. Not by adults anyway.
I’m very sorry Mr. Friedlander that your life is degenerated to this degree and that you deem this as some sort of pinnacle moment in your career. Very sorry indeed. If you don’t remember any of your journalistic history and you have some free time, look up the histories of some of the following memorable journalists: Elijah Lovejoy, Margaret Fuller, Samuel Clemens, Walter Winchell, Ben Bradlee, Seymour Hirsch, Carl Bernstein, Bob Woodward, Walter Cronkite, Edward R. Murrow, Anna Quindlen to name a few.
Given your current opinion of what constitutes journalism, Beau Friedlander is not a name that will grace that list. There is still time Mr. Friedlander. Make your mother proud.
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