I know you’re thinking to yourself “That’s old news, chick, what is wrong with you tonight?” But, look, I just happened to run across this[1] and thought, wow, what the…?
I remember reading a blog entry by George Clooney over there[2] and thinking how great it was that he would put his political views out there for the whole liberal community to fawn over. But, um, Mr.Clooney says he didn’t write that post.
The newly minted Oscar winner says he did not write a blog posted Monday on commentator Huffington’s Web site, though he gave her permission to use a compilation of his critiques of the Iraq war from interviews with Larry King and London’s The Guardian.
“Miss Huffington’s blog is purposefully misleading and I have asked her to clarify the facts,” Clooney, 44, said in a statement issued Wednesday. “I stand by my statements but I did not write this blog.”
Of course, he did. I mean, I saw it. I read a couple of pages of beaming admiration in the comments. I almost blogged glowingly about George Clooney being such a staunch, proud liberal. I can’t remember why I scrapped that idea, but I’m glad I did. So, what does Arianna say? Well first:
When I first invited George Clooney to blog after a screening of Good Night, and Good Luck 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!”
So the blog post I, and so many others, read was not written by George Clooney, but was in fact a compilation of answers to questions from other sources? That doesn’t make a blogger, that’s just a random sampling of something the man said somewhere, sometime. She adds this:
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.
I don’t know how these big ol’ box blogs do it. I’m not an insider. But if you search this particular blog you’ll see that there are plenty of HuffPost bloggers that are trying to nail Clooney for caving in to the wingers on his back.
So what the hell’s my problem? My problem is the fact that they freely admit to compiling Clooney quotes then arranging them in blog form. That means that they purposely edited it (though that is inherently denied) to make it look like Clooney actually took the time to sit down and write the thing. I know what it looked like because I read it. My problem is that you don’t take source material from somewhere else, paste it together to make it coherent (because it didn’t come from one place), then say “he wrote it” when he didn’t write the fucking piece!
Ms. Huffington does offer an apology to her readers:
I now realize that I made a big mistake in posting a blog without clearly identifying that the material in it didn’t originate as a blog post but was pieced together from previous interviews.
Of course, this doesn’t mean that Huffington Post will cease printing “blogs” by people who didn’t write them. No, indeed, they will simply offer a disclaimer:
I’m sorry I didn’t see this earlier. But I see it now and here is what I’m going to do about it:
1. Going forward, any time the HuffPost uses repurposed material we will identify it as such and source where it originally appeared and link to it. (Thank you Jeff Jarvis)
I’m feeling so snarky right now and am trying to resist… Wow, “repurposed material”…I know we all use someone else’s work at some point. We have no choice. But you will never see on my poor little blog “Guest blogger- Sandra Bullock” because, well, she doesn’t give a flying fuck about me and doing that would make me a big, fat liar. No thanks. How about keeping the posts honest? Think that could work? How about keeping your readers trust? Of course, George Clooney didn’t know how to blog and so they put together his thoughts in blog form and his publicist thought that was just grand and….
Why go through all of that? Why not just say “George, you’re a pretty bright guy. Can you read? Can you find your way around the internet? I can point you to some pretty good blogs that you could use to model your own post after.”?
I understand that she was excited to have the George Clooney interested in her blog. But to forge his post? Maybe it was a misunderstanding. But instead of just making sure that a guest pens their own stuff we get this:
2. Even though the point of providing George Clooney a sample blog was to show how it’s done and encourage him to join the blogosphere, I will curb my enthusiasm and not do this in the future.<
3. When I read something or hear something in an interview or have something said to me in person that I think is really important and should have as wide an audience as possible, I will put it in my own blog, becoming Boswell to all the Dr. Johnsons out there just as I did once with Arthur Schlesinger.
She just needs more witnesses to hear someone say they are interested and that such-and-such should get a hold of his/her publicist, they’d get back to them, don’t call us we’ll call you… How about getting someone who knows what a blog is and agrees whole-heartedly to write a piece for you- complete with their own thoughts typed by their own fingers in sentences and paragraphs of their own making? Or is that just too hard?
I realize that no one up in that part of the blogosphere cares what I think, but here it is anyway. If you’re going to have a big political blog then your readers need to trust you, that means that you don’t stoop to Republican lows by forging material and giving credit to someone who doesn’t want it. Otherwise you may do better blogging about Hollywood gossip, ghost stories, or what the hell you had for breakfast this morning because your credibility is just shot. Well, it is with me anyway[3].
By the way, saying “Well, George Clooney should have stood by his words” doesn’t cut it with me. If the man didn’t write the post then his name shouldn’t have been put to the post. Period. I’m not going to tow the line even for a liberal if I think they’re wrong. And putting his name to something he didn’t write was just wrong.
Update:
Found this article, quoting more of George Clooney’s outrage at snagging his name so dishonestly.
“Miss Huffington’s blog is purposefully misleading and I have asked her to clarify the facts. I stand by my statements but I did not write this blog. With my permission Miss Huffington compiled it from interviews with Larry King and The Guardian. What she most certainly did not get my permission to do is to combine only my answers in a blog that misleads the reader into thinking that I wrote this piece. These are not my writings – they are answers to questions and there is a huge difference.”
Guess they can’t say he didn’t stand by his statements either. I’m so disappointed…hmmph. I hate bullshit like this seeping over to our side.
[1] Not a daily reader of HuffPost.
[2] It’s gone now.
[3] I realize they don’t care if I find them credible, but my heart is broken now. One more “innocence bubble” burst.
George Clooney on HuffPost
I know you’re thinking to yourself “That’s old news, chick, what is wrong with you tonight?” But, look, I just happened to run across this [1] and thought, wow, what the…?
I remember reading a blog entry by George Clooney over there[2] and thinking how great it was that he would put his political views out there for the whole liberal community to fawn over. But, um, Mr.Clooney says he didn’t write that post.
Of course, he did. I mean, I saw it. I read a couple of pages of beaming admiration in the comments. I almost blogged glowingly about George Clooney being such a staunch, proud liberal. I can’t remember why I scrapped that idea, but I’m glad I did. So, what does Arianna say? Well first:
So the blog post I, and so many others, read was not written by George Clooney, but was in fact a compilation of answers to questions from other sources? That doesn’t make a blogger, that’s just a random sampling of something the man said somewhere, sometime. She adds this:
I don’t know how these big ol’ box blogs do it. I’m not an insider. But if you search this particular blog you’ll see that there are plenty of HuffPost bloggers that are trying to nail Clooney for caving in to the wingers on his back.
Here’s one
Another
So what the hell’s my problem? My problem is the fact that they freely admit to compiling Clooney quotes then arranging them in blog form. That means that they purposely edited it (though that is inherently denied) to make it look like Clooney actually took the time to sit down and write the thing. I know what it looked like because I read it. My problem is that you don’t take source material from somewhere else, paste it together to make it coherent (because it didn’t come from one place), then say “he wrote it” when he didn’t write the fucking piece!
Ms. Huffington does offer an apology to her readers:
Of course, this doesn’t mean that Huffington Post will cease printing “blogs” by people who didn’t write them. No, indeed, they will simply offer a disclaimer:
I’m feeling so snarky right now and am trying to resist… Wow, “repurposed material”…I know we all use someone else’s work at some point. We have no choice. But you will never see on my poor little blog “Guest blogger- Sandra Bullock” because, well, she doesn’t give a flying fuck about me and doing that would make me a big, fat liar. No thanks. How about keeping the posts honest? Think that could work? How about keeping your readers trust? Of course, George Clooney didn’t know how to blog and so they put together his thoughts in blog form and his publicist thought that was just grand and….
Why go through all of that? Why not just say “George, you’re a pretty bright guy. Can you read? Can you find your way around the internet? I can point you to some pretty good blogs that you could use to model your own post after.”?
I understand that she was excited to have the George Clooney interested in her blog. But to forge his post? Maybe it was a misunderstanding. But instead of just making sure that a guest pens their own stuff we get this:
She just needs more witnesses to hear someone say they are interested and that such-and-such should get a hold of his/her publicist, they’d get back to them, don’t call us we’ll call you… How about getting someone who knows what a blog is and agrees whole-heartedly to write a piece for you- complete with their own thoughts typed by their own fingers in sentences and paragraphs of their own making? Or is that just too hard?
I realize that no one up in that part of the blogosphere cares what I think, but here it is anyway. If you’re going to have a big political blog then your readers need to trust you, that means that you don’t stoop to Republican lows by forging material and giving credit to someone who doesn’t want it. Otherwise you may do better blogging about Hollywood gossip, ghost stories, or what the hell you had for breakfast this morning because your credibility is just shot. Well, it is with me anyway[3].
By the way, saying “Well, George Clooney should have stood by his words” doesn’t cut it with me. If the man didn’t write the post then his name shouldn’t have been put to the post. Period. I’m not going to tow the line even for a liberal if I think they’re wrong. And putting his name to something he didn’t write was just wrong.
Update:
Found this article, quoting more of George Clooney’s outrage at snagging his name so dishonestly.
Guess they can’t say he didn’t stand by his statements either. I’m so disappointed…hmmph. I hate bullshit like this seeping over to our side.
[1] Not a daily reader of HuffPost.
[2] It’s gone now.
[3] I realize they don’t care if I find them credible, but my heart is broken now. One more “innocence bubble” burst.
George Clooney’s blog
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