Disclosure: I worked for the Lamont campaign doing web design and production and some writing for the official blog (from 9/5/06 to 11/07/06).
Friday, September 08, 2006
Friday Morning Round-Up
Lies and the Lying Senator Edition:
- The Greenwich Time reports on the Lieberman website blogroll originally linking to a picture of Osama bin Laden with a Ned Lamont sticker on his head:
Beneath the photo, which was posted on Aug. 29 by the unidentified operator of the Web site and remained there yesterday, it says "Four out of Five Terrorists Agree - Lamont for Senate!"
"As soon as we saw it, we immediately pulled it down," Lieberman campaign spokeswoman Tammy Sun said. "We condemn things like this. It has no place in our political discourse or on our Web site."
Um... it was posted on their blogroll.Apparently anyone can post a link to Lieberman's blogroll(Update: or not), but you'd think they'd at least review the content before putting it up.
Not that it really matters, of course. Lieberman's team routinely scours the web for a single offensive comment, which they then type up in big bold letters in a press release painting all Lamont supporters with the same broad brush. So using their own standard, the site in question, named "No to Ned" (which has not even taken the photo down yet), must obviously must be representative of all Lieberman supporters, right? Using their own standard, this must be the face of the entire "civil" Lieberman campaign:
Of course, the idea that this post is representative of Lieberman supporters isn't any truer than the idea that a single offensive commenter is representative of Lamont supporters. But - given their previous statements - that's something you'll never hear the Lieberman campaign admit. So let them defend Osama bin-Lamont. - Spazeboy documents even more "civility":
Dan Gerstein, at Joe’s blog today:
Many of the commenters have engaged in direct personal attacks, not just against Joe Lieberman but our staff.
Eric Blankenbaker, at Joe’s blog Tuesday:
Liz is so blinded by her angry partisanship that she can’t tell the difference between big “D” Democratic and small “d” democratic.
If you happen to work for Joe, and write for his blog, it’s OK to direct angry personal attacks at Ned Lamont campaign staff members over typographical errors.
If you happen to be a commenter at Joe’s blog, well…you’ll be held to a higher standard than Dan holds Eric. - David Sirota documents from personal experience how comfortable Dan Gerstein is with lying for political benefit:
... we now know Dan Gerstein is a fabricator - a guy who is totally comfortable with knowing the truth, ignoring it, and spreading vicious lies about people. He’s not a distorter, he’s not a spinner, he’s not a misleader - by the dictionary’s definition, he is a liar.
- And one of Sen. Lieberman's former pollsters pleaded guilty yesterday to charges of fabricating poll results:
The owner of DataUSA Inc., a company that conducted political polls for the campaigns of President Bush, Sen. Joe Lieberman and other candidates, pleaded guilty to fraud for making up survey and poll results....
posted by tparty at 7:58 AM 
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My letter to the Time:
To the Editor:
Neil Vigdor's Sept. 5 story, "Lieberman camp pulls link to Osama photo," is inaccurate on one important point.
In that story, Lieberman spokesperson Tammy Sun implies - but is careful not to state outright - that the link to the doctored photo of Osama bin Ladin wearing a Ned Lamont sticker on his turban was posted in the comments section of the campaign's official blog, "Cup of Joe."
This is classic misdirection. The offending link, present from the moment the revamped website went online, actually appeared on the blog's main page in the left sidebar, a section not open to edits, changes or posts from commenters, as anyone clicking on the page can confirm.
Therefore, the only way the "No to Ned" website link could have appeared on the blogroll is if someone involved with the design of the Lieberman official campaign site, or authorized to access the site's server files, placed it there themselves. For the campaign and Ms. Sun to therefore allege that they "did not know who posted the link," and "as soon as we saw it, we immediately pulled it down," is thus both disingenuous and misleading.
A more likely explanation is that the website designers placed that "No to Ned" link on the blog main page on the basis of its anti-Lamont name, without vetting the content of that website first to make sure it would not reflect badly on their candidate, as it now has.
But we're talking about a campaign that blamed their previous website's crash on "Lamont hackers" - an unsubstantiated and now-debunked charge that they have yet retract or to apologize for - instead of what was almost certainly the real reason, a spike in election-day traffic that overwhelmed their servers. It's clear once again that the technically-challenged Lieberman campaign can only continue to point fingers instead of taking responsibility for their own incompetence.
Sharoney
To the Editor:
Neil Vigdor's Sept. 5 story, "Lieberman camp pulls link to Osama photo," is inaccurate on one important point.
In that story, Lieberman spokesperson Tammy Sun implies - but is careful not to state outright - that the link to the doctored photo of Osama bin Ladin wearing a Ned Lamont sticker on his turban was posted in the comments section of the campaign's official blog, "Cup of Joe."
This is classic misdirection. The offending link, present from the moment the revamped website went online, actually appeared on the blog's main page in the left sidebar, a section not open to edits, changes or posts from commenters, as anyone clicking on the page can confirm.
Therefore, the only way the "No to Ned" website link could have appeared on the blogroll is if someone involved with the design of the Lieberman official campaign site, or authorized to access the site's server files, placed it there themselves. For the campaign and Ms. Sun to therefore allege that they "did not know who posted the link," and "as soon as we saw it, we immediately pulled it down," is thus both disingenuous and misleading.
A more likely explanation is that the website designers placed that "No to Ned" link on the blog main page on the basis of its anti-Lamont name, without vetting the content of that website first to make sure it would not reflect badly on their candidate, as it now has.
But we're talking about a campaign that blamed their previous website's crash on "Lamont hackers" - an unsubstantiated and now-debunked charge that they have yet retract or to apologize for - instead of what was almost certainly the real reason, a spike in election-day traffic that overwhelmed their servers. It's clear once again that the technically-challenged Lieberman campaign can only continue to point fingers instead of taking responsibility for their own incompetence.
Sharoney
# posted by 
at 3:13 PM
at 3:13 PM
Followup:
The editor of the Time just emailed me for contact information. Apparently they plan to print the letter. She didn't say when.
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The editor of the Time just emailed me for contact information. Apparently they plan to print the letter. She didn't say when.
# posted by at 8:19 PM
at 8:19 PM << Home