Sorry, my bad: Arianna apologizes
Finally!
On the Huffington Post today, Arianna Huffington does a mega mea culpa to her HuffPost readers, commentators and bloggers about George Clooney's faux blog:
"At the beginning of the week, I was so focused on making it crystal clear that we did indeed have permission to run the Clooney blog that I was blinded to another extremely important issue: that a blog, where the source of the material is not clear, diminishes the amazing work of bloggers who day in and day out put their hearts and souls into writing their blogs."
On her blog, she goes on to say that, from now on, she will always identify repurposed material, source and link to it, will not create helpful sample blogs for green bloggers and if she reads, hears or see information she thinks should be put up, it will be put into her blog.
Huffington used the tried-and-true "I'm new at this" tact: "We've been doing this for ten months, and the learning curve has been enormous. Consider this a major lesson learned. I get it and have taken it to heart."
Well, thank heavens that's over.
Or is it? Her statement says "that I did indeed have permission to run the Clooney blog." But if you ask Clooney and his publicist Stan Rosenfield, they'll maintain that all Arianna ever had was Clooney's permission to use his old sourced quotes. But enough already.
Photo Credit: Arianna Huffington says she's learned her blogging lesson, seen here with a strange disembodied hand on her shoulder at the 2006 Independent Spirit Awards on March 4.
(Jeffrey Mayer/WireImage)
How long has she had a hand growing out of her shoulder?
I'm in Pismo Beach this weekend and, remarkably, nobody has heard a word about Cloffingtongate. But I'm telling everyone who doesn't care that Airheadanna still has not really admitted that she committed journalistic fraud and consequently put the credibility of the Huffington Past into question. Instead, I tell everyone who won't listen, she's spinning, backtracking and bushwhacking with a pseudo apology. When the truth does come out she will be forced to admit that (1) No one gave her permission to publish a blog with Clooney's name/byline, (2) she published it anyway and (3) this is not the first case of imperial blog creation with a celebrity pseudonym on her site. I agree that it's obvious that she's new at the blogging/journalism game. But she's over 14 and should know better. Now if I can just get someone up here to quit protesting the war in Iraq and get up to speed on this real issue.
That's NOT my hand. It's Clooney's. He was there. With her. I saw them.
I don't think Ms. Huffington will ever again string together quotes from the rich and famous and post it as it were written by the person under whose byline the article is posted. She did that with George Clooney, supposedly with the ok of Clooney's publicist, Stan Rosenfield. Nevertheless, Clooney busted her. He did the right thing.
Bloggers and Huffington's readers also did the right thing when they chastised her for doing it. She apologized in a March 18, 2006 post.
Sadly, Ms. Huffington initially tried to justify what she did. There is no justification for it. She is noted for criticizing others, now its her time. I hope she has learned a valuable lesson. I know I have.
if you want to see a real clooney guest blog, you can here:
http://bookfraud.blogspot.com/2006/03/academy-awards-special-gue_114142477588128772.html
you're right, that hand growing out of the shoulder probably hurts.
The funniest thing about this affair (to call it 'Cloonygate' is unfair) is that many of the HPs loyal readership is willing to excuse AHs adoration for 'stars' but at the same time her contempt for themselves and their intelligence. They really do need higher standards.
Why is there any learning curve on this? Is it hard to tell the difference between stringing together a bunch of previously published quotes and original prose ? I'm so glad she "gets it".
And how many other celebrity bloggers on her site have ghost-writers?