Cory Booker Blogging at the HuffPo? “Oh No He Din’t!” “Oh Yes He Did!”

Earlier this afternoon, we passed along a report from the NYT’s Newark 06 blog, suggesting that Newark mayoral aspirant Cory Booker didn’t exactly “blog” at the Huffington Post. The Times gave this report:

[Booker is not] frittering away valuable campaign time writing for political blogs. The HuffingtonPost item was actually a lightly edited version of a post that had gone up on his own Web site five days earlier.

According to Mr. Booker’s press secretary, Sakina Cole, it was the campaign Web master’s idea to offer the item elsewhere. And HuffingtonPost obliged.

But now Rachel Sklar — the tomatoes are delicious blogger, and a new and exciting addition to Arianna’s talent stable — informs us that Booker did in fact blog at the HuffPo (and continues to do so).

After the jump, Sklar’s email to Newark 06, requesting a correction.

Here’s the email:

Hi Josh,

It’s Rachel Sklar from the Huffington Post writing in response to your blog posting about Cory Booker’s March 21st posting on the Huffington Post, linked today on Wonkette.

1. Cory Booker is one of the Huffington Post’s many bloggers, and has been since May 2005 – he’s actually one of the earliest Huffington Post bloggers (the site launched on May 9, 2005). See here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/cory-booker/.

2. As with almost all bloggers, Booker has access to the system so he can post his own blog posts – he has an account, password etc. There is and was no interchange about the post between the Huffington Post and Booker/whomever posted on his behalf. It was entered into the system and then put on the front page because the front page editor thought it was worthy of note (which it clearly was!). Contrary to your account, there was no “offering” and there was no “obliging” at all – just an authorized blogger posting to the site.

3. Many Huffington Post contributors repost items they’ve authored on their personal blogs on the Huffington Post — Jay Rosen, David Corn, Jane Hamsher, RJ Eskow — it’s never been a problem before, and their authorship – or authorization – has never been contested. The Huffington Post is just another forum for getting their post to a wider audience, which is all that occurred in the case of Booker.

4. The original Booker Blog has no author listed on the blog post (http://www.corybooker.com/main.cfm?actionId=blogShowExcerpts) but it was written in the first person, as was his blog on the Huffington Post, so presumably he wrote it and claims authorship of it.

5. This is supported by his most recent item posted to the Huffington Post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/cory-booker/the-larger-picture-in-new_b_17763.html - he is clearly writing in the first person and clearly his intention is to get his voice heard by the Huffington Post audience.

I would appreciate it if you could correct the record immediately on this. Thanks so much for your prompt attention.

Best,
Rachel Sklar

Exciting stuff! In light of the HuffPo post cited by Sklar — in which Booker blogs, “I write this rather rambling blog today from my apartment in Brick Towers” — it seems to us that Sklar has the better of the argument. So Booker clearly did “blog” at the HuffPo. BUSTED!

Three cheers for non-scandalous scandals and tempests in teapots! We are adding a correction to our original post on the matter.

Earlier: Cory Booker: Did He or Did He Not Blog?

READ MORE: blog, blogging, blogs, cory booker, huffington post, huffpo, newark, not blogging, pseudo-scandals, rachel sklar, tomatoes are delicious

Drowning in the Fishbowl: Non-Stop Irony and Media Navel-Gazing

We like the crew over at FishBowlDC and admire their work, which we link to frequently. But given our weakness for irony, as well as our obsession with all things media, we’d be falling down on the job if we didn’t pass along this reader email.

This may take a little concentration — so put down that plastic salad fork and focus. First, read this FishBowl DC item:

Washingtonian’s Kim Eisler is not at all happy with Howard Kurtz. Personally, we’re just amused that at the end of a column spent documenting some other reporter’s conflicts-of-interest, Kurtz profiles a correspondent on the network where Kurtz himself moonlights. Irony alert!

Second, read this “meta-irony alert!” from a Wonkette reader:

Stay with me here as I go all David Foster Wallace on your ass — Um…. the writer of said FishBowl item, Garrett Graff, is the editor at large of the Washingtonian. So — let’s say that Graff highlights how a colleague is not at all happy with Howie Kurtz (whom Graff blowjobish-ly profiled for, uh, the Washingtonian, and what a PLEASELIKEME hummer it was!).

And we are personally amused that Garrett Graff — at the end of his item on how a colleague is upset at a subject of a previous Graff profile AND how said subject has a conflict of interest by dint of his moonlighting job… neglects to so much as intimate that, in the very act of blogging about a guy who’s mad at another guy, who also has a conflict of interest… Garrett soi meme is moonlighting and creating an even more bizarre conflict of interest by reporting about a colleague and refusing to mention it.

Whoa! Didja get all that? If so, then here’s one more thing to note for the record. At the very end of his column, Kurtz at least discloses his potential conflict: “Howard Kurtz hosts CNN’s weekly media program, Reliable Sources.” As noted by our source, Graff does not.

Our musings on this tempest in a teapot — or bubbling in a fishbowl — continue after the jump.

Is this a big deal? Well, maybe not. The FishBowl item was written by Garrett in his blogger capacity — and everyone knows that bloggers don’t have to adhere to all that annoying “journalistic ethics” crap, which is so MSM. (Special shout-out to Maxjet: Wonkette editors will gladly accept your free plane tickets.)

In addition, it’s no state secret that Graff works for Washingtonian. This fact is disclosed on FishBowlDC’s About Us page. So it could be viewed as effectively part of every FishBowl post, a “standing disclosure” of sorts.

So why did we bother mentioning this to you? First, we’re suckers for anything involving irony, the media, and non-scandalous scandals. Second, it’s a slow news day. Third, scientific research shows that the mental gymnastics required to follow this convoluted item are good for your brain.

(Editors’ disclosure: Both of us have enjoyed Garrett’s company over drinks, and one of us has been to brunch at his lovely apartment, where we consumed some delicious quiche. But as you can see from this hard-hitting item about Garrett, we can’t be bought off with quiche and well-chilled orange juice! Business class tickets to London, however, are another thing entirely.)

K-R Tiff, Eisler and Abramoff [FishBowlDC]
Jack Abramoff, Sans Horns [WP]
Earlier: Abramoff’s Pal: Loosen Up, Squares!
The Department of Ironies Too Painfully Obvious To Point Out Remains Impenetrable

READ MORE: Media, abramoff, blog, bloggers, blogging, blogs, fishbowl dc, fishbowldc, garrett graff, howard kurtz, irony, jack abramoff, kim eisler, pseudo-scandals, quiche, washington post, washingtonian

Putting Stormie To Bed: A Final Post on the Scandal That Never Was

Yes, we know, you’re sick of reading about it. Well, we’re sick of writing about it! Hence this postscript to the whole saga of Stormie Janzen — the hot young Senate staffer whose sexy blog got shut down recently.

We’ve followed Stormiegate fairly closely, even obsessively, and now we’d like to close the loop on it. We wouldn’t want to leave you in suspense over the fate of the vivacious young blogress who gave rise to this pseudo-scandal (emphasis on “pseudo”).

To quote the Bard once again, “All’s well that ends well.” Amy Argetsinger and Roxanne Roberts offer this entertaining update in their Reliable Source column:

Stormie Janzen, 34, did not return calls yesterday. [Sen. Jeff Sessions’s] spokesman Michael Brumas confirmed that Janzen still has a job: “We have dealt with this matter, and it’s closed.”

Oh, come on! Hasn’t anyone called offering a book contract? “I have no idea,” Brumas said wearily. “I doubt it.”

Okay. Has Playboy called? “Why are you asking me these questions?” he groaned.

Well, because we’re always on the lookout for the next Washington sex mini-scandal. Granted, Janzen’s page at MySpace.com isn’t going to get her there. Those who saw it say her writing was pretty PG-13, nothing nearly as spicy as the famous “Washingtonienne” diary that caused Jessica Cutler to lose her congressional staff job but gain a book contract. Then again, she does have a great name…

“If I can do it,” Cutler told us, “why not Stormie?”

Here’s our take on the whole matter: At the end of the day, what a government employee does in her private life is nobody’s business but her own. As long as Stormie is doing her job, and doing it well, the fact that she maintains a somewhat racy blog about her personal life — or, say, a whimsically irreverent, completely non-substantive blog about federal judges — has no bearing whatsoever on her employment.

Our polemic continues after the jump.

Because Stormie was not blogging about her work for Senator Sessions, the contents of her blog were of no concern to his office. So what if some random Alabama constituent couldn’t handle a little thong? That’s the constituent’s problem, not Stormie’s. It’s not like the constituent was tied to a chair in Guantanamo, eyes taped open, forced to stare at Stormie’s bare midriff…

The “blogging while at work”/”misuse of government resources” argument is a makeweight contention. Every job, and especially every government job, has lots of downtime. If Stormie wants to use her downtime to do a little creative writing, while other Sessions staffers use theirs to buy crap on eBay, what’s the harm in that? As for the computer use, federal government employees “may use Government resources for personal purposes,” as long as the use involves only “de minimis” — that’s legalese for “really really little” — additional expense to the government.

Merely working for the government should not prevent you from expressing yourself on matters not directly related to your employment (with direct relation construed narrowly). To adopt a contrary rule would exert an unwanted chilling effect, deterring anyone remotely interesting, creative, witty, or fun from entering government service — which, if the current Congress is any indication, has already happened.

In the words of Judge Richard Posner, speaking from the perspective of a government employee, “We have free speech too, don’t we?”

Okay, we’re stepping off our soapbox — back to the gossip…

Stormie’s Blog, Too Hot for the Hill [WP]
Last Word (and photo) on Stormie-Gate [AlabamaElections]
BUMPED: STORMIE is SMOKING Hot! [DomePunks]

Earlier:
Stormiegate: A Bit of Meta-Commentary
BREAKING (Despite the Elastic): Stormie Janzen’s Thong!
Stormie Janzen: Tempest in a Teapot?
Just When You Thought It Was Safe To Go Back in the Blogosphere

READ MORE: blog, bloggers, blogging, blogosphere, blogs, capitol hill, jeff sessions, jessica cutler, michael brumas, pseudo-scandals, sex, sex scandal, stormie janzen, thongs, top, washingtonienne