The Huffington Post removed Beau Friedlander's post offering money in exchange for a sex tape, phone records or anything that gets Glenn Beck out of the public eye. The Post removed the story and replaced it with the above editor's note. (Credit: Huffington Post)
The Huffington Post removed one of its blogs from its site yesterday and replaced it with an editor’s note that said the posting “didn’t meet our editorial standards.”
The blog post, by Beau Friedlander, offered $100,000 for anything that could “pop the tea baggers’ favorite balloon” and get Glenn Beck out of “the public eye forever.” Friedlander didn’t say he was putting up his own money, but offered to be the “Broker” in the deal and asked for anyone with dirt on Beck or interest in paying into “a slush fund to buy more takedowns,” to e-mail him:
“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 is a Brooklyn-based writer and editor-in-chief of the now-defunct progressive radio station Air America.
The post has since been replaced with an editor’s note acknowledging that the blog had been “published directly” by Friedlander. “It didn’t meet our editorial standards and has been removed from the site.”
Friedlander also called Beck “the farce part of the intellectual tragedy sired by the neocon founding fathers Irving Kristol and his historical sidekick Norman Podhoretz.”
But comments are still on the site, even if the original article isn’t. As of midday Aug 30, 11 of the 53 comments were posted by Friedlander further explaining his post.
Media In Politics reposted the whole story, and Newsbusters found a Yahoo cache. The full article is posted here as well.
Beck responded on his TV show, saying “leave my wife alone” and criticitzing Friedlander for his comments on Beck’s Mormon faith.
The New York Observer’s Politicker NY writer Nate Freeman also noted that “a few hours after it went up the tags were changed from ‘Politics’ to ‘Comedy.'”
Freeman reported that Friedlander said he wrote the post Aug 29 “in hopes of using the somewhat jokey conceit of a ‘Glenn Beck sex tape’ to address what he sees as a serious threat posed by the Tea Party, as evidenced by the massive Beck-inspired ‘Restoring Honor’ rally held this past weekend.”
“You knew the wingers would come out against this,” Freeman reported Friedlander said. “It was fun to swat them down, with humor of course.” Friedlander also reportedly told Freeman that he is no longer allowed to directly post to the Huffington Post.
Friedlander posted again on The Huffington Post Aug 30 at 4:08 PM, but this time apologizing to Beck and said he would delete the e-mail account he had set up. He also wrote that he can “accept and respect” HuffPost’s reasons for deleting his post.
“It was supposed to simply make the point that the right does not hesitate to play rough with the left, and the right is far better financed. It was glib, but finally off-kilter and misdirected. I was actually trying to mimic what I saw as the way right wingers go about these matters, and by misapprehending the way they do things, I went too far,” Friedlander wrote.
StinkyJournalism has contacted Glenn Beck and The Huffington Post for comment and will update with any response.
