But… but… but… those kids were unhinged liberals. So they deserve all those death threats!

Anyway, what’s the matter, can’t they take a joke?

The kids were stupid to post their numbers on-line. So I can’t technically fault Michelle for simply cut and pasting what they’d already posted.

But once they started getting death threats, most normal people would have concluded that the situation had gotten out of hand, and would have taken the damn numbers off their website. They certainly would NOT have reposted those numbers on a fresh thread. I honestly don’t know how this woman lives with herself. Remember when she gleefully posted Cindy Sheehan’s divorce papers on-line? What a truly vile and vicious woman…

Maybe it’s a tacit acknowledgement of what we all know already: right wingers are notorious cowards who can’t do anything but talk, preferably from a safe distance. Even they don’t take their own rhetoric seriously.

Well, you’ve got to admit; Malkin has managed to channel low-brow intellect and emotional immaturity into a viable career for herself. Not all of us can do this however, since it requires a persistent moral vacuity and the psychopath’s problem-solving skills of total anihilation, traits that Michelle was most likely born with.

Brad, I agree with you to a certain extent that the students were foolish to have made their contact info available.

What’s telling to me is that, when she initially published those numbers and e-mail addresses, Malkin used a JPG screenshot of what appears to be a Google search she performed on one of the students’ last names. (The student’s name is highlighted.) That indicates to me that she didn’t just stumble upon that press release but, rather, she went looking for the students’ contact information to publish online. That somehow just makes it … different.

You know what? As it turns out, I’m actually an idiot. That screenshot was part of her update after they’d pulled the press release. (Still not a good thing, but not quite what I’d alleged.)

Regardless, I’m not a big fan of bloggers posting personal contact info for private citizens. It seems like every time they do — on either side of the debate — the target receives more harrassing communication than constructive criticism. Nobody deserves that.

That somehow just makes it … different.

Yes, because it’s pre-meditated to cause exactly the damage that has occurred. Did Malkin think her readers would be inclined to call up these people and have a reasoned discussion on what the issue was (which appears to be…uh…treasonous dissent?) She knew exactly what she was doing.

But, Brad, if you read Michelle’s book, you would know that the left is ‘unhinged’ because they don’t police their own the the way the right does.

The right would never allow their most extreme elements to run wild.

It’s not Michelle’s fault that some unprincipled people made use of the information she provided them. After all, she said, plain as day, that she does not condone threats of violence against these scurrilous anti-American activists. (one wonders what even gave her the thought that readers of her blog are wont to issue death threats.)

And seriously, these students were asking for it by making their information public. All you had to do was find out their names and then google them. Or, if you knew the student’s names, you could most likely look up their email and phone numbers on their school’s website. (You can do it on my school’s website, if you want to.)

Of course, any sane person must realize that all of what I just said, while reminiscent of the truth, is actually not just nonsense, but the worst kind of sophistry.

is the fact that she reposted the addresses and phone numbers after she learned about the death threats evidence that that was the result she desired all along?

Did the students call the police when they got the threats? I’m fairly certain that issuing death threats over the internet is a crime.

I’m no lawyer, but it seems to me that these kids have a good civil case against Malkin, at the very least, for facilitating this harrassment.

Now, of course, she’s playing the victim card, displaying a few of the nasty emails she’s allegedly gotten about this incident.

It really takes a powerful amount of self-absorbtion and psycho-bitchitude to post the contact information of someone you are criticizing on your high-traffic, nutcase-attracting website, defend your actions as appropriate when those people get (entirely predictable) death threats, then post a “OMG LOLzers look at all the librul threats” post when you get some of the same.

I saw what purported to be her home address and phone number on a number of sites last night. I’m sure she’ll be sharing horror stories about that as well. Because, you know, that’s DIFFERENT.

This is all about responsibility. Michelle wants these traitors to take responsibility for their own murder. Is that so wrong?

So I can’t technically fault Michelle for simply cut and pasting what they’d already posted.

I can, and I do. The bigger the soapbox, the bigger the responsibility, but nobody has the right to post personal information about others without permission. On her own site Malkin railed when some Muslim group was posting information about Christians(the kind of info found in the phone book), and redacted personal information about Paul Mirecki from a publicly available police report. Plus you know that any liberal site that published such information TWICE, leading to the subjects receiving death threats, would be written up in her next fair-minded tome on the unhingedness of the Left.

You have to wonder what kind of drugs Michelle has taken that give her such an amazing filter through which to view the world. In her original post, she says (among a whole bunch of other drivel):

Here is a Quicktime movie of the recruiters being forced off campus.

I’ve included the link. Go watch the movie. Look at how the Students Against War grab the recruiters and frog-march them — at gunpoint — off the premises. I assume that’s what Michelle sees when she views that clip, because I can’t think of how else she could justify the word “forced.”

Some of her other links are equally bizarre.

Meanwhile, the victorious thugs at Indymedia continue to gloat and have posted photos of their assault. Look at what they are doing:…

And the picture? Here. Yes, look at that assault. Vicious bicycle roadblocking.

Count me in with the people who can’t fault Malkin for originally posting the students’ numbers, but I absolutely can fault her for putting them back up AFTER having taken them down because the kids were getting death threats.

And here’s what really bothers me: She’s already absolved herself from any responsibility for the death threats her readers made — convenient, that — and despite this incident, there is no reason to think she won’t continue spewing gas about how liberals are the ones who are “unhinged,” while wack-ass wingnuts like the ones who read her site are all polite, measured, and pure as the driven snow.

Reality, tact, personal responsibility: A Malkin craves not these things. In spite of the fact that she basically incited her readers to make felonious death threats, she’s just going to forge ahead with her “conservatives are good, liberals are rude and unhinged” as if this whole thing never happened. In many ways she’s actually worse than Ann Coulter, who at least has done us the courtesy of no longer being relevant enough to inspire such actions.

What’s driving me crazy is the attempt on her part to draw moral equivalence between a bunch of yahoo “liberal” nobodies sending her nasty email, and the fact that she facilitated the making of death threats against people she disagrees with.

Here’s the difference: they are absolute nobodies, and she’s Michelle Malkin.

By virtue of the fact that people pay to buy her books, and publishers pay her for her columns, and by virtue of the fact that she appears repeatedly on TV, she now “speaks for” a certain group of people. I’m not making an ethical statement about whether it’s right or wrong that she speaks for people, I’m just arguing that this is how you’d define the concept of someone being a “spokesperson” for a cause or a point of view.

And by the fact that the people she “speaks for” continue to support her even after she engages in behavior that gets people death threats….she therefore speaks for a group of people that endorse making death threats against others.

I’m nobody. I don’t speak for anybody but myself. The last time I was on TV was when I was sixteen – I was on my high school’s Quiz Bowl team (we won a trip to New Orleans!). I keep a blog, but nobody ever reads it. If I made death threats against someone, or made it easy to threaten someone else, the only thing that would prove is that I am a whacko nutjob.

If Atrios sent her an email calling her foul language and wishing she were dead, that would be noteworthy. If I did it, it would just be pathetic.

But this distinction is lost on her and her fans.

I was on my high school’s Quiz Bowl team…

Ooo, you and my friend Kristin are gonna hit it off big-time 🙂

Ha! I was such a nerd, I got out of class to go down to the AV room and watch Evil Dead. My teachers knew I was doing it, and they didn’t even care.

I was a library volunteer, too.

Sheesh….what other shamefully embarrassing things can I accidentally confess to today?

You play EVERQUEST? You’re a closet plushie?

I have gotten into arguments over who would kick the most ass if they fought each other – Dracula, Bruce Lee, or Darth Vader.

There. Now you finally know my most shameful secret of all.

Why won’t the internets leave me in peace? Why must I constantly be shamed for my youthful indiscretions? Why can’t we all get along?

Easy there, Brad. I too was a library/AV geek, and on our school’s Olympics of the Mind team, but I never played EverCrack nor have I ever forced anyone to dress up as an anthropomorphic cat for my pleasure…

I played AD&D and eventually GURPS, and lusted after comic book heroines.

So there!

“I have gotten into arguments over who would kick the most ass if they fought each other – Dracula, Bruce Lee, or Darth Vader.”

Vader. The vampire couldn’t bite through the armor.

What?

The Dracula in the Castlevania games would run rings around Vader or Lee.

Hey, Michelle has a golden opportunity to help the FBI now, by just handing over the IP addresses of her regular posters.

For the record: Vader could use the force to forcibly defang Dracula. Bruce Lee would be a more difficult challenge, though.

“But once you learned that the kids were getting death threats from your readers, shouldn’t you have stopped posting their damn numbers on the Internet?”

Why? After all, it’s not like any of the threats were actually proven to be real. And if Malkin was supposed to pull e-mail addresses after death threats, she would have pulled down her e-mail a long time ago.

“I hope Keith Olbermann starts routinely ridiculing Malkin the same way he did to O’Reilly.”

Malkin would eat Olbermann for lunch.

The fact that Olbermann gave Malkin the “worst person in the world” over many candidates who actually deserved the award shows how unhinged and insane Olbermann is.

As well, Olbermann tried to smear Malkin last night. He failed to mention that the UCSC posted their numbers in a press release.

Keith Olbermann is the most biased personality in cable news, and I can’t wait until MSNBC wakes up and replaces him due to his low ratings.

C’mon, I’ve seen Bruce Lee use wooden poles as weapons. All he would need to do is sharpen one end, and *poof* no more vampire!

Darth Vader might be tougher, what with his Evil Force Powers. But I’d give Bruce the edge just for sheer speed and agility. And if he gets a lightsaber in his hands, it’s Katy bar the door!

Thank God I discovered booze, smoking and sex in grade 11. I only have my 2 week stint in the Science Club to live down.

…This thread is nerding me out. More ragging on Malkin, please.

Why? After all, it’s not like any of the threats were actually proven to be real. And if Malkin was supposed to pull e-mail addresses after death threats, she would have pulled down her e-mail a long time ago.

OK, Gary, then send me your cell phone number so I can post it on the front page. I’m sure you won’t mind having our fine readers call you in the middle of the night.

The fact that Olbermann gave Malkin the “worst person in the world” over many candidates who actually deserved the award shows how unhinged and insane Olbermann is.

The “Worst Person in the World” is meant to be a fairly humorous segment. Making fun of Malkin and O’Reilly is pretty funny. Making fun of a suicide bombing in Tel Aviv is not.

Gary, it’s nice to see you finally making an effort again.

Why? After all, it’s not like any of the threats were actually proven to be real. And if Malkin was supposed to pull e-mail addresses after death threats, she would have pulled down her e-mail a long time ago.

What constitutes a “real” death threat? Does the caller have to actually try to kill the person? If I threaten here to kill you, Gary — which I would never do, by the way — would it not be a real threat if I didn’t mean it?

Do you suppose Malkin just laughs about the death threats she supposedly receives? Or do you think maybe she treats them seriously enough to keep a record of them and, if concerned enough, contacts the authorities to look into them?

I haven’t noticed her home phone number on her site; why do you suppose that is? And if she ever did put it up there and got harrassing calls, do you think she would then repost it?

As for Olbermann, I just hope he doesn’t allow the Malkin thing to detract from his feud with Billo. That’s pure entertainment.

The fact is Gary ‘The Incredible Bedwetting Chickenhawk’ Ruppert should be in Iraq reporting all the good news that the MSM fails to tell us about.

The sad part to me is that Michelle Malkin is a middle-aged mother who refuses to remove the contact information of 18-20 year olds, who admittedly created a poorly written, and poorly presented press release (a product of idealistic youth). Something perhaps even Malkin was at one time. Long, long ago. In a galaxy far, far away.

Let’s face it, there is no possible constructive dialogue that can come from using the personal contact information of 18-20 year olds, in a way they had not intended. For a middle-aged mother to NOT be able to rise above these students, and to ignore the threats they are recieving to a personal account, is appalling.

But, Malkin makes her living from such controversy; her weblog has seen a tremendous increase in hits due to this coverage. Coincidence?

Her refusal to remove these kids contact information is not from conviction, but from revenue.

Yeah, Gary. Have you ever actually watched Olbermann, or did Ken Mehlman send you a letter about his bias?

‘World’s Worst’ is obviously tongue-in-cheek.

And, FYI, Keith’s ratings for Q1 of 2006 were better than both Paula Zahn and Nancy Grace, up 41%(!) from Q1 2005. Billdo was still well ahead, but his ratings were down by 24%.

Also, news flash, whether the threats are real or not, I’m fairly certain it is illegal to make harrassing phone calls, especially when they include threats of violence. If you don’t think so, I suggest you try randomly calling some folks and claiming you are an ex-sniper on the lookout for them. I mean, as long as its not a ‘real’ threat, it must be cool, right?

The fact that Olbermann gave… shows how unhinged and insane Olbermann is.

OK, Gary, that was your seventh The fact is… since Saturday afternoon. Since I have you down for eight for the week, could you slow down on that a bit? You’re going to blow this for me.

In other news, I’m glad to see I’m not the only one ashamed of my youthful foray into Knowledge Bowl territory. Nerds of the world, unite!

I can’t wait until MSNBC wakes up and replaces him due to his low ratings.

Oh, dear Gary, all is forgiven!

You have nothing to lose but your pocket protectors!

Keith Olbermann is the most biased personality in cable news

I suppose that means Brit Hume, Tony Snow, John Gibson, et al. are just straight shooters who are telling it like it is.

Anyway, if Malkin pulled the same pout-like-a-petulant-teenager routine with Olbermann that she did after accusing John Kerry of having shot himself in ‘Nam on “Hardball,” I dare say Olbermann would be the one doing the for-lunch-eating. If Malkin were really such a Supergirl, she’d put her own home phone number on her blog.

“You know what? As it turns out, I’m actually an idiot. That screenshot was part of her update after they’d pulled the press release. (Still not a good thing, but not quite what I’d alleged.)”

You had bad intelligence!

Nah, these kinds of admissions are what separates us from them. At least you went ahead and admitted you were wrong, and didn’t try to peg it on someone else.

Posting someone else’s personal information without their consent, regardless of how you acquired it, is morally equivalent to doing the same on a bathroom stall. So it seems fitting that Maul-kin did.

Aw, Gary! You are truly a pundit for our times. You say out loud what our eight-year-old kids can only think!

I’m glad to see I’m not the only one ashamed of my youthful foray into Knowledge Bowl territory.

Pikers, all. You are hereby outnerded by an Academic Bowl All-Stater. You better recognize, cobags!

The fact is, if Obermann doesn’t make himself the worst person in the world tonight for being mean to Michelle Malkin then the terrorists have won.

Jillian, can I just say that every revelation makes you hotter?

Realistically, Malkin’s “No Fair! I Hit Him First!” routine is a wingnut classic.
Witness Gary’s “Who’s Rush Limbaugh?” act.

Epistemologically decentered wanker Jeff Goldstein is going to be hosting Malkin on some radio show he has today.

http://www.proteinwisdom.com/index.php/weblog/trackbacks/20178/

Perhaps Michelle can explain why it’s ok for her to facilitate death threats against the UCSC kids.

Awww, we should all call in and serenade her to show our love.

Malkin would eat Olbermann for lunch.

Really, so is that the latest winger slang meaning she’ll turn beet red, burst into tears of rage, and hide under the desk?

At least we know Keith won’t yell “shut up” and cut her mic.

Malkin would eat Olbermann for lunch.

Doubtful. She couldn’t even handle Chris Matthews. She’s no good on her feet.

She couldn’t even handle Chris Matthews. She’s no good on her feet.

Which makes her good on what, her back?
SEXIST!!

Which makes her good on what, her back?

My guess would have been knees…

I figured that phrasing would get some highbrow responses. Paging Ann Bartow! Ideological purge needed in comment thread #2596!

While Bill O’Reilly seems to really resent being named Worst by Olbermann, I suspect Malkin would actually like it, because it would give her another thing to hate.

She couldn’t even handle Chris Matthews.

Chris Matthews is a whining little baby who tried to smear Malkin back in 2004 when she was accurately reciting the truth from the Swift Boat Heroes.

Wow, Gary’s posted his first funny comment, though, admittedly, unintentionally.

Chris Matthews is a whining little baby…

And yet he ate Malkin for lunch.

I’ve always wondered why I feel so at hom here. And now I know – it’s because all of my Academic Decathlon memories keep coming back.

Including the ones about coming in second to Cedar Shoals. Cheater Shoals, more like. They knew you weren’t supposed to have a separate class for that stuff! They were just…

I’m sorry, what were we talking about?

when she was accurately reciting the truth from the Swift Boat Heroes.

What do you think you’re going to be able to hook with such stale rotten bait? Try oranges on the hook next time.

And yet he ate Malkin for lunch.

I’d prescribe activated charcoal in that situtation.

So which loser school did you go to, ACG?

😉

As far as the students including contact information on the press release, that is standard practice on every press release I’ve ever seen, composed, or sent out during 8 years in marketing and public relations.

The students’ mistake was two-fold: 1) not being paranoid enough to create a dummy email or generic phone number for the contact information, and 2) trusting in the fact that every journalist in the world knows that contact information on a press release is, you know, for journalists to call for more information or interviews, not to be published (or even pointed out) in the publication itself.

Currently, we have press releases on my comapny’s website that includes contact information for our marketing team and those of our partners. I happen to be working on a high-press-visibility project right now, and I have yet to see any of the several dozen trade rags or blogs publish the direct office line for our director of marketing, or the marketing director for our even-higher-profile partners. Frankly, I would be shocked and appalled to discover that happened.

If Malkin were, as she claims, a “journalist”, she would have ignored the contact info unless she were, you know, planning to contact them. If she were any kind of ethical “press or PR person”, she would have pulled the information when asked. If she were something resembling a “human being” with “feelings”, she would not have republished the information once the students themselves removed it–and cleared the cache!

My immediate reaction to this is, “Damn! What an bullying asshole!”

My second reaction is that by continuing to engage these students after multiple requests to stop, Malkin could be running afoul of Internet harrassment and/or cyber-stalking laws. I sure hope the law students at the university need a class project.

Some of the death threat emails they received are shown here.

What I noticed was that they did not publish the email address of any of the emailers. If it was me I would publish the email address and the IP address along with emails.

I lived on the UCSC campus for 5 years working on my doctorate. UCSC is a liberal utopia. One job requirement for the position of university president is that you must be a lesbian scientist, preferably natural science, preferably butch lesbian. This place makes Berkely look like Kansas. Students closed down the school for one cause or another about once a month, and ovewellmingly, the faculty and staff supported them. The irony is that Reagan started the school as a place to put the hippies during the 60’s, making it look like more like a national park than a campus, with no central area of campus for students to gather for protest. unfortunatly for him, there are only two entrances to the campus, so all you need is a few students and you can shut the place down.

While the death threats are ceartainly something to take seriously, a right winger on that campus would probably have his head explode before he could do any real damage, my guess right after he rode by the sign pointing to the gay bisexual and transgendered resource center. “whaaaaa…….BOOM!”

Yes, i really am a psycholinguist, and no i really can’t spell. Oh the irony.

How’s this for hypocrisy?
During the interview, Michelle made it clear that the information she published—contact information from a SAW press release—had already been public. In spite of this, retaliation was inflicted on her. MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann designated her as ‘one of the world’s worst people’ because of this incident. Far more sinister ‘revenge’ was inflicted, however: her family’s personal contact information was discovered and made public.

So its wrong when people post her personal contact info, but not when she does it?
Forget about the code of ethics of normal human beings, Michelle doesn’t even live by her own code of ethics.

There have been a number of people over at Kos talking about posting Malkin’s phone number and address over there, and each and every time they’ve been met with scorn and derision for even suggesting such a thing. It’s been made clear that any attempt to do so would be met with immediate censoring of the offending material.

But it’s the left that’s “unhinged”.

Whatever.

Gerritt, also from that piece:

Musing on the reasons for the existence of such hatred for her, Michelle surmises that the Left feels a sense of betrayal with her; many feel that she should be on their side because they believe that is where all women and non-whites should be.

What a fucking asshead. Note to Michelle: The reason people on the Left despise (not hate) you has nothing to do with a “sense of betrayal” — aside from our general belief that the far right wing currently in control has betrayed everything that made this country great. No, the reason we despise you, at least in this case, is that you are a vicious, vindictive, venomous egoist with no discernible ethics nor even a shred of human decency. If you want to be The Minority Woman Who Believes Minorities and Women Suck, that’s your right. But at least have the integrity to acknowledge that you have done wrong and to stop compounding the wrong. And don’t give us that disingenuous crap about how you don’t condone death threats and nobody should misuse your posting and reposting of personal information. (Cue Henry II: “Will no one rid me of these meddlesome anti-war students?”)

The anti-racist One People’s Project website has released her details which the say are publically available on the Internet. Someone took it a step further and used live.windows.com and yahoo maps to do a Graphic. Payback’s a bitch Malkin.

Germantown? GERMANTOWN?? What, AMERICANTOWN isn’t good enough for her? Traitor.

[Note from mgmt: Malkin’s home phone number redacted from commenter’s name. Hrumpf.]

Okay, whover posted the above is the ultimate cobag of the entire internets.

Remember – THEY are the assholes. When YOU act like them, you act like an asshole.

When you do nothing they win. And she will run kids through a ringer again in order to sell a few more books. Lessons taught are lessons learnt.

Y’know, there’s a point in a porn star’s career, if you call it that… well, you do the dildo self-love or maybe girl-on-girl, and it’s just to pay the bills in the hope that something else comes along. And then it’s BJs and full sex and etc.

And then, you realise that there are younger girls with more silicone than you getting all the gigs, and you’re never going to make the jump, and the only way to stay in the business is to do that scat-ridden DP scene.

La Maglalang is at that point in her career. And she knows it. Her POS internment book might have filled her bank balance, but real historians demolished it — and with it, her chance to make the leap. Now it’s cheap Regnery work and rabble-rousing.

tigrismus, I went to the only school in the history of Georgia AcaDec to suffer a doping scandal. Oh, and to get in trouble for liberating all of those Gideon bibles from the Gwinnett Place Marriott.