Jason Linkins, Banned from HuffPo Front Page! Today, Huffington Post’s Mario Ruiz announced a new policy–that someone who engages in an “ad hominem” attack (even if it’s not in the pages of HuffPo ) “violates the tenets of debate and civil discourse we have strived for since the day we launched. As a result, we will no longer feature his posts on the front page.”
Seems a reasonably clear rule.
First on the docket: Here’s what HuffPo writer Jason Linkins wrote in 2008 about right wing writer Jerome Corsi:
I want to end today by offering my thanks to Jerome Corsi, white-supremacist Swift Boat turd heel un-American wouldn’t-piss-on-ya-if-you-were-on-fire foamy chancre on the ass of subhumanity extraordinaire. You want to talk about voter enthusiasm? Well, Mr. Corsi, the thought of casting vote against everything you stand for doesn’t just make me feel enthusiastic, it makes me feel ten feet taller, and I get the coppery taste of the gladiator in my mouth. So thank you, pig. [E.A.]
Seems ad hominem to me! It’s almost hard to see how you could be more ad hominem…. Since Linkins clearly violated the tenets of debate and civil discourse HuffPo has strived for since the day they launched, he’s as good as gone from their front page. Open and shut. … Looks like the “nether regions” of HuffPo will be where you have to go to get the juicy stuff. … [Linkins on HuffPo front page right now–ed. That can’t be. Someone tell Arianna.]
P.S.: Huffington obviously made a bad decision–I suspect motivated by a genuine distaste for ad hominem argument, and maybe also by her friendship with Van Jones–to announce a utopian and unworkable rule. She should change her mind, something she’s done before. That’s especially true because many of the most popular writers in the blogosphere and on her site, including Linkins, got popular in part on the basis of vigorous ad hominem attacks. … She could ask David Karp for guidance. … Maybe Huffington could even convince Jones to get Color of Change to drop its inherently ad hominem campaign to hound various people out of jobs and platforms rather than rebut them. …
Conflict matrix: Huffington is friends with Jones and Breitbart. I’m friends with Huffington and Breitbart. I suspect Jones and Breitbart are not friends. But the night is young.