Never Doubt That Kurt Eichenwald Cares Deeply About Gay Kids With Bad Haircuts
Posted on | February 22, 2013 | 34 Comments
Thursday I posted a “coming out” video by a mopey kid with a bad haircut. This evidently enraged a Vanity Fair writer:
Thu, February 21, 2013 7:38 PM
From: KURT EICHENWALD <kurtewald@me.com>
To: Chris Smith <smitty1e@gmail.com>; “r.s.mccain@att.net” <r.s.mccain@att.net>
Subject: you are both despicable
I will address you both as adults, even though you clearly are not. The fact that you could use your site to make fun of an abused, frightened teenager is the most abhorrent thing I have ever seen by supposed “professional” commentators. Your decision that this kid was a fake was the type of arrogance I would expect to see from a 5th grader, not an adult. If you have nothing better to do than direct derision and contempt towards a child, then maybe you should stop pretending you are anything more than bullies who have nothing better to do with their lives.
You deserve all of the contempt possible. And hopefully, you will pay a price for your arrogance and immaturity.
Kurt Eichenwald
Not content with that, he followed up with this:
Thu, February 21, 2013 8:01 PM
Re: you are both despicable
From: KURT EICHENWALD <kurtewald@me.com>
To: Chris Smith <smitty1e@gmail.com>; “r.s.mccain@att.net” <r.s.mccain@att.net>
Oh, and by the way, you immature bastards….
I have invited my 7,000 twitter followers to contact your advertisers and demand they stop advertising with your site. And they’re doing it.
Have a nice life. You bastards.
Well, this was certainly a charming introduction to Kurt Eichenwald, and he is a man of his word, because a few hours later, one of our advertisers forwarded to me this e-mail:
Subject: your add on a hate site
Date: Thu, 21 Feb 2013 20:00:11 -0600
From: KURT EICHENWALD <kurtewald@me.com>
To: [REDACTED]
You are currently advertising on a site called http://theothermccain.com. In the last two days, these “adults” took a youtube video of a young gay teen who was both coming out and revealing abuse he has been suffering at the hands of his mother and not only made fun of him (for his haircut!), but invited their followers to do the same. The followers happily complied. This site does not represent your values. Moreover, this child is clearly depressed and discussed the times he considered suicide. If the torment of these “adults” on this site contributes to the boy acting on those feelings, you would not want to have any connection to it.
Many thanks.
Kurt Eichenwald
Contributing Editor
Vanity Fair
914-552-2588
The advertiser, in forwarding the note, remarked that she is “a former socialist turned conservative” who is not intimidated by Eichenwald’s secondary boycott threat, which looks for all the world like a re-play of the “Stop Rush” operation.
A lot of people are probably wondering, “Who the hell is Kurt Eichenwald?” You can consult his Wikipedia entry. His biggest controversy was a story about a teenage boy running a pornography site, in which Eichenwald reportedly paid money to the site operator and . . . something about “ethics”:
Mr. Eichenwald wrote several articles on Mr. Berry and Internet child pornography, the first of them published in The Times on Dec. 19, 2005.
“I have no independent memory of any payments I am alleged to have made in June 2005 through PayPal,” he said in a written statement yesterday. “If these PayPal payments did occur in June 2005, I am deeply sorry that my inability to remember them has resulted in permitting a series of convicted felons to cast doubt on the nature of my wife’s and my efforts to save a young man who was caught in the grip of a cycle of drugs and abuse.”
He has said he gave the $2,000 payment not as a reporter but as a person concerned that Mr. Berry was in danger from sexual predators. It was a month later, he has said, that he began to pursue the young man’s story as a journalist.
He did not disclose the financial connection to his editors while working on the articles, and Mr. Eichenwald has said that he simply forgot it.
Hey, people forget things. It happens.
As to the post that led Eichenwald to write to our advertisers, describing this as a “hate site,” I’ll say: Somebody called that video to my attention and I watched it — or, I should say, I tried to watch it, before giving up — and my main reaction was, “What’s with that haircut?”
The thought occurred to me that (a) the kid is basically inviting everybody to attend his pity party, and (b) our sarcastic commenters were likely to say rude things about him.
The video already had nearly 20,000 views in barely a week and — in case this didn’t cross anybody else’s mind — that translates to a bit of YouTube advertising revenue for young Austin Gates. So he’s like a professional pity-party event planner or something.
Are his tales of abuse and suicidal thoughts true? Has anyone verified his story? “If your mother says she loves you, check it out,” but if a kid says his mother hates him, don’t bother, eh?
Habitual cynicism, that’s my problem. Having been a teenage hoodlum myself, I see a video like that and instantly think: “Scam.”
Kid’s probably hustling contributions to buy himself some weed. Or maybe he’s angling for a guest spot on daytime TV talk shows, maybe even a reality TV series deal. For all we know, the minute the video ended, Austin Gates was high-fiving his buddies: “How was that, huh? Did you like that whiny thing I did at the end about suicide? Hey, man, fire up the bong and let’s burn some buds.”
We’re not supposed to think that way anymore, I guess. It’s “bullying” to see a mopey kid and say, “Stop moping — and get a haircut!”
One of my sons is in Army basic training now. He called home last night and reported that he was one of only two men in his platoon to qualify on their first day at the rifle range. Before it’s over with, he’ll be expected to hike 12 miles in full gear. And . . .
Kurt Eichenwald wants to shut down our advertisers. Because we’re a “hate site.” Maybe I should start moping and threaten suicide, but I’m not a gay boy with a bad haircut, so I guess Kurt Eichenwald probably wouldn’t be interested in my feelings.
IYKWIMAITYD.
Damn that habitual cynicism . . .
UPDATE: The habitually feisty Kathy Shaidle:
Progressives live in the past.
They still think their bullying tactics work, especially their Selma-era “I’m gonna start a boycott against you” bullshit.
The same tired, tapped out bullshit that doubled Glenn Beck’s net worth in 12 months.
If you’re not following Kathy Shaidle on Twitter, you should. She’ll fight ’em ’til hell freezes over, then she’ll fight ’em on the ice. Also, this might be a good time for readers hit the tip jar.
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