Posted by Jim Lindgren:
After Criticizing Jason Leopold, Blogger Seixon Claims Death Threat and Forged
Emails.--
http://volokh.com/archives/archive_2006_07_23-2006_07_29.shtml#1153965155
1. Background.
Jason Leopold, who used to be a reporter for the L.A. Times and the
Dow Jones News Service, has had a bad last few years. His story on
former Enron official Thomas White included several [1]plagiarized
paragraphs, and its main revelation was an email that Salon editors
were unable to verify (the email was suspected to have been
fabricated). Salon then retracted Leopold�s article.
When in 2005 Leopold�s book was withdrawn on the eve of release,
Howard [2]Kurtz profiled Leopold in the Washington Post:
[A] Salon executive said the source cited by Leopold [in his
Enron/White story] as providing the e-mail insisted he had never
spoken with Leopold. . . .
The [press] release [sent out for his book] fleshes out a troubled
career. Leopold says his grand larceny conviction in 1996 was for
stealing compact discs from his employer, a New York music company,
and reselling them to record stores. He says he was fired by the
Los Angeles Times "for threatening to rip a reporter's head off."
Leopold says he quit Dow Jones Newswires in a dispute over his beat
but later learned the news service was planning to fire him because
of a correction to one of his Enron stories: "Seems I got all of
the facts wrong."
Kurtz also [3]suggested an explanation for some of Leopold�s more
bizarre actions:
Leopold says he engaged in "lying, cheating and backstabbing," is a
former cocaine addict, served time for grand larceny, repeatedly
tried to kill himself and has battled mental illness his whole
life.
2. Leopold�s TurthOut.Org Stories on Rove and his dispute with blogger
Seixon.
In May, 2006 Leopold reported for TruthOut.org that Karl Rove had been
indicted by the Grand Jury. In June Leopold [4]reported that the Grand
jury had issued an indictment, Sealed v. Sealed, and that the sealed
indictment might have been of Rove (the story was discredited
[5]here).
When a [6]DailyKos diarist suggested that Leopold�s story should be
taken with �a block of salt,� another diarist from Canada named
AnonymousArmy posted a [7]comment on DailyKos that accused Leopold of
falling for a fraudulent story from a conspiracy theorist, a posting
that triggered a vicious dispute between Leopold, AnonymousArmy,
George Gooding (an American living in Norway who blogs as Seixon), and
other internet posters and commenters. The blow by blow accounts are
quite tedious, but can be reviewed at Seixon [8]here, [9]here,
[10]here, [11]here, and [12]here (tip to [13]Instapundit). The
misdeeds involve allegations of repeated lying by Leopold, an
anonymous posting accusing Gooding of molesting small boys, and a call
to Gooding�s parents in the US. Given Leopold's established [14]record
of using sock puppets, he can't be ruled out as a suspect in making
the anonymous charges of child molestation.
3. Death Threat.
The situation has deteriorated so substantially that today [15]Gooding
reports receiving a death threat:
At approximately 7:00 AM Central European Time I received a phone
call from a blocked number. The person on the phone told me I had
written naughty things on my blog, and then laughed when I asked
them who they were.
"You're a dead man."
This is what the person on the line told me right before hanging
up.
I called my local authorities and they told me to come down to the
station. . . .
I told the police that I believed this person to have been Jason
Leopold. Due to the number not showing on my phone, I said I could
not be 100% sure who it was. The voice on the phone sounded like
Leopold's voice which I have heard on at least one radio interview.
([16]click to show the rest of the post)
4. Fabricated Emails.
A much less serious, but more interesting, allegation made by Gooding:
that Leopold rewrote two emails that Seixon had sent him and two days
ago posted them at Think Progress. Think Progress�s site no longer has
the emails up, so it appears that Think Progress removed the partially
forged emails.
I want to make clear that I have not verified Gooding�s claims myself.
Given Leopold�s past admitted plagiarism, lying, and mental
instability, until I see evidence that Gooding is lying, I will
discuss Gooding�s email claims on the hypothetical assumption that
they are true.
The emails that [17]Gooding admits writing to Leopold are bluntly
worded. They accuse Leopold of unethical behavior and include a sleazy
threat to get �high profile bloggers� to cover the story.
Jason,
I now have you on the record lying. You sent anonymousarmy
threatening or intimidating emails:
May 8 - from Boston June 12 - from your ADSL near Irvine June 19 -
a couple emails sent from the Vance Hotel in Seattle
I have additional emails as well. . . .
You use [EMAIL PROTECTED] as a fake account.
You seem to have sent a threatening email to Armando of DailyKos.
Now, would you like to start talking?
You know, I bet you know a whole lot about what�s going on with
Johnson, the Wilsons, and VIPS. You could really make a name for
yourself reporting on all of that. As it is right now, you're just
a petty liar going around threatening people who are critical of
your fables. . . . [After reviewing some of the evidence, Gooding
continues] I don�t appreciate being lied to Jason, and unlike some
of your readers, I�m not a mindless twit.
I suggest you start setting the record straight because what I�ve
got right now is highly embarrassing for you and your friends. I�ve
got the clout to get this covered by high-profile bloggers as well.
Your choice.
I wish you had taken my advice 2 months ago Jason, I really do.
Regards,
George
In his [18]second email, Seixon explains and tries to justify the tone
of his first email. (To understand this context and some of the
parties, you would have to work through the posts linked above and see
some of the abuse that Seixon was subjected to.) The second email
starts:
Blackmail?
Jason, normally I would have just published what I have without
even asking you to comment. This time I thought I would ask you to
comment on this stuff, since this clown Dean went harassing me and
my family, so I'm pretty pissed about it. Now, the reason for all
this is basically all your fault because you just can't tell the
damn truth.
As I said, I don't appreciate when people lie to me.
Compared to some of your emails (or Larry Johnson�s��), mine was
pretty G-rated for being �confrontational�.
Look, I'm trying to help you out here.
I have what seems to be some pretty crappy stuff here that you did,
and there's really no reason why I shouldn't tell people about
that. You chose to do these things, and you have to live with the
consequences of your actions. You can't expect to go around
threatening people just for criticizing your work and get away with
it. Sooner or later someone will have to expose your unethical
behavior.
Defaming you would be printing lies about you, which is not what
I'm going to do.
You denied sending intimidating emails to this person, and I have
proof that you did. It's that simple. . . .
Certainly not pretty!
The first email [19]as rewritten and posted on the web (allegedly by
Leopold) omits some of the discussions of Leopold�s misdeeds and adds
this language:
I will make lies about you. I can do it. I have my own blog. Tell
me all you know about Larry Johnson or me and anonymousarmy will
hurt your reputation even more. We�ve already succeeded planting
phony stories about you and we will continue to do it until you
tell us everything about VIPS and who they are working with. . . .
Either work with me or I will ruin you. . . . I will make up stuff
about you and your family. If you do not admit to me that Larry
Johnson was your source I will make up things about you and post it
on my blog. I will smear you until you commit suicide. I plan to
destroy VIPS and I will do it with or without your help.
Similar deletions and additions are made to the [20]second email:
You�re damn right it�s blackmail. Johnson must be stopped and
you�re the target. I will take you down and I will have the
National Review back me up.
What strikes me about these fabricated passages is how ridiculous they
are. The real language used by George Gooding was questionable enough,
but at least it reads plausibly. The words that Leopold is alleged to
have put in Gooding�s mouth are just beyond belief. It appears that
Leopold assumes that Gooding is a bad guy who would make things up and
that Gooding is trying to ruin Leopold. To prove this, Leopold just
puts all these supposed admissions into Gooding�s mouth: �I will ruin
you. . . . I will make stuff up about you and your family. . . . I
plan to destroy VIPS.� If Gooding�s account is true, in the terms of
pop psychology, Leopold appears to be projecting onto others his own
willingness to lie, make things up, and embarrass Gooding�s family.
To put Leopold�s behavior in context, consider this [21]June 16, 2006
story by Joe Lauria in the Washington Post:
Leopold says he gets the same rush from breaking a news story that
he did from snorting cocaine. To get coke, he lied, cheated and
stole. To get his scoops, he has done much the same. As long as it
isn't illegal, he told me, he'll do whatever it takes to get a
story, especially to nail a corrupt politician or businessman. "A
scoop is a scoop," he trumpets in his memoir. "Other journalists
all whine about ethics, but that's a load of crap."
Note that these admissions to Lauria occurred in early May of this
year. Lauria then goes on to [22]report that Leopold, in researching
his Rove indictment story, pretended to be Lauria and gave out
Lauria�s cell phone number with one digit off to Rove spokesman, Mark
Carallo. [23]Lauria then challenged Leopold on his unethical behavior:
I called Leopold. He gave me a profanity-filled earful, saying that
he'd spoken to Corallo four times and that Corallo had called him
to denounce the story after it appeared.
When he was done, I asked: "How would Corallo have gotten my phone
number, one digit off?"
"Joe, I would never, ever have done something like that," Leopold
said defiantly.
In his Washington Post column, Joe Lauria then offers his own brief
psychological profile of Leopold:
Leopold is in too many ways a man of his times. These days it is
about the reporter, not the story; the actor, not the play; the
athlete, not the game. Leopold is a product of a narcissistic
culture that has not stopped at journalism's door, a culture
facilitated and expanded by the Internet.
In the end, whatever Jason Leopold's future, he got what he appears
to be crying out for: attention.
This brings me back to the most disturbing language that Leopold
appears to have fabricated and added to [24]George Gooding�s email: �I
will smear you until you commit suicide.� That Leopold has a history
of mental illness and suicide attempts and now may be imagining his
own suicide could be a cry for more than attention. Leopold�s friends
and journalistic colleagues should take this talk of suicide quite
seriously.
NOTE: Given the psychological issues, threats of litigation, and flame
wars in this dispute, I have not turned on comments.
([25]hide)
References
1. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A18624-2005Mar8.html
2. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A18624-2005Mar8.html
3. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A18624-2005Mar8.html
4. http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/061206Z.shtml
5. http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/2006/06/12/rove/index.html
6. http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/6/12/185344/174
7. http://www.dailykos.com/comments/2006/6/12/185344/174/6#c6
8. http://www.seixon.com/blog/archives/2006/07/short_summary_o.html
9. http://www.seixon.com/blog/archives/2006/07/the_digital_bro.html
10. http://www.seixon.com/blog/archives/2006/07/the_shirts_get.html
11. http://www.seixon.com/blog/archives/2006/07/the_shirts_get.html#more
12. http://www.seixon.com/blog/archives/2006/07/good_luck_mr_le_1.html
13. http://instapundit.com/archives/031564.php
14. http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/5/15/184318/243
15. http://www.seixon.com/blog/archives/2006/07/browner_still_1.html
16. file://localhost/var/www/powerblogs/volokh/posts/1153965155.html
17. http://www.seixon.com/blog/archives/2006/07/good_luck_mr_le_1.html
18. http://www.seixon.com/blog/archives/2006/07/good_luck_mr_le_1.html
19. http://www.seixon.com/blog/archives/2006/07/good_luck_mr_le_1.html
20. http://www.seixon.com/blog/archives/2006/07/good_luck_mr_le_1.html
21.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/16/AR2006061601754.html
22.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/16/AR2006061601754.html
23.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/16/AR2006061601754.html
24. http://www.seixon.com/blog/archives/2006/07/good_luck_mr_le_1.html
25. file://localhost/var/www/powerblogs/volokh/posts/1153965155.html
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