Doctor Ross apparently doctored?

March 15, 2006 3:58 PM

Dr. Ross tells Arianna Huffington to stop making things up. A few days ago, Metafilter reported on a post seemingly written by Clooney on The Huffington Post where he apparently wrote "... [I]t drives me crazy to hear all these Democrats saying, 'We were misled.' It makes me want to shout, 'Fuck you, you weren't misled. You were afraid of being called unpatriotic." Bottom line: We and the readers of The Huffington Post were mislead because, as it turns out, Clooney didn't actually write the article. In actual fact, the article was nothing more than a compilation of remarks Clooney had made in several media interviews over the years. [more inside]
posted by Effigy2000 (19 comments total)

Whilst Clooney admits he had given Huffington permission to use the quotes, but complained that they were made to look like his own blog.

"Miss Huffington's blog is purposefully misleading and I have asked her to clarify the facts" Clooney said. "I stand by my statements but I did not write this blog."

Arianna has responded to this development by saying that she had invited Clooney to write a post but because he didn't know how a blog worked, they put together a draft post which he said was fine to use.

A case of he said/she said, or is this something more sinister?
posted by Effigy2000 at 3:59 PM on March 15, 2006

Yeah, it's sinister.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 4:00 PM on March 15, 2006

I'm sorry, what happened? I think we need a concise summary here.
posted by reklaw at 4:02 PM on March 15, 2006

ClooneyGate will surely mark the point at which the American people rise up against Arianna Huffington.
posted by Armitage Shanks at 4:08 PM on March 15, 2006

Arianna Huffington is somehow less likeable than Teresa Heinz Kerry.
posted by b_thinky at 4:13 PM on March 15, 2006

Arianna lied, people died. I mean, nevermind. Nobody died. But Arianna lied. Or Clooney lied about Arianna lying.

Wait, let's start over: Clooney told Arianna she could use some of his quotes for her asinine blog. Instead of quoting Clooney, Arianna had her people write a fake blog post that included some of the quotes, and pretended that Clooney had written the whole thing. Clooney said "hey, WTF, yo?" Arianna now claims that Clooney was in on it and approved the whole thing.

Clooney's prettier. Clooney wins. Oh, and Clooney actually makes sense, even though he's an actor and Huffington is a professional political commentator. So he wins again.

[insert appropriate paraphrase of opening scene of "True Romance" here]
posted by JekPorkins at 4:14 PM on March 15, 2006

Clooney seems to have said it was permissible to use what he said but seems to have wanted a note to clarify how what he said got to the state of publication, ie, someone edited his remarks and seems not to have noted that there was editorial intervention. Now, if the actor truly upset and felt used, he could threaten to sue unless the material taken down. He did not. Seems then that to jump on the lady (Huff) is to try again to Rove her, ie, turn on someone rather than argue about the substance of what had been said.
posted by Postroad at 4:16 PM on March 15, 2006

"Yeah, it's sinister."

Well, they are both lefties.

*rimshot*
posted by keswick at 4:19 PM on March 15, 2006

Arianna sez: So we put together a sample blog from answers he had given on Larry King Live and an interview with the Guardian in London, and sent it to him to rework in any way he wanted. A publicist who was working on the promotion of Good Night, and Good Luck, emailed back saying, "I will get it to him and get back to you as soon as I hear anything." Three days later, she emailed again, approving, without any changes, what we had sent: "Of course this is fine, Arianna!"
posted by brain_drain at 4:21 PM on March 15, 2006

Lame, lame, lame.

I think I'll just give up reading or believing anything on the internets, no matter how publicized or visible.
posted by blacklite at 4:22 PM on March 15, 2006

In unrelated news, George Clooney has an opening for a new publicist!
posted by davejay at 4:23 PM on March 15, 2006

Tempest, teacup. Teacup, tempest.
posted by Tuwa at 4:24 PM on March 15, 2006

as an aside, I absolutely hate it when people call individual blog entries "blogs". Seems to happen only with older people.

Of course, I also hate the term 'blog' so whatever...
posted by delmoi at 4:31 PM on March 15, 2006

Ah - remeber the days when Arianna was a 'registered Republican,' and vocal backer of Newt Gingrich.

With her shift in political ideaology shopuld she be considered a 'flip-flopper' or someone who finally came to her sense? I'll go with the latter interpretation.
posted by ericb at 4:36 PM on March 15, 2006

Heh. I saw a bit of a network news piece on blogs recently--"bloggers" was a term used to describe anyone who reads anything on the internet. Strange.
posted by bardic at 4:37 PM on March 15, 2006

"Yeah, it's sinister."

Well, they are both lefties.

keswick -- clever, very clever. Sinistra!
posted by ericb at 4:39 PM on March 15, 2006

at least someone got it
posted by keswick at 4:40 PM on March 15, 2006

And there goes the Clooney-for-president campaign...
posted by qvantamon at 4:42 PM on March 15, 2006

And there goes the Clooney-for-president campaign...

yeah -- like a Hollywood actor could ever become President. Umm..oh yeah...sorry.
posted by ericb at 4:42 PM on March 15, 2006