Dogfight (Blog for Democracy)

If you think blogoshere dustups are brutal, check out what happens when the "pros" get punked. At some point during the last couple of weeks, Tim Darnell left (or was fired from), his job as online editor for Southern Political Report (an InsiderAdvantage joint). On April 1st (yes, April Fool's Day), anyone who had ever given their email address to InsiderAdvantage since 1978 got an email from "The Southern Political Review", signed by Tim Darnell.

It was a sort of chatty, newsy little thing (powered by Constant Contact), with a decidedly pro Edwards slant. (And here I thought all those guys were Republicans.) Now today, the InsiderAdvantage guys caught wind that their entire list had been hijacked and sent this:

Apology from Southern Political Report, Hastings Wyman and Matt Towery
Early this morning we became aware that the subscriber and distribution list of the Southern Political Report, founded in 1978 by Hastings Wyman and published by InsiderAdvantage, was used by a former employee and was emailed out under the website name "Southern Political Review." Please know that we are intensely aware of our duty to keep your email address and other information private.

The laws governing this action are very clear and we will be taking all necessary legal measures to gain safe return of your information and injunctive relief prohibiting its dissemination to any third parties. We are additionally concerned because the above mentioned website used the term "SPR" as is the casual acronym, upon which we have relied for years, in a manner which may have led readers to believe that the Southern Political Report was responsible for the content. In our opinion the content in this "Southern Political Review" may have given the impression that the site has a rather distinct predisposition towards one particular Democratic candidate for president.

Because some of the content from our site (such as the list of presidential endorsements we carry) appeared on this particular site, and because of the use of the term "SPR", we were concerned that our readers might become confused and believe that our commitment to neutral and unbiased reporting might have changed. It has not. The Southern Political Report will continue to update readers each day with original content provided by well known regional and national writers. In fact, our new web site will provide the most comprehensive polling and analysis of politics in the South to be found in print or on the web.

In addition, the premier political journalist in South Carolina will be joining our team next week. Again, we apologize for this confusion and will take every measure necessary to protect your privacy and to avoid confusion between the real Southern Political Report and any sites potentially designed to confuse our readers.

Sincerely, Hastings Wyman, Founding EditorMatt Towery, CEO/Publisher.

The only problem is the email from Darnell did not contain a web link nor, for that matter, did it contain any ads. I've searched around for something called Southern Political Review but if the site is out there, it's not easily found.

The weird thing is IA and Southern Political Report are both premium services, but Southern Political Review is nothing more than an unsolicited e-newsletter. In other words, if Darnell wanted to commit professional suicide (no one will ever let him within a mile of a database again, which sort of nixes the whole online editor gig), he could have at least launched an advertiser supported, open source news site out of the deal.

For that matter, he could have named his little newsletter something other than a title with the acronym SPR, and probably gone merrily on his way. So yea, either Darnell is crazy or stupid, but whichever it is, he's about to get his butt sued off and has accomplished absolutely nothing to help John Edwards in the process. No wonder the IA guys gave him the boot.