Arianna Huffington's Blogging Ethics

Like shooting fish in a barrel!

This is too easy of an ethical study!  I will not go off on some categorical rant about how Liberals are so unethical they do not even follow the basics of publishing protocol!  Because I do not think that is necessarily true. 

BUT!

It appears to be true with Arianna Huffington!  Does she not realize that misrepresentation on a public forum destroys credibility for all other representations on her site?  Hell it's not like she has that much to lose!  Representing a blog post as being published by someone famous (or infamous) like George Clooney to gain publicity or notoriety is foolish, and an act of desperation. 

Here's what happened: (from Elizabeth Snead on her Styles and Scenes feed)

"...Arianna Huffington used some of his [George Clooney's] recent answers to political questions in a way that makes it look as if he wrote one for her Huffington Post blog site.

Brilliant!  What did she think?  That because he shares the same political views as she that she could easily represent his opinions in a way that is exceedingly deceptive, without accountability or recourse?  Apparently so...

But, Mr Clooney was none to happy about this.  And rightfully so.  To George Clooney, his greatest asset is his "Well Known Name!"  It brings gravity to a cause or statement, his name is valuable!  Whatever side of the political spectrum you land, one has to recognize that George Clooney gets attention when he states his opinion, right, wrong or indifferent, he has the "Star Power" to draw attention.  George and other Stars in Hollywood may be Dumb as a post when relating to world affairs, politics, geopolitical philosophy and proper governance... or not!  Same with 10's of millions of other Americans, but why does what George says matter in the least?  Because he is a known name! 

Arianna recognizes his popularity (especially as it relates to leaning left causes and issues) and wanted to leverage that.  But rather than simply quoting George, like the rest of us mere bourgeoisie bloggers do... She chose to pretend that George and she are so "well connected" that he would do her the honor of posting on her "Oh so contemporary, and cutting edge Blog" and post an article in his name!

George responded in a public statement:

"Miss Huffington's blog is purposefully misleading and I have asked her to clarify the facts. I stand by my statements but I did not write this blog. With my permission Miss Huffington compiled it from interviews with Larry King and The Guardian. What she most certainly did not get my permission to do is to combine only my answers in a blog that misleads the reader into thinking that I wrote this piece. These are not my writings — they are answers to questions and there is a huge difference."

Arianna Responded to George here:

...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!"

And once we had the approval, that's what we ran: George Clooney's words put into blog form.

This was an honest misunderstanding. But any misunderstanding that occurred, occurred between Clooney and the publicist. We based our decision to post on the unambiguous approval we received in writing. There was no room for misunderstanding in that.

And the response to the response from the Clooney Camp (again, thanks to "The Envelope":

Clooney rep Stan Rosenfield: "I read (Arianna's) response. This wasn't a misunderstanding. It was misrepresentation."

Clooney's camp insists they did not ask HuffPo to take down the item or to release a statement about lying and misrepresentation. They say they only asked for a posted qualifier explaining that the item was not written by Clooney but was a compilation of quotes from past interviews with Larry King and The Guardian.

Is this Arianna's idea of Freedom of speech?