Glenn Beck Sex Tape Column Yanked
Updated 6:02 PM ET The Huffington Post has pulled a column written by a liberal blogger who offered $100,000 for a sex tape or other potentially damaging information about conservative commentator Glenn Beck.
In the piece posted earlier today, Beau Friedlander, the former editor-in-chief of Air America until it closed in 2010, put out a bounty on the Fox television personality.
"The new conservatives are true believers in the "One Right Way", and Democrats only rarely agree on the one best way to go. But we can all agree that Fox News is a bad influence on America. It is time to pop the tea baggers' favorite balloon (so what if it will be replaced by another?), and with that in mind I hereby offer to negotiate a $100,000 payday to the person who will come forward with a sex tape or phone records or anything else that succeeds in removing Glenn Beck from the public eye forever. I am not offering the cash myself, but I will broker the deal and/or raise the money for what you bring to the table. (And it better be good.)"
"If you have the goods, or if you want to contribute to a slush fund to buy more takedowns (probably not tax deductible), please contact me at: glennbecksextape@gmail.com."
Although the column later disappeared from the site, a cached version of the column still exists. After the column got pulled, Friedlander apologized in subsequent post:
"I was actually trying to mimic what I saw as the way right wingers go about these matters, and by misapprehending the way they do things, I went too far. (I offered to broker a deal for anyone who had damaging media pertaining to Glenn Beck.) First, I owe Glenn Beck an apology. I crossed the line. On the off chance something comes in over the transom...scratch that; I'll delete the email account. Problem solved. I meant to tilt at a windmill in the post, and I planted my lance in the dirt."
The "Editor's Note" which replaced Friedlander's column said the piece had failed to meet the Huffington Post's editorial standards and that it had been published directly into the system by its author.
Mario Ruiz, a spokesman for the Huffington Post, said that Friedlander was a passworded blogger, who was allowed to post directly to the site. "After reviewing his post on Beck, we decided to remove it, adding the editor's note," Ruiz wrote in an email to CBSNews.com. "Going forward, his posts will be reviewed by an editor before being published."