June 01, 2004
Political Rumors
If you are interested in how rumors start and spread in the political world, then this story by Alexandra Polier is a must-read. Since I am mentioned by name in this story I must clarify a few things and make sure the record is clear. When the "Kerry Intern" story broke on WatchBlog on February 6, I was still employed by the Clark campaign and was not involved in the editorial management of WatchBlog (in fact, I had shed my involvement in WatchBlog the previous October because I saw it as a potential conflict of interest). I found out about this story when a British journalist called my cell phone on February 13 and asked me if I wanted to comment. Since I had no idea what he was talking about I asked him to call back in a few hours while I did some research and educated myself.
In short order I discovered the WatchBlog story, saw that Drudge had escalated the rumor to the world and was finding lots of conspiracy theories online saying that Chris Lehane and I were in cahoots together to bring John Kerry down and save the Clark campaign. Nothing could be further from the truth. It is complete coincidence that the story was broken on WatchBlog by an anonymous editor who wanted to make a name for himself.
As soon as I realized what this rumor meant, I tracked down a friend I trusted at the Clark campaign and asked for his advice. He said I should go talk to Vanessa Weaver, one of the Clark campaign's executives. Since Wes had already announced his withdrawal from the race I was mostly interested in saving my reputation and making sure that the people running the Clark campaign knew the truth of the matter.
At this point I knew that the story was going to be huge but I had no idea how big. Drudge never linked to the WatchBlog story or credited it, however a copycat site called the Drudge Retort did link to it and I watched the traffic spike to 80,000-100,000 users a day. WatchBlog is a mostly-text site, yet my server logs show that I was pushing about 2 GB of data a day. Thankfully, my hosting provider (Pair) allows for these kinds of things and only bills quota overages if they're sustained for a longer period of time.
So, that's my side of the story and how I unwittingly became part of a political sex scandal, purely through a couple of coincidences, a lot of speculation and way too much jumping to conclusions. It's not something I ever want to go through again.
Posted by Cameron Barrett at June 1, 2004 02:56 AM"It is complete coincidence that the story was broken on WatchBlog by an anonymous editor who wanted to make a name for himself."
Granted, I was anonymous then, and I'm not now. But how can you say that I was trying to make a name for myself when I was using a pseudonym? The only reason I decided to come forward and use my real name in the article -- which I had no idea Polier was authoring -- was to clear up the malicious rumors regarding your involvement in this smear.
I guess that hoping for people to get any of the details right in this clusterfuck of a non-story is becoming too much for anyone to handle, Polier included.
Posted by: Stephen VanDyke at June 2, 2004 04:44 PM
C'mon, Van Dyke, it's a little late for you to take the high ground. You reported an unsubstantiated rumor, something that belies both a lack of professionalism and a lack of skill in your writing.
If you wanna be a hack, be a hack, but when you get called a hack don't mince and pretend to be a journalist.
Posted by: Publius at June 2, 2004 07:17 PM
Publius, perhaps you should consider the context before you call me a hack. I reported that a rumor existed, not that it was true. I also fully examined how the rumor could have negative effects whether it was true or not and how they had been used in the past.
Rumor: A Kerry Affair & Push Polling
Posted by: Stephen VanDyke at June 3, 2004 03:14 PM
