The New York Post has
Daniel RadoshThe New York Post has an item about this site today. That won't be news to a significant majority of you who probably found the site after reading the Post (scroll down a few inches or click here for that photo you came to see) but I thought both my regular readers would want to know.
After reading the Post, Gina's response was: "You need media training." Yeah, as a frickin' professional journalist myself, you'd think I'd know that when you talk to a reporter, you should only say one thing over and over, because they're only gonna use one quote, and if you say more than one thing, they'll inevitably use the wrong one. Did I really say, "One of my main motivations was to have people remember Spy magazine"? Yeah, I guess so. And if I'd just not used the word "main" that would have been better, though still odd as the only quote in the article. (My real main motivation -- duh -- was to generate traffic.) And what about, "People freaked out"? What the hell does that mean? Well, nothing out of context. The question had to do with whether I was worried about getting in trouble with Arnold. "I remember when we were debating whether to publish it in Spy," I said, "And people freaked out about what he was going to do." (Nothing, as it happened. What could he do?)
I don't at all blame reporter David K. Li for any of this by the way. He was nice enough to call and read my quotes back to me before filing. The editors ended up with only about a quarter of what Li wrote, however, and I'm the one who came out looking dopey (though it's mostly my fault for saying dopey things. Where does one get media training anyway?)
The "main motivation" soundbite was part of a discussion about whether posting the photo and Spy article was a political gesture on my part. Not really. Honestly, the idea that voters will -- or even should -- care about Schwarzenegger's various sins seems silly to me. Other than the Enron connection, how is any of this gossipy stuff related to his ability to govern California? (Though I wouldn't advise eating is not cheating as a campaign slogan). That's not saying I think Arnold would make a good governor, but I don't know that he'd be worse than any other empty suit. Frankly, Cali, you're on your own. For those who do care, MeFi has a pithy roundup of all the Arnold dirt.