Politico Takes Down Light Touch Version of Playboy ‘Hate F***’ List

Twitter has POWAH!!!

Yesterday, I caught a tweet from Amanda Carpenter about her inclusion on Playboy’s “Hate F***” list (profanity below the fold), so I wrote a story about it, which got re-Tweeted like mad.  The resulting Twitter uprising apparently caused Playboy to take the list down. **{screenshots here}(In another weird twist, my editors asked me to move my story to this site, because even censored F-words add up after awhile.)

Meanwhile, Politico’s Anne Schroeder posted just the list, along with the title “Top 10 Conservative Women We Hate to Love.”  No mention at all of the offensive content of the list, just “Haha, look at this list…”

While a few people left comments pointing this out, it wasn’t until another wave of re-tweets suggesting that folks call this out that the count went from 28 comments, to 96.  Michelle Malkin also called Politico out. Politico has now taken down the list, with the following non-apology apology:

The Playboy article linked to on this blog listed 10 conservative women “they love to hate” adding their reasons why. The blog included the link but only used the names of the women listed. But the Playboy article also included an offensive section that was not included in the blog, but has caused outrage in some readers who believe the blog agrees with all of Playboy stances. This is not true. So the blog has now taken down the link and greatly apologies. No ill will was meant.

While Politico deserves credit for responding to readers’ concerns, their apology creates a classic straw man.  Nobody suggested that “the blog agrees with all of Playboy stances,” but rather that Schroeder definitely whitewashed the offensive content of the list she published, which indicated either tacit agreement, or something else.

They also fail to mention that the list was so vile, it was taken down by Playboy.  Lest anyone think, by the way, that Playboy’s editors just missed it the first time around, note that they sent emails to conservative blogs promoting it!

As someone who writes 120 articles a month, I recognize the possibility that this was innocent, that Schroeder said “Oo! A list!” and just culled together the names, without reading the blurbs.  We’ve all been caught taking a shortcut here or there.  If that’s the case, they should say so, and actually apologize, instead of acting like people who are offended by violent sexual fantasies about unwilling subjects are just reactionary boobs.

I contacted Anne Schroeder for her side of the story, but I haven’t heard back yet.

Either way, this episode shows the power of teh Twitter to get things done.  Nice job, Tweeps.

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