Mediaite Launch: What the Effing EFF, Gawker?

My apologies to my loyal readers and friends who were caught by surprise by the news that I’m now a columnist for Mediaite, which launched yesterday.  I never got the go-ahead to announce, as my new chief Rachel Sklar was super-busy, so I had to wait until I was published there.

Speaking of the Mediaite launch, Gawker did a nice little write-up on it:

Gawker: Well, it probably just seems as though you’ve been talking about it for months, so forgive me.

Now, there’s been plenty of criticism launched in the direction of your boss, Dan Abrams, for what many, Gawker included, see as a conflict of interest in having a media advisory firm attached to a media website. Obviously, you feel differently. How have Gawker and other critics of Abrams Research/Mediaite been wrong about this?

The implication, of course, is that Mediaite’s journalists would sit by and let Abrams kill stories he didn’t like because he runs a consulting firm.  I couldn’t get ahold of Abrams (here’s what he said about it at Mediaite), but I was lucky enough to get ahold of one of Mediaite’s columnists.

Update: President Obama responds to ‘Public Option Cave’ Story

Update: I told you so.  Jump to the end for a statement the President released this morning, obviously in response to the WSJ article.

The Huffington Post is running the scare headline “WHITE HOUSE MAY CAVE ON PUBLIC OPTION,” linking to this Wall Street Journal report that seems to have Rahm Emanuel begging Republicans and Blue Dogs to punch the public option in the face:

It is more important that health-care legislation inject stiff competition among insurance plans than it is for Congress to create a pure government-run option, White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel said Monday.

“The goal is to have a means and a mechanism to keep the private insurers honest,” he said in an interview. “The goal is non-negotiable; the path is” negotiable.

What the frak, Rahm?  Didn’t I just get done saying how you guys punked the Blue Dogs with the $611 billion HELP committee bill that includes a public option?

Coming, as it does, on the heels of President Obama’s urging that outside groups stop attacking cojone-free Democrats on the public option, supporters of the public option are not too happy with Rahm’s comments (or “Rahmments).