Michael Park writes on FoxNews.com:
Just hours before her death, Cathy Seipp suddenly seemed to undo decades of hard work with an oddly written letter posted on the Web site, www.cathyseipp.com. In what came off as more bizarre rant than heartfelt apology, her supposed very last blog entry called her years of journalism a "shoddy," "despicable" and "irresponsible‚" career as a "fourth-rate hack." Her political stance? All a mistake. The fiery, unwavering supporter of George W. Bush supposedly said she’d done a complete 180 in the past year and was now an implied supporter of Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y.
Eliot Stein replies to my inquiry:
The article on Fox News was overall done fairly. It presented all the parties and many different aspects of the issues involved. The writer left out all the untrue "hearsay" that Cathy Seipp and her Daughter worked so hard to "imply." Could it have been better? Yes. Fox left out the part that mother Seipp and daughter Seipp had teamed up to libel and defame on the Internet yet another teacher just six months earlier. Fox didn’t present transcript examples of many of the vicious attacks Seipp made on people throughout the last few years. Fox didn’t mention that just 90 days before she passed away, Seipp was well enough to start-up new attacks on me–when my site about her was DOWN. She was just one more right-wing Conservative Neocon whose motto is "Freedom Of Speech For Me…But Not For Thee."
Eliot Stein writes on EliotStein.com:
Cathy Seipp was a blogger who spent the last five years of her life maliciously and viciously defaming, libeling, berating, ridiculing and mocking everybody she came in contact with. She even taught her daughter to do the same on her own blog. The two of them would attack members of the media, teachers, administrators, schools, politicians, store owners, waiters and waitresses and in general, anybody they felt deserved to be reprimanded by their megalomaniacal delusions. Discredited as serious writers because of their "yellow journalism" techniques of innuendo, sensationalism and manipulation, they demonstrated a lack of morals and decency in their unethical activities. When I left the entertainment industry to go into teaching, I agreed to set up a top notch journalism and broadcasting department at a top private school in Los Angeles. What I didn’t know was that mom and daughter had previously mounted a major libel and defamation campaign on the Internet against one of the school’s teachers, who quit and was now suing the school. I also didn’t know that when Cathy Seipp’s daughter was to be removed from my journalism class on the request of all the other students (it was unanimous) and the school’s administration, that mom and daughter would then conspire to create their newest libel and defamation Internet campaign against me. [By the way–I placed ONE PHONE CALL to the daughter. Informing her of what was going on; telling her of my support for her; asking her what we should do. Her suggestion was that she have "less power" and that way it would not bother the other students as much. The following day was parent’s night. I went in front of a room of parents and told them "you must have your children respect my selection of Editor of this paper." Despite these efforts, Cathy and daughter did not want to be humiliated by the daughter being removed as Editor and decided I would be their scapegoat. The ONE PHONE CALL suddenly became, "He calls my daughter at home," a typical Cathy Seipp character assassination technique–don’t explain things–leave it up to the reader’s imagination. They didn’t know that they picked the wrong person this time. Because I had been involved in professional broadcasting and journalism for 20 years, I had developed a keen sense of humor and comedy and decided to show them just what satire and parody was on the Internet as well-with them as the focus. As they established themselves as "public figures," I was able to express my opinions about their opinions-something mom and daughter were not accustomed to. The last piece of parody I ever published was "Cathy’s Final Blog Entry." In that creative piece of satire, Cathy admits to having become a registered Democrat and encourages everybody else to do the same. Anybody reading it knows that it is satirical and a parody. The man from the newspaper asked me, "Wasn’t that really over-the-top considering she was dying?" Here is my response. When Cindy Sheehan, the brave mother who decided to turn her son’s death in Iraq into a national issue against the war and against President Bush, Cathy Seipp wrote a real editorial in which she says that Cindy Sheehan was just being "maudlin." The definition of "maudlin" is overly sentimental; foolishly sentimental; schmaltzy. For Cathy Seipp to say that Cindy Sheehan was being overly-sentimental (when she just lost her son in Iraq) was despicable. THAT was OVER THE TOP. Not a satirical/parody piece about a woman who spends her life defaming and libeling innocent people. If I ever wanted to go into detail about everything I know about mom and daughter, most people would be appalled and shocked. But it’s finished. I will leave it with just this notice for now. Cathy is gone. And as far as I’m concerned, this is all over and done with. The daughter now has the opportunity to just end things in good faith, forever, with just a simple legal agreement between all parties covering the halting of any past, present and future ramblings–and she can even have the domain with no strings attached. That’s all I wish for now and hopefully I will see some mutually positive efforts on her part.
