Just before Cathy Seipp’s funeral, I remember various friends of hers boasting via email about what they would do if Eliot Stein showed up to the funeral (not that that was ever a possibility).
The best analogy I’ve heard about the anti-Eliot Stein hysteria of the past week is “when the popular clique in high school decided they were justified in unloading on the chubby kid in A/V class.”
Not that Stein is fat. He’s 6′ and 195 pounds.
Eliot Stein emails March 31:
Luke,
In high school I was the president of the A/V Club.
(no joke)All of these people who have engaged in highly abusive and threatening emails, posts and phone calls do not realize that I have been enjoying the entire carnival. It’s like living in a Mad Magazine article and you’re on this month’s cover with Alfred E. Newman.
Let me quote my favorite philosopher regarding Freedom of Speech:
“You have the Constitutional right not to be offended.”
Author: Cathy Seipp
Over the past few days, I’ve gotten to know Eliot Stein and some of those around him. I believe he’s harmless.
Under the guise of helping Maia, some of my friends encouraged her to feel outraged about Stein’s parody to the point where she endorses the most vicious hate speech against Eliot Stein (e.g. Emperor Misha).
Not that anyone can blame her considering what was done to her and her mom and her friends on Stein’s disturbing website cathyseipp.com.
Yes, Stein concocted on cathyseipp.com a death bed confession from Cathy Seipp recanting her political views and calling her daughter a twit.
It was in appalling taste. But Eliot Stein never encouraged any harm to befall Cathy and Maia. He never interfered in their lives (outside of his online parody). He didn’t try to get Cathy fired from any jobs. He did nothing directly to harm either of them.
But now we have numerous blogs baying for Stein’s blood.
I sense that I’ve lost a lot of friends recently because I’ve presented a dispassionate view of Cathy Seipp on my blog (as I have from day one of knowing her, my approach has not changed) and sought out the views of her enemies as well as her friends.
Cathy’s family was not the only one hurt when she and Maia launched their online battle with Eliot Stein. They did considerable damage to Stein’s family and friends.
Doesn’t anyone understand how inflammatory it is to accuse a teacher of seeking an inappropriate relationship with his 14 year old student?
If Stein had been interviewed when this dispute went down, or at least been allowed to post his point of view on Cathy and Maia’s blogs, then the fight would never have gotten so ugly.
Armed Liberal comments:
Luke, it’s obvious that you don’t have kids.
Cathy was (and still is, to be honest) fair game. She stood, and her words stand, on their own and need no defense (and she would have been pissed if anyone had tried).
Her daughter – and any kid – wasn’t and isn’t. Period, full stop, no excuses, no exceptions, thank you for playing.
Maia was 14 or 15 when she chose (upon Cathy’s advice) to kick off this war with a blog post and to complain to her school (rather than first trying to work things out with Eliot Stein, her teacher). In the eyes of Judaism (and in my eyes), this is an adult. She’s responsible for her actions and for their consequences.
After Maia’s initial post, Cathy Seipp then chose repeatedly to keep this war alive (after Stein had stopped going after her). Both Cathy and Maia denied Eliot Stein a right to say his piece on their blogs.
I think much of Stein’s postings were in bad taste, particularly the last one while Cathy was dying, but I never recall him advocating any sort of physical harm to Cathy or Maia, which is more than you can say for the anti-Eliot Stein crowd online.
This week Eliot Stein offered to give CathySeipp.com to Maia if the two of them would sign a non-disparagement agreement. This war could’ve come to an end.
What happened?
Emperor Misha 1 made the most vile post and, apparently, a “Maia Lazar” (I believe it is Cathy’s daughter) posted a comment cheering it on.
I’m not a partisan in this dispute. I don’t object to Maia slamming her teacher on her blog and I don’t object to Eliot Stein slamming Maia on his blog. I have no dog in this fight.
What I object to is the one-sided characterization of this fight that portrays Cathy and Maia as innocent victims. Not true. They were participants in an online feud that got ugly.
(Yeah, one side may be more wronged than the other but the calculation is close.)
Cathy once told me a story of complaining to producer Al Burton about Maia’s fat teacher or principal (I don’t think this was Eliot Stein). She said she didn’t know what to do.
“I’d take him to lunch,” said Burton.
“Good idea,” Cathy admitted, but as she told me, it was not her style.
Charles Johnson at LittleGreenFootballs.com makes this absurd post:
I saw this happen in real time and exchanged emails with other friends of Cathy Seipp, but I didn’t post anything about it because I didn’t want to increase the pain for Cathy’s daughter.
But it was the absolute lowest, most despicable thing I’ve ever seen an obsessed leftist do, and that’s saying plenty.
Second movement responds: “Shame on Eliot Stein for behaving so despicably after Cathy’s death, and shame on Charles Johnson for turning this into a political matter. “The Despicable Left”? Give me a break. …It’s shamelessly exploitative of Cathy’s memory to call a personal conflict like this “political”, and you know it.”
Here are some of the reactions I’ve received on my Stein interview:
Ray Richmond posts on my blog: “I am flabbergasted that you are committed to legitimizing someone who a week ago willfully slandered Cathy Seipp.”
Emmanuelle Richard comments on my blog:
What are you trying to do, Luke, being all warm and fuzzy with Mr. Stein?
I’m generally fond of cyber pioneers and other (oddball online journalists who came of age in the 90s) but Mr. Stein’s tales of audacity and innovation are forever tainted by his unlawful and nauseating online behavior towards Cathy and Maia. Unless he decides to do the right thing: apologize to Maia and give her CathySeipp.com.
Jim Treacher writes: “It’s like Rain Man interviewing my Uncle Phil (he was convinced he invented dolphins).”
Bookish posts on my blog:
I don’t understand why anyone, let alone a supposed "friend" of Cathy’s would take such an interest in a venomous twit as this Stein character. "Stein is an interesting story, love him or hate him?" Thanks, Judith Regan‚ interesting to whom? The readers of YOUR blog? Doubtful. Seeing as your supposed (and I assume by now, FORMER) "friends" are even posting here to share how disgusted they are by your interview, I doubt "interesting" is the right word. Infuriating, maybe. Is their disappointment some sort of sick thrill for you? And speaking of sick, a little newsflash for "Rose" free speech does not make Stein any less of a bastard, or his behavior somehow acceptable or "OK." It’s not OK. It’s TWISTED. Anyone who would take a personal vendetta to such extremes is clearly a demented individual, any way you slice it.
Eliot Stein is not a liberal. He’s a centrist and a conservative Democrat. But this does not stop right-wing bloggers from trying to make political hay from the guy.
Anyone who argues that Stein’s behavior is representative of liberals is more of a hater than a thinker.
From Demtraitors.com: “This is just another example of a mentally diseased leftist who has not one shred of decency or morality in his decrepit body. This story will leave you disturbed and appalled at what we have come to expect from the extreme left these days.”
This forum thread on the Fox News story is titled “Hate Like A Liberal.”
Damian comments “at least he isn’t teaching anymore.” But he is.
Les Enfants Terrible blogs about Eliot Stein: “Liberals truly are the nastiest people on earth.”
I challenge a fair-minded person to read my Eliot Stein interview and the Fox News story and anything else they want and then decide who’s nasty.
A lot of people, such as Emperor Misha 1, mock Stein’s claim of being an internet pioneer. But Stein was, whether you like it or not. That’s a fact. Eliot could not have been more open in our interview and his claims are verifiable. So far, I’ve discovered nothing Stein’s claimed for himself that does not check out.
Emperor Misha 1 files his entry on Stein under “Useless Swine.”
Emperor Misha 1, who boasts about being right-wing, blogs:
Take a look at the fat, stalking loser’s website.
I’ve seen better website designs done by mentally disabled orangutans (and their "about" pictures looked better too), and as to your 1337 PhotoShopping 5k|11z, Eliot, could you do something about the aforementioned picture?
I mean, painting a black wig on yourself with the brush tool and cranking the "blur" filter up to 12 isn’t exactly impressive.
Heck, even Adnan Hajj is more accomplished than that.
How do you like your newfound publicity, you evil, loathsome, psychotic ghoul?
Still like picking on kids? We assume that you only like "picking" on them although, with sickos like you, you never can tell. Especially not when they like to brag about their skills as, er, "teachers."
The best is yet to come. Still wanna play, sicko?
Intentional infliction of emotional distress, anyone?
Oh, but I don’t want that fat, filthy, disgusting, incompetent sack of pig semen to merely get sued. Oh no, I want the fat fuck to die. Slowly, painfully and screaming for mercy. I want him to suffer all the torments of Hell before he goes there, as a matter of fact I want Hell to be a relief for him when he finally snuffs it and leaves this world a better place than it was while he was still stealing oxygen. I want him to suffer in such mind-crushingly, indescribably horrid ways that he’ll be begging for the courage to kill himself just to make it end, only to realize that he‚Äôs too much of a fat, failed, worthless coward to do even that. Then I want him to suffer some more.
I want him to vomit and shit himself in unutterable horror, I want his limbs to fall off in rotten piles of pus, one by one, I want his eyeballs to rot and melt and run down his fat, flabby cheeks, I want his teeth to fall out, his guts to liquefy slowly, and his lungs to gradually fill with foul, malodorous slime.
I want everything bad, painful and ugly this world holds to befall him, repeatedly, and I want him to be fully awake and conscious while it’s happening to him. I want his property taken from him, his identity stolen, his friends, if friends he has, to spit on him, turn away and never speak to him again, I want everything that he values to turn to shit before his crying eyes, I want every single one of G-d’s creations to inflict pain upon him, hate him and do what they can to destroy him.
And then, when he has suffered enough that all is taken from him, that he has turned utterly insane with grief and pain, when his every breath is spent begging for the sweet release of death, then I want him to die. Alone. KNOWING that he is alone and forgotten and that not even a mangy dog will turn up for his funeral.
Then, and only then, can Shaitan have him.
Maia Lazar responds: “Thanks Misha! If only one could do that in real life without consequences. My mom often wished her cancer on Trolldolls when she was in pain.”
Beware of former journalist teachers with a grudge. That’s my message to anyone who could be a prospective employer of Eliot Stein, who performed what amounts to be the most despicable act against Cathy Seipp, who died after a long battle with cancer last week. I’m glad, for my part, that Seipp’s friends took action as soon as they found out about it. I still think he should face the music publicly. A very well said "Go to Hell" is never enough for jerks of that caliber.
BitsBlog calls Stein a “slimeball” and adds: “I have been called a harsh, on occasion, while commenting on people who have died. There is a major difference, however, between being a harsh critic, and being an utter tool. for example, while I have been extraordinarily harsh on John Edwards and his wife, and I am still suspicious that their whole deal is a ruse designed to gather sympathy votes…”
Russ Harris emails:
Hey Ford: Who are you kidding when you say. “Eliot Stein is not a liberal. He’s a centrist and a conservative Democrat. But this does not stop right-wing bloggers from trying to make political hay from the guy.” Are you merely a pathological liar or just another libtard without a clue? Apparently you knowledge of the party of the Seditious & Sleazy (a.k.a. Democrats) is about as in depth as your of Stein, absolute zero… Then you go onto give us what you think is a sterling resume of Stein: USA Today, Time, Entertainment Tonight, yada, yada, yada… This caps it since you think that these outfits are credible… You Ford are a fool… Thanks for playing and thanks for showing us just what you are…
MEET ELIOT STEIN, a talentless, left-wing, stalker- perv LOSER who cyber-squatted his puffy, rancid ass onto the poached domain name of cathyseipp.com and put up a horrid, libelous letter while masquerading as Cathy as she tragically lay dying of cancer.
TRY as we might with GOOGLE, we can’t find anything up under this c**ksucker’s name to go after- if anybody has anything, please let know so we can share in the dog-pile on this miserable bastard and bury him with a DDOS attack.
Eliot Stein emails:
Luke,
I was just looking at the mail and saw a link to your article about me. What can I say? It’s very, very fair.
Here are some answers for you which you may post:
1. My www.eliotstein.com website went up the night before the article on Fox News. I figured there would be a response. And there has been. I had NEVER had that domain active. It is the first time. At the last minute, I put it up using a basic page web designer. I am a CONTENT PRODUCER. I AM CONCERNED WITH WHAT IS BEING SAID. I do not design websites. At AOL and CompuServe I had professionals to take care of all of that for me and my company. I no longer work there. At midnight, I did not have a web designer handy.
2. I was in USA Today, on Entertainment Tonight, Time Magazine, Yahoo! Internet Life Magazine, a number of major newspapers and countless radio stations that all featured stories on what I was pioneering at the time. Call Steve Case of AOL. Or call Mark Cuban (who I created the first live audio celebrity interviews for). Or maybe the folks would like to see a pretty huge check from these organizations? It is what it is. Anybody that was involved in the business side of the Internet from 1982-2000 knows about it. Call Roger Ebert and ask him about the “Showbiz Forum” on CompuServe. It is absurd to have people tell me what I did or did not do. BETTER YET…if any of these people would like to place a HIGH STAKES WAGER on the subject–we will have a neutral attorney hold the money of both parties–then each will present their evidence–and the winning party will obtain the jackpot. ARE THERE ANY TAKERS? I can prove every single statement made on my website regarding my successful Internet history.
3. It is amazing to me that all these people who have been mocking, libeling, defaming, ridiculing and attacking others from their own blogs, suddenly believe that one person doesn’t have the same right–simply because the subject–who had done some of the most vicious written attacks on the Internet–was on her way to being reincarnated–probably as an anteater. “Freedom of Speech For Me…But Not For Thee.”
