

Keith Olbermann Thinks I'm an Idiot - jfarmer
http://20bits.com/article/keith-olbermann-thinks-i-m-an-idiot

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MartinCron
_It's cliché at this point to say that people like Keith Olbermann and the
bloggers who first broke this story aren't interested in the truth, but
instead their own aggrandizement._

It may be cliché, but it's important enough to say, and to repeat.

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jfarmer
This could also be a story about how I met my co-founder at Everlane
(<http://www.everlane.com>), oddly enough.

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bifrost
I suspect that anyone who Keith Olbermann thinks is an idiot, is actually a
genius...

~~~
sp332
Well sure. If you have the same news as everyone else, there's competition. If
you want eyeballs, you have to have news that no one else has!

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JWhiteaker
_As for the fallout, Polls was down throughout this episode. Because it spread
virally by posting people's votes to their newsfeed, the three or four days of
down time halted all growth. Traffic dropped to nothing and never recovered._

This is really interesting. It makes sense the way you described it, but I
didn't realize how fragile growth can be. So much for "any press is good
press."

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DanBC
> _This looked less like someone earnestly plotting to kill Obama and more
> like a bored kid phoning in a fake bomb threat to their high school._

It doesn't matter, they take all threats seriously. Two children in a UK
school sent death threats. The US secret service tracked them down, and sent
English police to see them.

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mdg
At the bottom:

>I'll stop myself from commenting on the "state of the media" and such. It's
cliché at this point to say that people like Keith Olbermann and the bloggers
who first broke this story aren't interested in the truth, but instead their
own aggrandizement. (Oops.)

and the next paragraph:

>The four of us shut down Bumba about a month later. Matt, Joe, and Aman,
along with Jared Kopf, went on to start HomeRun. It was at this time, too,
that Matt introduced me to Michael Preysman, a friend of his from CMU. Less
than a year later Michael and I started Everlane.

fuck off

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jfarmer
I'm telling a story; am I supposed to leave out the ending? Michael, my
eventual co-founder, was peripherally involved in this whole episode.

And trust me, neither HomeRun nor Everlane need the pitiful traffic my blog
post will send them ;)

If you're ever in SF look me up. I'll buy you a drink. jesse@20bits.com

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xorbyte
Since there is some confusion on Twitter[0], perhaps you'd like to clarify
wether you did, in fact, disclose information on a 14-year old girl to the
government, without the presence of a subpoena asking you to do so?

[0]: <http://twitter.theinfo.org/190203402284834816>

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hristov
I do not know how you blame Keith Olbermann here. You published a threat to
the President of the US. It was not a credible threat but people reading your
poll do not know that. They do not know whether the poll was started by a 14
year old girl or a neo-nazi group.

Furthermore, you had a very glib comment where you blamed things on people
being upset over the poll instead of taking responsibility for the poll. It is
not unreasonable for Americans to be upset at death threats to the President.
Again, they did not know at the time that the death threat was not credible.
So you blaming people for being upset was a stupid thing to say and Olbermann
was completely justified in calling you an idiot.

(I am assuming here that Olbermann quoted you accurately, as he did quote a
published source and you did not complain about being misquoted)

~~~
jfarmer
Heh. You should read the Q&A I did on DailyKos that Monday evening.

[http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/09/28/787366/-Facts-
from-...](http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/09/28/787366/-Facts-from-the-
developer-of-the-Facebook-Poll-Application)

If you're ever in San Francisco, look me up. I'll buy you a drink and you can
call me an idiot as much as you'd like. ;)

jesse@20bits.com

~~~
hristov
I appreciate the drink offer. Your DailyKos Q&A looks perfectly fine, but KO
was responding to something completely different -- something you said to
Politico. And if he quoted correctly (and Politico quoted you correctly) he
may have been justified in what he said about you.

But I have to note that I do not think you are an idiot. I am sure that it is
very easy to get excited and start going off tangents and get misinterpreted
when you are suddenly the focus of media attention.

So please do not take any offense from anything I said. I just hope you
realize that what the statement quoted by KO was not a nice thing to say.

~~~
jfarmer
Well, drinks are still on me, your vaguely condescending commentary
notwithstanding. :P

