Tuesday, August 4, 2009

THE GRYPHEN FILES:
Notes on the Delay

Given the unexpected delay in publication of the reports that Dan Riehl and I have been working on, I have asked and received permission from Dan to do what I had been planning to do before, namely examine the bogusness of the "reporting" provided by Jesse Griffin and Dennis Zaki.

However, I wanted to begin with a note apologizing for the delay, which unfortunately led to threats from Griffin. As I told you last night, Griffin, Dan Riehl is not a man you want to make angry. Dan has now posted the text of the e-mail, and please pay attention to this paragraph of Griffin's e-mail:

And hey for future reference if you think an allegation or rumor is incorrect then just wait it out and make fun of the person after it proves to be false. That keeps your integrity intact and makes you seem like the better man.
When Dan read me that sentence last night, I became furious. "Integrity"? You phony loser, you think you are the guy to lecture people about "integrity"?

Collaborating on this project has been extremely difficult. There are very important considerations, and Dan doesn't want to mess up.

One reason Dan decided to hit the brakes yesterday was that we'd both been working practically non-stop since Saturday and needed some sleep. Trying to coordinate action between two blogs required a lot of e-mail and phone calls.

We were both extremely irritable, and I was getting impatient. Delaying the story would make it seem as if we were bluffing or threatening. So I had to fight the temptation of saying, "Aw, the hell with it" -- just start publishing stuff and let Dan worry about his own end of it. But that would make Dan angry, and I don't want to make Dan angry.

While I was asleep last night, however, there were new developments which will now require further delays.

Grrrrrr. I'm missing out on other stories I should be covering. Tomorrow, no matter what, I'm going to Capitol Hill to get back on IG-Gate. No doubt Byron York will scoop me again because of this distraction caused by Griffin and Zaki, the Woodward and Bernstein of Anchorage. But look at what Griffin says in his e-mail:
By the way watch the local Alaskan papers closely for the next week, you may learn something.
See? Griffin remains obsessed with taking down Palin and asserting his own superiority by insinuating he knows things nobody else does. That little innuendo is Griffin saying, "I'm smarter than you. I'm smarter than Palin. I'm smarter than everybody. Hahaha."

So . . . wait.

7 comments:

  1. Okay. I'll be waiting.

    And checking back.

    Often.

    Thanks :)

    ...

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  2. Stacy, I understand you've been working many hours and are a little short of sleep. Nevertheless, my advice would be not to let the Gryphens of this world make you angry. A comment like the "integrity" one deserves a scoff, a laugh, a rueful shake of the head, raised eyebrows, or a bit of disbelief at the irony. But don't waste valuable energy getting angry. These guys are not worth it.

    I'm focussing on the first line you quoted, though: And hey for future reference if you think an allegation or rumor is incorrect then just wait it out and make fun of the person after it proves to be false. This is actually the money line, sir. Rather than "wait it out and make fun of the person after it proves to be false," you and others are sending a few powerful messages:

    1) We won't wait it out. Waiting it out lets weasels escape without accountability.
    2) We won't just make fun of the person who trades in smears, we'll totally discredit him. That's what he deserves anyway, and it takes no more than the light of day to do it.
    3) We won't let a smear prove itself to be false with the passage of time. We'll prove it false ourselves, and quickly.
    4) Everyone else in the League of Morons (my apologies to John Malkovich) who might be thinking of organizing a smear campaign, take notice.

    As for the line about the Alaskan newspapers next week, and the assertation that "you may learn something", this is a weak, desperate threat to you and Riehl to desist, designed only to buy a little time either to create a new smear or to let this business blow over.

    You guys are doing a great job, but I agree with Riehl that you should proceed carefully, and get everything right the first time. Best of luck. And thank you.

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  3. Yikes!

    Don't get Dan Riehl angry? I can vouch for that!!

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  4. better to do it right than fast.

    btw enjoy your writing, funny stuff :)

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  5. Stacy,
    Griffin fights for attention amongst the other liberal bloggers in Alaska.

    His MO is to appear to know something that others don't know; in fact at one point he even succeeded in getting people to donate money to support him in that pretense. He uses that as a means to maintain attention to his blog (his "iceberg" tease is the classic example of that).

    Essentially, he is the least talented and most careless of Gov Palin's blogging adversaries, and his desperation to be recognised also makes him the least moral. He appears to have no understanding that the Palin family, both adults and children, are human beings with sensibilities - and this despite the fact that he also is a parent.

    Though he freely admits that he has no proof that Trig Palin is not Sarah Palin's child, he still writes that he knows in his heart of hearts that she is not Trig's mother. WTF?

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  6. What Griffin describes in his email (staying quiet about what you think until after you're proven right, and then rub it in) is called "playing it safe."

    First of all, a person of integrity would not play the "I told you so" game. Second of all, if a person of integrity did play the "I told you so" game, he would take the risk of telling you so first.

    That says something in itself that Griffin can't tell the difference between cowardly pettiness and integrity.

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  7. The world is about to come crashing down around "Gryphen's" ears. This is a small town and he lives and works in a very conservative part of it. He painted a giant kick me sign on his back and Alaskans will do just that.

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