A Lesson in Web Etiquette for the Huffington Post (Part II)

Like a dog that returns to his vomit is a fool who repeats his folly. -- Proverbs 26:11

(UPDATE: Scroll down to the bottom to see Max's hilarious response.)

Yesterday we had a bit of fun at the expense of professional gadfly Max Blumenthal. We enjoyed providing a lesson in web etiquette by showing what can happen when you hotlink images without permission. Although it took almost four hours, Max caught on and pulled the image from the Huffington Post. Thinking our prank had run its course, we returned the original image.

Then he did it again.

Not only did he hotlink the same image to the Huffington Post, he included it on The Smirking Chimp, Talk2Action, and on his own website, MaxBlumenthal.com. We've decided to provide a remedial lesson by exposing some of Max's favorite blogs and websites. Listed below are srceenshots of the various sites (click on the link to view the image):

• Little Green Footballs
  
• National Review Online
  
• RedState
  
• FreeRepublic.com
  
• Human Events' Right Angle
  
• Bluey Blog
  
• Wizbang!
  
• NewsBusters
  
• InstaPundit
  
• TownHall.com
  
• Pursuing Holiness
  
• WORLD magazine's blog
  
• Wonkette
  

Thanks, Max. You've provided us with hours of amusement here at FRC.

UPDATE: After about six hours, Max finally caught on and posted this amusingly angry response:

KKK paypal and friend of the white supremacist Council of Conservative Citizens, Tony Perkins, has orchestrated the hacking of this post. In doing so, he has drawn greater attention to his links to and ideological support for white supremacists. The photo of Christopher Hitchens posing with the Family Research Council's Witherspoon Fellows was scrubbed from FRC's site today out of fear that I would link to it again. The Family Research Council is a paper tiger that fears me and employs juvenile pranks to attempt to silence me. Father forgive them for not knowing that I won't stop bringing the pain.

Max has a gift for packing a lot of nonsense into a short space so let's separate it out and take it a little at a time:

First, for almost three years Max has been trying to peddle his nonsense about Tony Perkins being associated with David Duke and other white supremacists. In fact, he gets hopping mad that no one seems to pay attention when he repeats such scurrilous charges. The fact is that FRC has responded to that first claim about Duke back in 2005 and yet Max still repeats this lie. He also makes much ado about a speech before the CCC. It is true that when Perkins was a state legislator he spoke at lunch that was sponsored by that group. At the time he did not know of the groups racist agenda (be honest, have you ever heard of the "Council of Conservative Citizens?"). After he found out, he forcefully denounced the group. One question that Max never seems to ask is that if Tony Perkins is a racist, why do so many African-American churches and pastors support him?

Second, he claims that "Tony Perkins, has orchestrated the hacking of this post." Actually, my web editor Jared Bridges and I are the one who orchestrated this prank. We did it mostly because it would be fun and because we suspected you wouldn't have a sense of humor (boy, were we right about that!). Also, "hacking" implies that we broke into your website rather than just changed a picture that you stole from our site.

Third, he says "In doing so, he has drawn greater attention to his links to and ideological support for white supremacists." Stop and think about that for a second, Max. If your claims had any truth to them wouldn’t we try to avoid bringing attention to your article? Besides, since no one seems to have noticed what was going on it appears no one is reading your site anyway.

Fourth, he says, "The photo of Christopher Hitchens posing with the Family Research Council's Witherspoon Fellows was scrubbed from FRC's site today out of fear that I would link to it again." It wasn't "scrubbed" from our site. In fact, you are welcome to download a copy and post it on your site…if you ask nicely. All you had to do is ask, Max.

Fifth, he goes nuts when he says, "The Family Research Council is a paper tiger that fears me and employs juvenile pranks to attempt to silence me." Was it a juvenile prank? Absolutely. And a pretty funny one, if I may say so myself. Also, how is linking to your posts (all four of them) an attempt to "silence" you?

The absolute best part of the post, though, is when he says, "Father forgive them for not knowing that I won't stop bringing the pain."

Why bring your daddy Sidney into this?