Hat tip to Calbuzz Blog for Covering and an NBC affiliate blog for covering this – in the last 24 hours I have talked to a few media outlets.
The keys to my ouster from the Red County are that Hanlon was told about my situation, by me on 10/30/2009 and threw me out of Red County on 12/9/2009. That’s key – Hanlon knew because I disclosed my situation to him… he decided to wait six weeks and use the information publicly and as loudly as he could to maximize traffic to his financially failing blog.
Both Calbuzz and the NBC affiliate reported that Hanlon got his $20K payoff after throwing me off the Red County Blog – the report states Hanlon was paid on 12/3 through www.greenfaucet.com. I was ejected on 12/09 – a minor correction, but one that underscores the absurd hypocricy of Hanlon.
Excerpting their posts:
Meg Whitman’s campaign apparently isn’t very good at negotiating advertising deals, as one blog cashed in to the tune of $20,000.
Getty ImagesTwenty thousand dollars will buy you a lot of advertising online. A lot. Especially on a site with a limited readership — like Chip Hanlon’s right-wing blog Red County.
But that’s how much the former eBay CEO Meg Whitman’s gubernatorial campaign paid to Green Faucet, the investment firm owned by blogger Hanlon and parent company of Red County.
Hanlon told Calbuzz that the money was for advertising, however other advertisers seem to be much better at negotiating than Whitman’s campaign — another advertiser is only paying $300 a month.
Plus, the timing is rather suspicious. The payment was made only a week after Hanlon kicked a writer off the site after finding out that the contributor was getting paid by Whitman’s Republican primary rival, Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner.
At the time, the Poizner campaign stated that Red County was a pro-Whitman site, thanks to advertising deals with the campaign. And if they’d like to score some points with fiscal conservatives, they were only paying the fired blogger $2,500, a relative bargain!
Wonder if Hanlon will fire himself?
What Chip Hanlon did was a ploy to try and drive traffic to his site at my expense – in addition given that Hanlon’s consistent gripe was over money to begin with, is anyone surprised that he got caught with his fingers in the cookie jar?
There is more to this story – and that will come soon…
Updated 2/19/2010 from original posting 2/4/2010
As we learned from the Orange Juice Blog – Chip Hanlon is a paid vassal of Meg Whitman for Governor. He never disclosed this – and still hasn’t even after being exposed as a fraud.
Chip Hanlon and Matt “Jerbal” Cunningham have exempted themselves from their own standard of disclosure. Hey, they own the place – they can be hypocrites… comes with ownership. The problem is when you are a public leader – your standard has to be higher than that of everyone else.
Many times – I spoke with Hanlon on the phone and every time, he complained about the fact that Steve Poizner’s campaign did not purchase an ad on the Red County system. We now know that this was a red herring as Hanlon’s firm greenfaucet.com was a recipient of Whitman’s lavish campaign cash.
When Chip Hanlon chose to very publicly and aggressively expel this blogger from the Red County system – he made threats including threatening to Sue either myself or Steve Poizner for lost advertising revenues…
And given the fact that Hanlon openly blustered about Poizner’s sleazy campaign tactics and how he was using me in lieu of purchasing an ad…
The issue all along was the money.
It is a not-too-closely guarded secret that the Red County system is a money loser. The Whitman ad on the home page of the site is worth a reputed $2500 a month – which seems to have been a low estimate when you look at $20K that greenfaucet.com received from Whitman, one could easily draw the conclusion that Whitman bought Chip Hanlon.
Look closer – the payment to greenfaucet was dated 12/03/2009 – I was expelled 12/09/2009. Calbuzz actually got it backward in their post from a few weeks ago.
Fake Blog Post?
Some in Southern California will remember the post I put up that was deleted within a couple hours about the Orange County Lincoln Club endorsing Steve Poizner for Governor. Chip Hanlon asked me to put it up and ultimately, Matt Cunningham deleted it after people in Orange County complained about it.
It was a ploy for traffic.
Deleted Posts
Several contributors to the Red County System have had posts deleted – including myself.
During the Doug Ose vs. Tom McClintock primary – I had posts far less incendiary than those I wrote against Meg Whitman deleted.
I remember a posting about a news story regarding a fundraiser that Linda Ackerman was employing – Matt Cunningham deleted my post and emailed me regarding “Dez” – one of the subjects of the media firestorm. (The stories referred to her as Desiree – so apparently Cunningham knew her)
People have emailed me screen shots of comments that either Hanlon or Cunningham deleted.
None of this paints a bright ethical picture for the Blog that expelled Sgt. York and grandstanded on the platform of ethics.
It’s interesting that the same circles that produced Mike Duvall also are home to Cunningham and Hanlon… things that make you go hmmm…
Smashmouth politics.
Courtesy of the Orange Juice Blog – we learn that Chip Hanlon’s firm – www.greenfaucet.com was paid $20,000 by the Whitman Campaign for “information Technology and Email.”
Chip Hanlon – whose Red County System also sports a gigantic Whitman for Governor Banner ejected this blogger from Red County to “protect the integrity of the Red County Blog system.”
That’s correct- while Chip Hanlon and Matt Cunningham were bellowing about Poizner’s sleazy campaign tactics (they characterized as paying me) – they themselves were on the take. While getting paid – Hanlon mused openly about suing Steve Poizner for lost advertising revenue.
Speaking of unprincipled – looking at Chip Hanlon’s donor records shows he takes a michavellian approach to his campaign donations as well.
$1000 to Adam Schiff (who unseated House Impeachment manager Jim Rogan in 1998)
$250 to Joe Lieberman
Stay tuned as this blogger – formerly known as Sgt. York on Red County is going to tell the rest of the story about what happened.