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Malkin moves, takes child from school, as SC students retaliate
After nationally syndicated columnist and blogger Michelle Malkin posted the e-mail addresses and phone numbers of three members of Students Against War, they received a flood of obscene and harassing messages from around the country, including death threats. When a liberal Web site, in retaliation, published Malkin's cell phone number and home address, a full-blown blog war ensued.
"I am now forced to remove one of my children from school and move my family," Malkin wrote Thursday in an e-mail to the Sentinel.
"I am now forced to remove one of my children from school and move my family," Malkin wrote Thursday in an e-mail to the Sentinel.
In the easy and anonymous world of cyberspace communication, angry partisans on both sides of the anti-war movement can volley threatening barbs at the click of a button. UC Santa Cruz students and conservative pundits alike have seen such messages filing up their in-boxes in the wake of last week's campus protest.
After nationally syndicated columnist and blogger Michelle Malkin posted the e-mail addresses and phone numbers of three members of Students Against War, they received a flood of obscene and harassing messages from around the country, including death threats. When a liberal Web site, in retaliation, published Malkin's cell phone number and home address, a full-blown blog war ensued.
"I am now forced to remove one of my children from school and move my family," Malkin wrote Thursday in an e-mail to the Sentinel.
Malkin, author and Fox News Channel contributor, runs one of the most popular right-wing sites on the Web, attracting 145,000 hits daily, according to Web log rankings on truthlaidbear.com.
On April 11, Students Against War flushed military recruiters out of a campus job fair.
The next day, Malkin copied the cell phone numbers and e-mail addresses of three student activists at the demonstration from a news release intended for journalists and pasted them in her online column titled "Seditious Santa Cruz vs. America."
"I woke up in the morning and my cell had 14 new messages, 25 missed calls and it kept going on," said SAW member David Zlutnick, estimating the group's three media contacts have already sifted through 500 e-mails, more than 100 with death threats.
When students called Malkin to request she remove the student information, Malkin reposted the names and numbers several more times. She defended the decision, blaming SAW for posting a link to the news release on its Web site.
To Zlutnick, the retaliation Malkin got was simply "a taste of her own medicine."
"But to put all our energy into a cyber war with this crazy right-wing lady takes away from our larger mission to end the war," he said.
Contact Roger Sideman at rsideman [at] santacruzsentinel.com.
The cyber war
A sample of e-mails sent to Students Against War media contacts after their addresses were posted on a Web site:
* 'My sincere hope is that a couple hundred of the local patriots take a day off work for your next anarchist event, and come down with some axe handles and bust your (expletive) heads.'
* 'Don't let the right-wing hate mail get you down. They're just a bunch of cowards behind a computer. You guys put your bodies on the line for justice.'
* 'Once you grow up, I hope you realize at some point in your lives that war is inevitable. Conflict will always be with us, regardless of whether or not we close our eyes and pretend it isn't so. It all boils down to: Do we want to win or lose?'
After nationally syndicated columnist and blogger Michelle Malkin posted the e-mail addresses and phone numbers of three members of Students Against War, they received a flood of obscene and harassing messages from around the country, including death threats. When a liberal Web site, in retaliation, published Malkin's cell phone number and home address, a full-blown blog war ensued.
"I am now forced to remove one of my children from school and move my family," Malkin wrote Thursday in an e-mail to the Sentinel.
Malkin, author and Fox News Channel contributor, runs one of the most popular right-wing sites on the Web, attracting 145,000 hits daily, according to Web log rankings on truthlaidbear.com.
On April 11, Students Against War flushed military recruiters out of a campus job fair.
The next day, Malkin copied the cell phone numbers and e-mail addresses of three student activists at the demonstration from a news release intended for journalists and pasted them in her online column titled "Seditious Santa Cruz vs. America."
"I woke up in the morning and my cell had 14 new messages, 25 missed calls and it kept going on," said SAW member David Zlutnick, estimating the group's three media contacts have already sifted through 500 e-mails, more than 100 with death threats.
When students called Malkin to request she remove the student information, Malkin reposted the names and numbers several more times. She defended the decision, blaming SAW for posting a link to the news release on its Web site.
To Zlutnick, the retaliation Malkin got was simply "a taste of her own medicine."
"But to put all our energy into a cyber war with this crazy right-wing lady takes away from our larger mission to end the war," he said.
Contact Roger Sideman at rsideman [at] santacruzsentinel.com.
The cyber war
A sample of e-mails sent to Students Against War media contacts after their addresses were posted on a Web site:
* 'My sincere hope is that a couple hundred of the local patriots take a day off work for your next anarchist event, and come down with some axe handles and bust your (expletive) heads.'
* 'Don't let the right-wing hate mail get you down. They're just a bunch of cowards behind a computer. You guys put your bodies on the line for justice.'
* 'Once you grow up, I hope you realize at some point in your lives that war is inevitable. Conflict will always be with us, regardless of whether or not we close our eyes and pretend it isn't so. It all boils down to: Do we want to win or lose?'
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Actually, Students Against War have not retaliated.
Look at saw.revolt.org and read through the comments:
Death Threats and Harrassment
http://saw.revolt.org/node/51
"Again, I appreciate your support, and recognize that it's yours to give however you see fit, although I'd be most honored if you took action against war and militarism rather than personally against Ms. Malkin."
"Old hat,I appreciate your
Submitted by steve on Tue, 04/18/2006 - 1:47am.
Old hat,I appreciate your willingness to stick up for us or to have us stick up for ourselves, but honestly we have a lot of different reasons for ignoring Ms. Malkin as best we can. First, we need to devote our organizational energies to our group's purpose -- ending the war -- rather than an online bickering match against someone with a lot more resources at her disposal. Second, while Ms. Malkin or her ilk may never go away, we know that the media, and the "blogosphere" especially, have incredibly short attention spans. They'll find something new to froth at the mouth about tomorrow.Again, I appreciate your support, and recognize that it's yours to give however you see fit, although I'd be most honored if you took action against war and militarism rather than personally against Ms. Malkin."
# # #
We don't play games
Submitted by studentsagainstwar on Mon, 04/17/2006 - 9:27pm.
The wingers tried to post Michelle's number on this site (saw.revolt.org), but we erased it.
# # #
Of course, the Sentinel didn't have the headline that it should have had today:
"Standford Students Block Bush From Visiting Campus"
but that is why we all read Indymedia, isn't it??
I would like to introduce you to a friend from around the way. Her name name is Michelle. She wrote some excellent books and has a blog which you must read.
"In Defense of Internment
by Michelle Malkin
Should civil liberties always trump national security?
Michelle Malkin's airtight case for profiling in today's terror war -- and her courageous defense of World War II internment measures"
Please help. You have experience with this sort of thing.
Activists Disrupt World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz
http://dc.indymedia.org/feature/display/130441/index.php
Report from Paul Wolfowtiz demo
http://dc.indymedia.org/newswire/display/133479/index.php
Paul, please visit Michelle if you get a chance because she is very upset right now. Some people are saying that she is pissed. You will not believe what some punks have done to Michelle. They have invited everyone to our liberation party!
Michelle is pissed
http://dc.indymedia.org/mod/comments/display/138476/index.php
Dear Paul,
http://dc.indymedia.org/mod/comments/display/138485/index.php
Please do something to make her feel better.
Love,
Iraquis happy to be liberated
What is interesting is that a quick scan of her website, plus the major liberal blogs Eschaton and dailykos don't mention the detail she she was forced to move or withdraw her child from daycare. The only place I found this was the Sentinel, so I wonder if she actually didn't move, but made some sort of passing comment to a Sentinel reporter that she feels like she might have to move. Yet, you'd think that if she were being so threatened, she'd be writing all about it on her website in order to generate sympathy from fans.