The self-destruction of Kurt Eichenwald

[Dan Druff]

Kurt Eichenwald is a NY Times bestselling author of four books, including "The Informant", which was made into a movie in the early 2000s.

He's also on the political left, and frequently tweets strong political views.

Until today, he was a contributing editor with Vanity Fair.

Oddly enough, a 17-year-old Parkland shooting survivor was his undoing -- the second previously-unflappable media figure who harmed their career based upon written attacks against a teenager. (The other one being Laura Ingraham, of course.)

While Ingraham got into hot water for mocking left-wing darling David Hogg, Eichenwald got into it with right-wing darling Kyle Kashuv, who has made the rounds on right-wing shows as basically the anti-David-Hogg.

First, Kashuv sent Eichenwald a series of direct (private) messages on Twitter, which resulted in an argument. It's not clear to me what prompted Kashuv to contact Eichenwald, but it appears to be something regarding Kashuv being unhappy regarding Eichenwald's comments about Ben Shapiro. The DM exchange is here: http://dailycaller.com/2018/04/03/ku...rect-messages/

This prompted Eichenwald to send a bizarre e-mail to Ben Shapiro himself, saying that Kashuv "needs psychological help", and accused Kashuv of spreading a rumor that he was into tentacle porn (not kidding):





Shapiro then posted the e-mail, which then prompted various alt-right trolls to sent Eicehnwald strobe GIFs, because Eichenwald has epilepsy.

Eichenwald claimed Shapiro was responsible for directing these trolls to send such e-mails (which was false), and threatened that he would be held responsible. Shapiro posted that e-mail, as well:




Shortly after, Vanity Fair decided to distance themselves from Eichenwald, and claimed he was never a contributing editor in the first place (which was a lie).

Indeed, Eichenwald quickly updated his Twitter profile to no longer claim he was a Vanity Fair contributing editor.






But wait, there's more....

Eichenwald is now trying to float the claim that the original e-mail to Shapiro was fake (without directly saying it, so he can backpedal if the claim is poorly received):

Embedded Tweet

https://twitter.com/twt/status/981284139499491328

Is this great, or what?

Some people just don't know when to cut their losses and shut the fuck up.

[Zap_the_Fractions_Giraffe]

I'm sure this guy is a douchebag, but I don't think he deserves career ruin for talking shit to some kid who talked shit to him. Would anyone on PFA let some 16 year old kid talk shit to them online without reciprocating?

[devidee]

Isn't he the guy who had a tweet induced seizure?

[Charham]

funny name, sounds like an old school Nazi name.

[hongkonger]

I'm sure this guy is a douchebag, but I don't think he deserves career ruin for talking shit to some kid who talked shit to him. Would anyone on PFA let some 16 year old kid talk shit to them online without reciprocating?

I agree, but for public figures e-fights are always a bad idea. Except for Trump, they're what made him president.

[PLOL]

Why do you think it's a lie that he didn't work for VF anymore? From what I've read he hadn't written for VF in 3.5 years.

[PLOL]

But seriously, how do you make a Kurt Eichenwald story and not even mention tentacle porn? There's a disturbing amount of people who don't know about the Eichenwald tentacle porn saga

[Dan Druff]

Why do you think it's a lie that he didn't work for VF anymore? From what I've read he hadn't written for VF in 3.5 years.

He's been claiming to be a contributing Vanity Fair editor. It was in his e-mail signature, and it was on his Twitter profile (which he recently modified prior, to remove the MSNBC thing, but left up the Vanity Fair stuff).

I'm guessing that "contributing editor" is a position you're allowed to "keep" there in perpetuity, as he's just a contract employee who writes for them when he wants. So apparently he was proud of that and kept claiming it, and they didn't contradict it until now.

But seriously, how do you make a Kurt Eichenwald story and not even mention tentacle porn? There's a disturbing amount of people who don't know about the Eichenwald tentacle porn saga

I did mention it. Go reread the OP.

Here's the tentacle porn controversy, for those of you who don't know: http://dailycaller.com/2017/06/08/ku...porn-together/

The fact that he brought this up in an e-mail to Ben Shapiro is lol.

[hongkonger]

But seriously, how do you make a Kurt Eichenwald story and not even mention tentacle porn? There's a disturbing amount of people who don't know about the Eichenwald tentacle porn saga

Makes sense, the Germans and the Japanese, aligning themselves yet again.

[shortbuspoker]

I'm sure this guy is a douchebag, but I don't think he deserves career ruin for talking shit to some kid who talked shit to him. Would anyone on PFA let some 16 year old kid talk shit to them online without reciprocating?

I agree, but for public figures e-fights are always a bad idea. Except for Trump, they're what made him president.

So then, did Laura Ingraham deserve to lose her sponsors for making a joke at the gun control poster boy's expense?

[hongkonger]

I agree, but for public figures e-fights are always a bad idea. Except for Trump, they're what made him president.

So then, did Laura Ingraham deserve to lose her sponsors for making a joke at the gun control poster boy's expense?

Deserve? Don't know. But it's a different situation. As I understand it this was private and then became public by someone else's doing, and he wasn't sponsored except maybe indirectly because Vanity Fair has advertising. She had a forum on tv with sponsors specific to her show so she was attacking in public from the beginning. If you have a show with sponsors there is always a risk of losing them if you offend people.

[PLOL]

He's been claiming to be a contributing Vanity Fair editor. It was in his e-mail signature, and it was on his Twitter profile (which he recently modified prior, to remove the MSNBC thing, but left up the Vanity Fair stuff).

I'm guessing that "contributing editor" is a position you're allowed to "keep" there in perpetuity, as he's just a contract employee who writes for them when he wants. So apparently he was proud of that and kept claiming it, and they didn't contradict it until now.

He was claiming that he worked for VF, but that doesn't mean he actually worked for VF. He's obviously very self deluded.

[shortbuspoker]

So then, did Laura Ingraham deserve to lose her sponsors for making a joke at the gun control poster boy's expense?

Deserve? Don't know. But it's a different situation. As I understand it this was private and then became public by someone else's doing, and he wasn't sponsored except maybe indirectly because Vanity Fair has advertising. She had a forum on tv with sponsors specific to her show so she was attacking in public from the beginning. If you have a show with sponsors there is always a risk of losing them if you offend people.

You and I are different as far as political ideology, but I am ok with her sponsors leaving her. It is the free market at work. I just don't like the hipocrosy on both sides.

It but it's a calculated risk imo. You never know if those boycotts will work or lead to expansion of business i.e. the gays going after Chick-fil-A. My biggest issue at this point is that both sides latch onto the least perceived slight towards them to attempt to destroy a person's professional life.

[duped_samaritan]

The Tentacle porn thing was pretty epic. But it wasn't just a rumor. He took a picture of his screen for something unrelated and one of his tabs was a search for some hardcore japanese anime porn. He claimed he was looking for tentacle porn with his kids to prove to his wife it was a real thing.

https://news.avclub.com/newsweek-s-k...cle-1798263101

[hongkonger]

Deserve? Don't know. But it's a different situation. As I understand it this was private and then became public by someone else's doing, and he wasn't sponsored except maybe indirectly because Vanity Fair has advertising. She had a forum on tv with sponsors specific to her show so she was attacking in public from the beginning. If you have a show with sponsors there is always a risk of losing them if you offend people.

You and I are different as far as political ideology, but I am ok with her sponsors leaving her. It is the free market at work. I just don't like the hipocrosy on both sides.

It but it's a calculated risk imo. You never know if those boycotts will work or lead to expansion of business i.e. the gays going after Chick-fil-A. My biggest issue at this point is that both sides latch onto the least perceived slight towards them to attempt to destroy a person's professional life.

I agree generally that this sort of scorched earth approach is dangerous and unhealthy.

[DRK Star]

The Tentacle porn thing was pretty epic. But it wasn't just a rumor. He took a picture of his screen for something unrelated and one of his tabs was a search for some hardcore japanese anime porn. He claimed he was looking for tentacle porn with his kids to prove to his wife it was a real thing.

https://news.avclub.com/newsweek-s-k...cle-1798263101

Gay Sex, is this true?

[herbertstemple]

But seriously, how do you make a Kurt Eichenwald story and not even mention tentacle porn? There's a disturbing amount of people who don't know about the Eichenwald tentacle porn saga

Makes sense, the Germans and the Japanese, aligning themselves yet again.

Maybe America can choose the right side this time.