Blogging Death
In the LA Times, Sandra Tsing Loh on the blogosphere on Cathy Seipp's passing:
The first tsunami of Seipp-inspired blog posts was rousing. As early as March 19, premature announcements of Cathy's death began appearing, but the bloggers did seem sincere, and sad....Into this heartfelt swaying and singing of "We Are Cathy's World" entered the cyber-squatter. This is the disgruntled blogger who years ago bought the domain name cathyseipp.com; as a result, Cathy blogged from cathyseipp.net. What he did on cathyseipp.com varied — first he posted as Cathy, and then he merely posted disparaging comments about Cathy, Photoshopping her and her daughter's heads atop various bodies.
On the one hand, it would be hard to confuse cathyseipp.com with her actual site. On the other hand, when the cyber-squatter last week reverted to his earlier ways, posting a "last blog entry" signed "Cathy Seipp" in which Cathy supposedly begged final forgiveness for her politics, her friends and her parenting … this seemed to cross a new line.
By week's end, Cathy's family and friends were debating whether to take legal action. Everyone was offended, exhausted and still staggered with grief. The public expression of which — Cathy's funeral — was, of course, recorded without our knowledge and posted by another blogger. Yep, it's all out there on the Web, just start Googling — you'll see snot pouring out of my nose as I wail helplessly through my eulogy, which, along with everything else involving the ceremony, has all already been critiqued online.
"It's like Cathy was the only thing that kept these people civilized!" was the horrified comment of friend Andrew Breitbart who, one should note, edits the Drudge Report. Even he!
And yet, I suppose the whole carnival is fitting. In the high-water days of Old Media, a writer's passing involved a duly-agreed-upon period of reverence, reticence and literary self-restraint. Our grief over a lost talent would dictate a certain vague lionization, and a certain dullness. Not so in this brave new Cathy's World of New Media, in which, as fishbowlLA calls it, Cathy's "funeral rites in Blogistan" have involved a verbal flaming pyre. That's right, highly searched Technorati entities literally have little flames next to them, and the initials WTF — "Where's The Fire?"
Cathy would've loved it.
Somebody recorded it?! Wild, man. We are all Warren Beatty-in-Truth or Dare now.
Paul Hrissikopoulos at March 27, 2007 8:07 AM
Well, I wouldn't go so far as to call him somebody...
Jim Treacher at March 27, 2007 9:17 AM
On line wake ?
opit at March 27, 2007 9:54 PM
I was curious and tried to check out the bogus Cathy Seipp site but the little box, the one tht reminds me I can't type very well, said that domanin name cound not be found, at least at 6:00 AM on Wednesday. Expired?
Pat Patterson at March 28, 2007 6:15 AM
It's been dealt with, let's just say, by a few of Cathy's friends.
Amy Alkon at March 28, 2007 6:35 AM
You can still find a copy, if you really want to see it. I can understand why people don't want it seen, but just one look at the front page tells you everything you need to know about this creep.
Jim Treacher at March 28, 2007 7:04 AM
Trying once is Ok, but twice seriously threatens my virtue.
Pat Patterson at March 28, 2007 8:55 AM
I read Cathy's blog often and know that any imatation of her would be a pale one indeed.
Kimberly Louazna at April 1, 2007 9:10 AM
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