Nikki Finke...um... Responds

Last nite I batted around L.A. Weekly colleague Nikki Finke for her jagged-edge hatchet job on Arianna Huffington. You can view what I wrote by scrolling to the bottom of the post immediately below this one.

Well, Nikki can sure dish it out but she can't take it back very well, it seems. After the Huffington Post had only been in existence six hours, Nikki colluded with Huff's rival Matt Drudge to put up a posting calling Arianna "an online ass," the perpetrator of  a "sick hoax" and a "conservative mole."

But the same potty-mouthed Ms. Finke couldn't stand it when I responded here last nite suggesting she was a ... gutter-raker... and she spent all day Monday fulminating and cussing me out. Nikki finally erupted Monday nite and in the comments section of my post below she slapped me back.  Poor thing.

As a public service, and out of a sense of fairness to Nikki, I have moved her comments to the front page so all five of you readers can get a little behind-the-scenes glimpse of the way Ms. Finke, whom I have never met,  operates. Here are her comments:

Cooper (and all five people who read this blog):
1. Let's first exaqmine your ethics for NOT bothering to tell your readers you do all your so-called weekly political writing in Arianna's living room. Or that your her best-est friend.
2. Try spelling my name right at the very least. It's Nikki, not Nikke.
3.I see you didn't mention at all my reporting that Huffington claimed Geffen was an investor to Hollywood folks when he wasn't.
4. Your personal slam against me (when did tis become about me and not Arianna?) makes you sound like a right-wing attack dog. Pathetic.
5. I recall, yet again, your error-filled LA Weekly column from 1987 "reporting" that, after I worked at the LA Times as a staff writer just two weeks, I was going to be fired by the paper. Oh yeah, you're just a SWELL journalist. I was at the paper for years until I went on book leave.
6. Between Drudge and AOL, the Huffington Post of course received lotsa hits. But I wrote what I felt: it's a colossal failure. I'm paid by LA Weekly to express my opinion. And now almost all the major critics agree with me. (Read Rutten? et al...) Check on the hits in say a few weeks.
7. You dare call me a "gutter-raker"? Tell me, Mark. Where have you ever worked besides LA Weekly? I'm a former AP foreign correspondent in Moscow and London, Newsweek correspondent in Washington DC and Los Angeles, staff writer for the Los Angeles Times, West Coast Editor for the New York Observer and then New York Magazine, etc. Get your facts straight before you make baseless accusations like that. Having strong opinions like I do, sourcing those opinions with accurate journalism, and expressing them literately, does not make me a "gutter-raker."  It makes me a columnist with better bonafides than you.
8. That you never bothered to tell me what you were going to atack me personally shows what a spineless coward you really are.
9. As a columnist, you're lazy and boring.
10. Your professional jealousy is showing. You might want to get help for that.

This sort of fit doesn't deserve much of a response. I don't feel compelled to whip out my "bona fides" and start comparing them with hers. Unfortunately, this sort of crud is pervasive in a profession where so much ego is invested. I do find it rather staggering, however, that someone like Finke who makes her living reporting Hollywood dirt acts like, well, to use her words, such an online ass.

Comments

[Mork]

Not only does it not deserve a response, Marc, but there's nothing you could possibly say that illuminates the accuracy of your original take more effectively than Ms. Finke's own words.

[Marc Cooper]

Thanks Mork.. it's hard to believe I dont have to pay anybody to have so much fun. It seems illegal!

[rosedog]

Good, God, Ms. Nikki.... Do you always lob grenades at random or are you just having an off week? Nothing wrong with slapping people around a bit in print, but it's bad form to start shooting up the place when somebody slaps you back.

It suggests---comment se dit?---that "your professional jealousy is showing." Or that “You might want to get help for that.” Know what I’m saying, babe? It isn’t a good look for you, psychologically speaking.

PS: For the record, Rutten didn't agree with you. Even the hed makes that clear. ("Huffington's blog isn't fulfilling potential — yet") He was quite deservedly critical, but left room for future possibilities. Unlike your rather premature DOA. Read it again. And get a grip.

http://www.calendarlive.com/columnists/rutten/cl-et-rutten10may10,2,7356418.column

[Nikki Finke]

First, you might try being truthful in your blogging, a novel concept for you, I know. I only discovered you had written anything about me or my article when LA Weekly linked to it tonight (Tuesday) right beneath my web article about the Huffington Post. So your claim that I "spent all day Monday fulminating and cussing me out" is erroneous fantasy, not a fact.
Worse, your rants impugn not only my journalistic integrity and not only attack me personally, but you also impugn the journalistic integrity of the very paper you write for and I write for, as well as all its editors. Cooper, pat yourself on the back all you want. But you know full well that my column goes through a lengthy process of fact-checking, copy-editing, and line-editing by LA Weekly. Your allegation of "collusion" is not only inaccurate, but also delusional. As is also your ridiculous attempt to portay me as a "dirt" writer when I'm anything but. Gee, Cooper, how do your current comments track with your telling me on April 8th on the phone how much you enjoy my columns and my writing and reporting and what a terrific addition to LA Weekly I have been. What? You forget you said that to me? You also expressed your own pre-launch opinions to me about Arianna's blog, and they weren't exactly flattering. You forget you said that to me? I could go on and on. But then you'd look like a total hypocrite. And you wouldn't want that.

[green dem]

Do they teach the "save it, sleep on it, but don't send it till the morning when you can genuinely tell if it's a good idea or not" rule in j school today? It would seem to be a necessary ingredient of the curriculum in the digital age.

[Marc Cooper]

Nikki, put a lid on it and go to bed. I think you've said quite enough tonite. The conversation we had on the phone a month ago at ur request was a mutually agreed upon privileged conversation between a reporter and a source. If it makes you feel better to pull ur pants all the way down and start claiming what I said and I didnt say would merely expose your own miserable ethical code. I have to say, I have not met a single person who works with you or knows you who actually likes you or can even stand you. I am getting to understand the reasons why. In this world, you pretty much get back what you put out there. Your remarks about me and who I am are so remarkably off base that they strip you of even a veneer of credibilty. Now, go sleep it off.

[Nikki Finke]

My, how you're starting to sweat, Cooper.
I can see you don't like the truth being hurled back in your face.
I just went back and re-read those raw notes from that April 9 conversation and they're not pretty, believe me. Oh, and only a few sentences from you were off the record and clearly marked as such. Or did you forget that, too?
Meanwhile, I'm still waiting for you to get one fact about all this correct. Or, at least, to state one fact.
Oh, and have you read that email from the LA Weekly tonight yet?
Have a sweaty night's sleep. You'll need it.

[The_DC_Sniper]

I guess I'll just repost this here:

"Cooper (and all five people who read this blog):"

Right on. Finally the *true* number of readers of this blog appears. Just off the top of my head the roster of fake posters includes Reg, Josh, Jim, Rosedog, GM, Ahmed, John, Woody, Tom, Michael Turmon, and Michael Turner. Admit it, Marc. There all just you in disguise! We *all* know it's true. The fact that at least three of them have their own blogs just means that you're very busy. Hmm, I always thought you must be doing *something* to pass the time as you wait on the pier for those fish to bite. I always thought you were taking calls from the CIA but now I see it, it was you all along, faking *all these posts* Only someone as *brilliant* and, as I said earlier, *perspicacious* as Nikki Finke could have brought to light the horrible truth. Thank you, Nikki, you really are a *credit* to journalism.

"Let's first exaqmine your ethics for NOT bothering to tell your readers you do all your so-called weekly political writing in Arianna's living room. Or that your her best-est friend."

Again, right on. I mean, it's not as if everyone already *knows* you're friends with Arianna, Marc. I mean, you've *never* mentioned it on this blog or in *any* of the articles you've written for the Weekly. Also, *everyone* knows that posting a blog entry is *exactly* the same as writing a piece for the LA Times and should be treated *identically* because the blogosphere is *exactly identical* to print journalism. Get with the program, Marc. Geez.

"Try spelling my name right at the very least. It's Nikki, not Nikke."

That's completely disrespectful, Marc. The way you spelled it makes it look like Nike, the Greek goddess of victory, and... that's just not cool.

"I see you didn't mention at all my reporting that Huffington claimed Geffen was an investor to Hollywood folks when he wasn't."

She's right, Marc. Whenever you criticize an article you need to do a word-by-word analysis. You should *never* just do a quick summary. It would also be best if you did a complete intertextual analysis as well, unless you just want to be *completely* lazy about it.

"Your personal slam against me (when did tis become about me and not Arianna?) makes you sound like a right-wing attack dog. Pathetic."

Right on. Only right-wing *scumbags* don't like Nikki Finke. She is a god; nay, a god-of-gods; the Lord of Hosts; the Ain; the great No Thing that Zen masters find in the heart of deepest meditation. She is transcendence, sacred silence, enlightenment, Nirvana...

"Having strong opinions like I do, sourcing those opinions with accurate journalism, and expressing them literately, does not make me a "gutter-raker." It makes me a columnist with better bonafides than you."

God (i.e., Nikki Finke), I forgot to mention the inexpressible eloquence of Nikki Finke's writing. She makes Shakespeare sound like an ignorant peasant, Hemingway sound like a monosyllabic troglodyte, and is so innovative in her use of language that she makes Joyce look like he was afraid of change.

"That you never bothered to tell me what you were going to atack me personally shows what a spineless coward you really are."

Come on, Marc, have some common courtesy. I mean, I *know* you always e-mail President *Bush* before you post a blog entry critical of something *he* does.

"Your professional jealousy is showing. You might want to get help for that."

Yeah, Nikki went from working for the third most important paper in the country to writing for the LA Weekly. Her career is *exploding* and what's happening to yours, Marc? Oh, that's right you're moving in the *opposite* direction and have begun to write semi-regularly for the LA Times. This *obvious* downturn in your career is clearly because of your lack of journalistic standards.

[jim hitchcock]

No points for style. Or content. But vigor? Yes, we'll giver her that.

[richard lo cicero]

Oh PLEASE!

Enuff Already! You two can duke it out in the newsroom, I'll see if KOS has anything bright to think about.

[too many steves]

Did anyone else notice that Nikki has gotten herself all a twitter about a critical opinion piece on her by Marc in response to her critical opinion piece on Huffington? And since when do you get to be all offended when someone questions your use of phrases like: "online ass" and "conservative mole" in the context of accusing another of being a "perpetrator of a sick hoax"?

Cripes, lighten up.

[Mork]

*Did anyone else notice that Nikki has gotten herself all a twitter about a critical opinion piece on her by Marc in response to her critical opinion piece on Huffington?*

Precisely. I wonder if Nikki went around contacting everyone she insulted before her screed was published.

[resume]

" I'm a former AP foreign correspondent in Moscow and London, Newsweek correspondent in Washington DC and Los Angeles, staff writer for the Los Angeles Times,..."

Can't keep a job?

"you know full well that my column goes through a lengthy process"

So this was written prior to HuffingtonPost going live?

What a bitch! (Can we still use that word?)

[Mike C]

Marc, are you sure this is really Nikki Finke and not some troll trying to stir it up? It seems hard to believe that a professional journalist would act like this. Your site doesn't require any authentication so it could be a hoax. The immaturity of the writer leads me to think that it is more likely a child rather than a "bonafide" journalist.

[Ron]

Ya, take that, you right-wing attack dog you. How dare you express an opinion about somebody expressing an opinion.

[Woody]

As the third number five reader of this site, I'm afraid that Nikki only knows half of the story about Marc Cooper. I have a story to tell that is hard to share, but it would eventually come out--just like the stories of the Neverland Ranch. Here it is and you can believe it.

Marc went surf fishing in April and had an accident. We're not sure what happened, but it appears that he hooked a fish that was bigger than him--it was a BIG fish. Marc wouldn't let go and that fish dragged him out far into the surf--in fact, it was over his head. Observers saw him going down three times and a life guard rushed out and brought an unconscious Marc Cooper back to shore. CPR got the heart going and they rushed him to the hospital where he has been in a coma ever since then.

Well, not actually a coma--he is in a concious, but vegetative, state and we're asking a court to allow us to keep a feeding tube in him until he regains full brain functions. In the meantime, we're holding a vigil outside the (unnamed) Hospital. We're sure that Marc is coming back, because I held up a picture of Dale Earnhardt that his eyes followed as he smiled and held up three fingers. (See http://tinyurl.com/9lzf9 , cut up the volume, and be sure to have a hanky.)

In the meantime, and as hard as it is to break a confidence, in reality it has been rosedog and myself who have kept the column going pretending to be Marc. We've been carrying him and covering up for him, but I can't keep it in any longer. rosedog and I split up the duties with her writing the liberal columns and me writing the ones criticizing the left--but, that would have been obvious.

So, Nikki, rather than attacking Marc, you should be upset with me. I don't know what happened to me and why I did it. Maybe it was because a studio executive said that you owed your career to the gay mafia. But, the truth is that you're a babe and I know that I can never have you.

To all the regular readers, while all this is news and may be hard to believe, just be assured that it is as reliable as all my other posts. We'll try to continue as though nothing happened.

In the meantime, please continue to pray for Marc's recovery.

[Marc Cooper]

woody.. u got the job!

[Mark A. York]

This is a riot. I suspect both of our esteemed columnists are correct on a number of things. If Marc is too chummy with Arianna and is a potential contributor that's a conflict. Sort of like writing rosy five star reviews by your friends. But then trashing Huffington because it's fashionable or green monster-induced isn't exactly ethical either. Opinions are opinions and some are better than others. The readers decide.

[reg]

I had never heard of Nikke Finke. Now I have. I was better off, except for all of the laughing.

[GMRoper]

First things First, Marc, get in line. I'm taking a cruise with my beloved wife next week and Woody is guest hosting for me at GM's Corner (http://gmroper.com). You get him after that... Unless he has lots of time, in which case you and I will have to share him.

As one of the first 5 "fictitious" posters I have a confession to make. I am in fact fictitious. I confess that I have never made a comment on Marc's blog, and I was not one of his first readers when he started his blog. I am imaginary. I am, in real life, Marc's imaginary playmate, a figment of his fertile imagination. Nikki Finke, who-ever-the-hell-she-is, (and is she any kin to the '60's ditty called "Ratt Fink?") is correct, Marc has any number of imaginary playmates. It is a testament to his multiple personalities too that his creations often argue with each other. For example, I frequently have bandied words with "Reg", "Ahmed", the nefarious and frequently banned "steve" as well as a few others. I find it interesting, in a disinterested sort of way that Marc is able to keep all these personalities seperate... but that is to be expected when you defraud the public with all those "fake" readers, especially if you are as good a writer as Marc is. I do find it curious though that Marc has invented me, a conservative, to argue with his more liberal inventions. You would think that he would populate his imaginary readership with folk who would sing his praises, not someone like me who doesn't mind telling him when he is absolutely, liberally wrong (as he is most of the time - but I love him anyway). Too, I'm not sure why he would encourage an Imaginary Reader like me to start my own Blog called GM's Corner located at http://gmroper.com. Unless that is surely a "crazy-like-a-fox" tactic to convince the world that I and others really do exist.

Marc, as an imaginary reader, as your imaginary playmate and an imaginary blogger (did I mention http://gmroper.com? or GM's Corner?) I want you to really try hard to quit being quite so obstinate about this argument. Surrender, admit you are a fraud, admit that poor ole Nikki is absolutely correct.

On the other hand, I'd be delighted to see you tell her to "GO JUMP IN THE FRIGGIN LAKE."

Nuff said, but, in an imaginary way, it has been fun watching this.

[Sean Smith]

Am I the only liberal who doesn't like Arianna Huffington? The last thing I remember was Arianna stumping for her right-wing, inherited-oil-wealth husband for the US Senate. He lost. She went away. Suddenly she's back as an enemy of fossil fuels, has some sort of relationship with Bill Maher, and is trying to draft Warren Beatty to run for president. So it's that. And I just don't like her.

[reg]

Checking out Arianna's venture - and the fact that she's already inspired several wingnut parody sites in - what ? - 24 hours ? - I have to say I'm impressed. The parodists and Drudge-Finke hatchet job are testaments to her skyrocketing success in a world dominated by drudges and dreck, not to mention finks - inevitably a polished piece of crap that's got a three-ring circus quality is going to stand out and draw millions of more readers than another motley Instapundit. It's not a blog - it's a digital tabloid with a gazillion columnists - some of whom have already proven their gravitas many times over, some of whom are whimsical guests who might end up being interesting. Frankly, I find this more interesting than just having Arianna sputtering her usual. (I don't particularly dislike her - although I did when she was whoring rather ridiculously for Newt an the gang - nor do I particularly like her. I have never heard anything original out of her mouth - although I'll admit sometimes I've heard her repackage cliches rather colorfully.)

She's obviously done something she's very, very good at - bring a bunch of folks together in her salon and use her personal resources to stir the pot rather than simply make sure she's getting a suntan and has ordered the right bottle of wine. And she's done it with some panache and class. The fact that she's bought herself a new ball club and built a nice stadium obviously has disturbed some of the guys who've been trading their bubble gum cards over the internet since 1996 and imagine themselves to be the pros. Good for her...crazy as she seems to be. Apparently she's got a million friends who are willing to take a turn on her digital cruise, so she obviously couldn't simply be a monster bitch on a downward career spiral...like Nikke Finke.

The site looks fun and engaging...it's not my cup of tea, but it looks like it's gonna work for me as a snack cracker. I read the Onion as well as Josh Marshall, and Arianna's site has the weird appeal of blending a bit of both. Perhaps she should add comments to the blog-arena, although some serious bloggers like Sullivan don't do comments, so that's not enough of a critique to draw a circle around Arianna. She's already made Drudge's site The Grey Lady of the "new media" in less than a week.

[Sean Smith]

I just checked out her site. I have to admit it ain't bad. Why I give a shit what the writer of Anchorman says, I do not know. But for some reason I do!

And isn't she simply doing in blog form what Bill Maher did with Politically Incorrect?