aTypical Joe: a gay New Yorker living in the rural South

Friday, March 23, 2007

Hillary 1984 whodunit: How Arianna Unmasked De Vellis

Jeff Jarvis talked with Huffington last night:

While the rest of media was tripping over themselves to do the same story of the Hillary ad, weeks after it came out, and idly wondering who made it, Arianna dispatched her troops to do real reporting. She said about 30 people were involved at first, making phone calls and digging into what they knew, debunking some leads and following others. Finally, it came down to contacts and a little technology. Arianna said that YouTube revealed nothing about the video’s maker or his account. But the guy apparently left some turkey tracks with his email. And a Huffpo person knew someone who knew someone — and so on — who confirmed the identity of the mysterious video man, Phil De Vellis.

Then Arianna called him. She said he was genuinely surprised and thought he would never be unmasked. She offered him the chance to write a post about what he did and why. After some delay — when he apparently dealt with his employers and become a former employee — he came back and delivered that post.

Arianna is admiring of him. She said he put out a message without any desire for fame. She says he told no lies in the ad.

I look at it differently. I think he hid, the chicken, behind online anonymity. It’s also quite possible that he did his man Obama no favors, as some will think the candidate made this and will think less of him for starting the attacks so early.

But Arianna and I agree that the campaigns, which are all about control, are going to be less and less in control as more people use YouTube and the internet to get their own messages out.

I’m glad to see Jeff critical of De Villis - I quite agree he did Obama no favors. He may even have helped Hillary. He was a paid political operator acting unprofessionally outside of his job; he deserved to be fired.

Yes, yes, yes, he has his freedom of speech. And Blue State Digital has freedom to fire. I wold think he hurt them most.

As to any selfless political expression power-to-the-people points he made, I don’t quite see it. I see this particular “citizen” as particularly well-connected, well-trained and well-equipped.

The rest of us are heading there, but we’re not there yet.