From Thursday’s Washington Post:

Mark J. Rozell, a politics professor at George Mason University, said the posting of the profile on Not Larry Sabato crossed a line but noted that in politics these days the line, if it still exists, is blurred.

“Politics have become a pretty ugly environment in the modern era, not that it hasn’t been ugly in the past,” he said. “There has always been an unseemly part of political life, but today in the blogosphere, there is an immediacy, and there is not a filter for material that is over the line.”

Ben Tribbett took quite a hit on Thursday. Jeff Dion dropped out of the Democratic Primary race for the 51st House District after Ben Tribbett used his site, Not Larry Sabato, to engage in what Ted McKenna of PRWeek’s “The Cycle” called Internet-era character assassination.

Then Ben Tribbett proceeded to create a story over the last few days in which he was a central figure, charging that he had received information concerning Mark Tate’s indictment and that it came from inside sources he was ready to name.

Leesburg Today bit and Ben Tribbett pushed on, saying that he had been contacted by Shaun Kenney via e-mail:

“He was trying to communicate with me and not vice-versa,” Kenney said. “Unfortunately, I’m trying to treat him like a reporter.”

Jim Riley at Virginia Virtucon caught onto “Ben Tribbett’s Red Herring”. DJ McGuire notes that “Ben’s generating a lot of smoke, but there is no fire here”.

Ben Tribbett was not done yet. Norther Virginia Daily chimed in, with Ben continuing to name names and make accusations:

“Not true,” he [Kenney] said. “[Tribbett] called here and fired off a bunch of questions,” trying to find out who, if anyone, from the Republican Party had called Tate.

Fly On The Wall starts to wonder about a connection between Tate and Ben Tribbett (confirmed when Ben Tribbett is included in a mailing sent by Mark Tate to the Republican Executive Committee), Riley continues to note that Ben Tribbett’s getting out of hand, and Phil Chroniger thinks that “Ben is jumping the gun and overlooking the facts behind the statements on a few points”.

Waldo Jaquith chimes in on the whole Mark Tate debate and calls on a refocusing of the story back to the real issues behind the story.

Just one small problem.

The story is no longer about Shaun Kenney and the RPV. It’s not even about Mark Tate and the indictments anymore.

The story is about Ben Tribbett:

Ben Tribbett, the main voice behind the Not Larry Sabato political blog, said in an interview that Shaun Kenney, spokesman for the Virginia Republican Party, volunteered the information about GOP hopeful Mark D. Tate during a phone call that Tribbett made about an unrelated subject. Tribbett produced a copy of a phone bill verifying the call.

…

“It’s not true,” Kenney said of Tribbett’s recollection. “It’s nothing factual, and he has a history of just not being honest. . . . I’m more than happy to let my reputation stand up to his.”

Ben Tribbett’s credibility took a major mainstream hit with the Washington Post’s Jeff Dion article on Thursday. He then tried to redeem himself by creating a story to tear down someone else’s. Ben Tribbett tried to make a story about himself and here it is. And it’s not pretty.

All of this came less than two weeks after Jim Hoeft at Bearing Drift wondered whether Virginia blogs could survive Ben Tribbett’s style of blogging. Time and time again Ben Tribbett has gambled with other people’s reputations for his own sake. Whether creating offensive nicknames for opponents (George “Felix Macacawitz” Allen) or creating non-stories (Bob McDonnell’s degree from Regent University) or simply trotting out a candidates sexuality as a slur (Jeff Dion’s Gay.com profile), Ben Tribbett has shown that he not only lowers the bar for discussions in the blogosphere but poisons any trust that may exist between mainstream media and political parties and the blogosphere. When the Virginia blogosphere turns its thoughts to the topic of ethics in blogging, Ben Tribbett’s name is usually quick to come up, if not the inspiration behind the thread.

Blogging can do so much good but is so often defined by its worst elements. Ben Tribbett is defining the Virginia blogosphere and not in a good way.

June 2nd, 2007 at 3:02 pm | Tags: Uncategorized