Salon gets bomb, e-mail threats following Hyde story
The report, which ran Wednesday, detailed the affair, which happened 31 years ago, and included an admission from Rep. Hyde himself.
It sparked a spate of threatening, and often anonymous, expletive-filled e-mail to Salon employees, calling them "left-wing pussies" and other unprintable names. Some messages even contained pornographic pictures of people performing the very act at the center Clinton's quagmire.
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The bomb threat occurred at about 2:00 p.m., when a man called the main line and said, "a bomb is on the way, maggots."
Evacuation following bomb threat
Employees were evacuated from the downtown San Francisco building containing Salon's offices. They were allowed back inside about two hours later. Before the bomb threat, the literary magazine had been swamped with e-mails and black faxes in an attempt to cripple its operations. For much of the afternoon, the site was either unreachable or extremely sluggish.
No one has claimed responsibility, Salon Publisher Michael O'Donnell said. "These are really cowardly actions," O'Donnell said of today's threats. "It's insulting and embarrassing that people don't have the courage to say who they are."
In many cases, Salon has been more aggressive than the mainstream press in questioning the motives of Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr and defending President Clinton. It also has criticized the public release of both the Starr report and Clinton's grand jury videotapes.
After Salon's report was posted, Hyde supporters cried foul and some Republican leaders went as far as asking the FBI to investigate the magazine and whether the White House provided the information, a charge Salon has repeatedly denied. Hyde's office could not be reached for comment.
Whatever the outcome of the Clinton scandal, the story has caused many naysayers to sit up and take notice of the Internet. The story originally broke on Matt Drudge's gossipy "Drudge Report," people flocked to the Internet to read Starr's Drudge Report, and now an upstart literary site is the subject of an FBI investigation for its reporting on the issue.
"The Internet is coming of age on this story," Salon Editor David Talbot said.
The report, which ran Wednesday, detailed the affair, which happened 31 years ago, and included an admission from Rep. Hyde himself.
It sparked a spate of threatening, and often anonymous, expletive-filled e-mail to Salon employees, calling them "left-wing pussies" and other unprintable names. Some messages even contained pornographic pictures of people performing the very act at the center Clinton's quagmire.
|
| Have an opinion on this story? Add your comments to the bottom of this page. |
|
The bomb threat occurred at about 2:00 p.m., when a man called the main line and said, "a bomb is on the way, maggots."
Evacuation following bomb threat
Employees were evacuated from the downtown San Francisco building containing Salon's offices. They were allowed back inside about two hours later. Before the bomb threat, the literary magazine had been swamped with e-mails and black faxes in an attempt to cripple its operations. For much of the afternoon, the site was either unreachable or extremely sluggish.
No one has claimed responsibility, Salon Publisher Michael O'Donnell said. "These are really cowardly actions," O'Donnell said of today's threats. "It's insulting and embarrassing that people don't have the courage to say who they are."
In many cases, Salon has been more aggressive than the mainstream press in questioning the motives of Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr and defending President Clinton. It also has criticized the public release of both the Starr report and Clinton's grand jury videotapes.
After Salon's report was posted, Hyde supporters cried foul and some Republican leaders went as far as asking the FBI to investigate the magazine and whether the White House provided the information, a charge Salon has repeatedly denied. Hyde's office could not be reached for comment.
Whatever the outcome of the Clinton scandal, the story has caused many naysayers to sit up and take notice of the Internet. The story originally broke on Matt Drudge's gossipy "Drudge Report," people flocked to the Internet to read Starr's Drudge Report, and now an upstart literary site is the subject of an FBI investigation for its reporting on the issue.
"The Internet is coming of age on this story," Salon Editor David Talbot said.