Sullivan Taken to the Woodshed (?!!)
Update: Commenter Claiming to from the Atlantic Dishes

Not fired, it seems. But the evidence suggests, rather strongly, Someone had a little chat with him.

Two nights at 11:59 PM or so he went radio-silent. Bizarrely, one of his last posts was a post proclaiming how overjoyed he was that Sarah Palin had chosen to "bring up" Trig. Suddenly he was president of the Trig Fan Club, all warm and fuzzy about the little boy he had previously been suggesting was the MacGuffin in a baroque Northern Gothic tale of faked pregnancies and Loves that Dare Not Speak Their Name.

He only posted one post -- a picture of flowers -- all day yesterday.

Today he is posting another picture (another "view from your window") and a cutesy video.

He also said everything's fine, he just took the day off yesterday to enjoy one of the last days of summer.

And that's it.

Except for this cryptic -- but not really cryptic -- post.

Quote For The Day

09 Sep 2008 05:58 pm

""Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darüber muß man schweigen" - Ludwig Wittgenstein.

Steve translates for me:

""What we cannot speak of we must pass over in silence."

What we cannot speak of we must pass over in silence. Let me translate from English to Moronese: I have been told in no uncertain terms to chill out from my savaging of the Palin family, and posting every single unvetted leftwing conspiracy that I get fed, or possibly lose this gig altogether.

So, is it true Sullivan just took the day off yesterday to enjoy one of the last days of summer, as a post today claimed?

Um-- it appears that's unlikely.

Bear in mind, I obviously have no inside information, but come on, this seems awfully clear to me. That "Quote of the Day" seems like a Sullivanesque passive-aggressive poor-me.

Hmmm... that video is a bit cryptic too:

1, it's about a son apologizing and promising from now on "to be good neighbors."

2, it's from Desperate Housewives, which featured, coincidentally I'm sure, a plotline involving a mother faking a pregnancy to spare her pregnant daughter the shame of being an unwed young mother. In fact, the plotine involved "Bree" and her daughter -- and that is the red-headed woman most prominent in that video.

A plotline, I should say, I only know about because it was widely cited when the Sarah Palin fake-pregnancy-changeling-baby theory was pushed into the MSM by Andrew Sullivan.

The two are not just accidentally linked. Google Sarah Palin Desperate Housewives and you get an awful lot of hits linking the two "plotlines."

This seems like more passive-aggression to me.

When Sullivan and his publisher had their little talk, did the publisher imagine that Sullivan would begin baiting him with these cutesy references?

Correction: I said he'd said he was taking off one of the last "Summer Sundays." The error is mine, not his. I forgot what day it was.

Mystery Tipster: A tipster, or just a guesser like me?

I don't know. I have no idea.

I'm just "airing questions" here, guys.

Anon

Sullivan is not taking a few days off. He was asked to lay off the Palin stuff and he has responded by refusing to post to his site. Staff are meeting now to decided what to do.

I work at The Atlantic.

Once again, the big caveat: Anyone on the internet could be a dog. We have no evidence whatsoever this person knows what he claims to know or works where he claims to work.

Actually, I really probably shouldn't even bother noting it.

But by giving this caveat, I'm displaying buckloads more skepticism and fairness than Sullivan usually does.

Quote... UNQUOTE: I was wrong, the commenter didn't put quotes around The Atlantic at all. My tipster put quotes around the entire quote, and I just saw the last quote after the Atlantic and imagined the other one.

posted by Ace at 06:29 PM

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