Oklahoma state legislator Sally Kern created a stir in March when she declared that gays are "the biggest threat our nation has, even more so than terrorism or Islam." She went on to assert that "studies show" — ah, studies! — "that no society that has totally embraced homosexuality has lasted more than, you know, a few decades."
Days later, gay news blog Queerty noticed that Kern had deleted a biographical sentence mentioning her two adult sons, Jesse and Nathan, from her official government homepage. Through a little independent investigating, the blogger turned up quotes from Jesse's classmates at Oklahoma Baptist University stating that "Jesse was the biggest queen on campus" who could often be found "cruising the toilets," and that Kern had disowned him for being gay. It blew up big enough that Kern and Jesse both issued public denials, and Ellen DeGeneres called Kern about it on live TV.
19. "The Cruise Indoctrination Video Scientology Tried to Suppress" 1/15/08
The Church of Scientology is famously tight-lipped when it comes to the media — they don't want no one finding out nothing about their crazy-ass beliefs. So when Gawker got hold of a video that showed (who else?) Tom Cruise creepily describing his religion, it was no surprise that the Church threatened to sue for copyright infringement. But the gossip site stood its ground and refused to take the clip down. "It's newsworthy," wrote Gawker founder Nick Denton in this rare personal post, "and we will not be removing it."
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18. "Deadly Katrina" 8/29/05 - 9/10/05
There are probably millions of discontinued blogs laying dormant out there in the tall grasses of the internet. This one ran for a mere thirteen days, and yet during that time, recorded from New Orleans the terrifying ordeal of Hurricane Katrina. It's chilling to start reading the early posts ("Category 5 Katrina Heads to Gulf Coast" and "Oil touches $70 on hurricane fears") and gradually scroll up as the disaster unfolds: ("Hurricane Katrina Tears Off Superdome Roof," "Martial Law Declared in New Orleans," "Sheer Pandemonium!!!") The feedback sections quickly go from zero to hundreds of comments, and stay that way until the final post on September 10, 2005, under the headline, "Bush Approval Drops Below 40 Percent."
17. "Is Barack Obama the Anti-Christ?" 8/6/04
This throwaway post on an obscure blog was published in the summer of 2004, shortly after Obama's now-famous speech at the Democratic National Convention. It asked a simple, somewhat comical question in its headline: "Is Barack Obama the Anti-Christ?" Since then, nearly 2,000 people have weighed in on this notion in the feedback section — most of them to say, indeed he is.
Many of the commenters quote scripture at length, detailing the Bible's description of what the Anti-Christ's attributes will be when he appears on earth: "uncanny skill," "ability to deceive," a "victorious advance," and "he will brook no rivalry in the mad pursuit of increasing authority, prestige and power." Sure sounds like Barack! A stunning example of how blogs have given fringe views a chance for real momentum — today, a Google search of "barack obama" and "anti-christ" yields 584,000 hits.
16. "Bitch Please — DDB's One Degree More" 2/19/08
The nasty blog post that drives its target to suicide has been internet urban legend almost since the medium began, and this post is a dramatic example of such lore becoming reality. This negative critique of a creative director at advertising mega-firm DDB perhaps caused the subject to jump from the roof of the Fairmount Hotel three days later; the same blogger posted about his suicide the day after it occurred, defending his original post. What's most interesting are the comments: for the first few days, they mostly side with the blogger, until readers learn of the victim's death, at which point they turn against the blogger and empathize with the victim.
15. "Betsy's So Jealous" 3/24/05
Michael Palan's blog broke the story of Pat O'Brien's girlfriend's racy website, which achieved wider notoriety when it was later talked about incessantly on Howard Stern's radio show. Says Palan: "We were the first to break the news of Pat's girlfriend Betsy and her blog and the hot pictures of the two of them on her site, which have all since been removed since we let the cat outta the bag."
14. "You will not shame me" 4/12/07
Feministing has always been one of our favorite sites for bold, controversial arguments, and blogger Samhita endured a barrage of criticism — much of it from her own fans — for these posts about the Duke Women's Lacrosse Team. She'd previously criticized the women's team for supporting the men's team, three of whose members were being tried for raping an African-American stripper. In this later post, after the male players were acquitted, she rebuffs her readership's calls for her to apologize under the headline "You will not shame me." "The details of the ACTUAL case are only tangentially relevant here," she writes, an assertion one of her readers called "as reprehensible and repugnant to morality as either rape or lynching."
13. "It's Over" 10/29/04
We've always thought of Delta as the "family values" airline — mainly because they used to feature Disney World in their commercials — which just makes Ellen Simonetti's blog post even more titillating. In October 2004, she posted these photos of herself wearing her Delta flight-attendant uniform while posing provocatively in the cabin of a 727. She was fired, of course, one of the early casualties of what eventually became a national purge of employees who blog about their workplace.
12. "The Plagiarism of James Frey Revealed" 12/15/05
Had James Frey published his fake memoir A Million Little Pieces just five years earlier, pre-blog explosion, he may never have faced Oprah's wrath. Though The Smoking Gun dug up the details that ultimately busted him, it was a Russia-based English-language blog called The Exile that nailed Frey as a liar a month earlier than that. "Was James Frey ever a junkie?" wrote blogger John Dolan. "The more I look into this fraud, the more cunning fakery I find . . . I now think Frey stole all the drug details he put in his hit novel, A Million Little Pieces."
11. "Bill Clinton, lunching with the bloggers" 9/13/06
A blog post about bloggers, breasts and Bill Clinton? How could this not have become the media sensation that it did. A great insight into a small moment — or a mean-spirited slam on a professional writer who was photographed in the wrong place at the wrong time — depending on whom you ask. We suggest you ask Jessica herself.
20. "Sally Kern Scrubs Gay Son?" 3/12/08
19. "The Cruise Indoctrination Video Scientology Tried to Suppress" 1/15/08
18. "Deadly Katrina" 8/29/05 - 9/10/05
17. "Is Barack Obama the Anti-Christ?" 8/6/04
16. "Bitch Please — DDB's One Degree More" 2/19/08
15. "Betsy's So Jealous" 3/24/05
14. "You will not shame me" 4/12/07
13. "It's Over" 10/29/04
12. "The Plagiarism of James Frey Revealed" 12/15/05
11. "Bill Clinton, lunching with the bloggers" 9/13/06
