This remark that I put up in an earlier post:

Andisheh’s opening write-up sounds to me like Ken Edelstein told him to write something to “piss off the kids and get them reading this goddamn thing.”

Was meant as snark, not as a serious accusation. I had no idea Ken and Andisheh would take it seriously, so I apologize to them for saying something that clearly was more hurtful than it was intended to be.

UPDATE: Upon re-reading the article and noticing this line, which is a transparent request to send traffic their way and to stir shit up elsewhere:

If you think we missed some important local bloggers, we want you to comment on our blog, CLFreshLoaf.com, or maybe write something really bitchy on your own blog. With all the bitchy stuff we write about other people on our blogs, it would only be fair.

And reading Andy’s comment in this thread on Joeventures where he owns up to doing as his superiors told him:

I wrote the story and agree with the picks, but they weren’t just my favorites. They’re five of CL’s favorites.

To be very specific, they’re five of the editorial and online department’s favorites. Before I started soliticiting suggestions, I didn’t know that Gloria Brame’s blog or I Saw It On Ponce existed.

I’m rescinding my apology. I don’t think it was an at-all unreasonable thing to say.

Both Andy and Ken got very indignant at that accusation in private emails we exchanged. I really did mean it as snark originally and not as a serious accusation. Had it been meant seriously originally, it would have been unfair of me to make, given that I’ve never met either of them and don’t know them from anything but their writing. But I’ll be damned if it didn’t turn out to be true.

UPDATE 2: In case it wasn’t clear earlier, Andy denies he wrote the article specifically for the purpose of being inflammatory. He said in an email conversation that he stands by his assessment of the blogosphere as “dim,” and that to suggest they would willfully ignore something significant going on for the sake of stirring a hornet’s nest is false.

Ken went as far in an email as to suggest that charge as “defaming” him. Ken didn’t actually edit the article, so if someone wants to take my quote literally, there could be a flimsy case for that somewhere. However, as I’ve already said, the quote wasn’t meant to be taken literally.

Decide for yourself. I have trouble believing that an article using the terms “dim,” “heads up their asses,” and “write something pissy on your blog” could be designed for any other purpose than to get a rise out of people.

Regardless, the whole episode shows an incredible lack of imagination on Creative Loafing’s part. Instead of writing a cheeky little article slagging on a group of people for criteria they often don’t even judge themselves by, they should be thinking of ways to put those people to work for them. They already write for free, and with a little direction and a project to be involved in, they could be doing some legwork for the paper. Instead, they’ve made enemies. Their prerogative. Like I wrote to Andy in an email, “Keep fiddling Nero.”