Blogs Behaving Badly

June 29, 2007 — -- Celebrities have been the butt of blogger wrath for years -- just log onto www.perezhilton.com for a taste of puerile star wars. But now presidential candidates are getting a taste of Internet bashing.

Online since April, www.hillaryis44.com is a staunchly pro-Hillary Clinton blog, featuring daily opinions, updates on Clinton's position at the polls, T-shirts and buttons.

There's also a healthy dose of good ol' fashioned mudslinging. In particular there are a number of attacks on Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill. The blog encourages readers to send in "confidential tips," ostensibly to further scrutinize the Illinois senator. And in doing so, it begs the question: Is Clinton's campaign affiliated with the blog?

The campaign insists it is not. ABCNEWS.com's e-mail request for an interview with the person or persons behind hillaryis44.com -- sent to the blog's "confidential tips" address -- has not been met with a reply. On the blog's "Why Hillary" page is a statement that reads: "We are not affiliated with the Hillary for President Exploratory Committee, or any official Hillary Clinton organization in any way."

But questions persist. Conservative columnist Peggy Noonan wrote in a recent syndicated column that the Web site "reads like The Warrior's Id ... In tone the site is very Tokyo Rose....its primary target and obvious obsession is Barack Obama."

Comparing the Web site to the "Sopranos" spoof video that the Clinton camp released a week ago, Noonan suggests that the senator's campaign could be involved: "This appears to be the subterranean part of Hillary's campaign, the part that quietly coexists with the warm, chuckling lady playing the jukebox with her husband."

David D. Perlmutter, associate dean for graduate studies and research at the William Allen White School of Journalism and Mass Communications at the University of Kansas, told ABC News, "I wouldn't be surprised [if the Clinton campaign is behind it]. It's a very dense effort and some of the stuff smacks of political insider knowledge.

"Put it this way: I would be surprised to find that it's a couple of 14-year-olds fooling around in the basement. But then again, that doesn't necessarily mean it's Chelsea. There are many politically aware people out there."

The blog's "mission statement" reads: "We will keep an especially sharp eye on 'progressives' or Democrats who repeat Republican talking points to undermine Hillary or any of our candidates."

ABC News' Jake Tapper pointed out in his Political Punch blog Monday that the Web site doesn't just target Obama -- it has fellow Democratic hopeful John Edwards in its sights as well. "The Edwards campaign is simply a mess," it reads. "We will examine his mess of a campaign in a later post which will probably have to include a table of contents to catalog all the mistakes this mess of a campaign has made."