John Mayer Takes the Huffington Post to Task

Aug. 27, 2010 — -- Note to the media: Don't mess with John Mayer.

The often outspoken singer-songwriter lashed out at the Huffington Post Thursday via his Tumblr blog and Twitter account after the news website posted a story purporting that he and ex-girlfriend Jennifer Aniston might be back together.

"Are John Mayer and Jennifer Aniston back on?" the Huffington Post story started. "Mayer seemed to indicate they might be when he spoke in front of a crowd of 18,000 at his concert on Sunday at the Hollywood Bowl in LA."

The Huffington Post went on to quote Mayer as saying, "I believe in second chances! You might have been a pain in the a*s the last time around, but you can still start over again from home base.

"Next time you get a text from the one you love just text back 'come over' -- no matter what happened in the past. If you really love someone, just tell them and be with them"

The Huffington Post added that "a woman who resembled Aniston was rumored to be in the wings" of Mayer's concert, "though her rep has not verified she was there."

Mayer, who dated Aniston on and off through 2008 and 2009, took to Twitter and Tumblr to slam the report.

"Huffington Post, this is reporting? How do you pay your writers now, in Silly Bandz? Do you meet your sources in a malt shoppe? This is equal parts fabricated, cobbled together and misleading," he wrote.

"Let's break it down," Mayer continued. "I don't think I ever said 'I believe in second chances!' but I can't be 100 percent sure, as it's possible I could have accidentally said something succinctly and to the point. The next sentence is from the song 'Half of My Heart,' in reference to the idea that meeting new people allows for hiding old mistakes. (Well, for most people at least.)

"The sentence about texting comes from the show's encore, 'Edge of Desire,' in a moment of giving people permission not to beat themselves down for still wanting someone. Two sentences about different things at different points in a concert."

Huffington Post Is a 'Stripper Wearing Reading Glasses'

Mayer went on to call the Huffington Post "a stripper wearing reading glasses" and question the site's journalistic standards.

"The reason I'm calling you out instead of all the other magazines that make stories up out of thin air is that In Touch and Star Magazine aren't concurrently writing pieces about Pat Tillman or WikiLeaks," he wrote.

"Those other rags know who they are, and even if they're obnoxious, I'd rather have to live with them because they (and the rest of the world) know where they stand, which doesn't make them one tenth as dangerous as you are."

Mayer didn't blog about the status of his relationship with Aniston. His intent was to call out the tabloid news sensibility of using shoddy sourcing to manufacture a story.

After he blogged, the Huffington Post updated its report, revealing that it picked up the "I believe in second chances!" quote from the website of the British newspaper the Express, which Ryan Seacrest referenced on his radio show.

But Mayer's criticisms might have fallen on deaf ears. The Huffington Post ended its update with the line, "He does not deny that he and Aniston are dating."