Tommy Christopher, the world's most pathetic "journalist":
It is from that duty that much of the criticism and speculation about my actions on this story springs. One component of the original Betty & Veronica story was Daily Kos founder Markos Moulitsas’ refusal to redact identifying information of what we both believed to be two minor children (and who still might be), an act that I went at him pretty hard for.
Within an hour of Friday’s publication of this new information, I got the following email from Moulitsas:
How’s that crow taste?
Told you it was fishy. How’s it feel to be played?
Publish this email.
I reviewed our emails, and Moulitsas never expressed any doubt that these were two minor children when he refused to redact their information.
Now Tommy is a ridiculous person, unable to respect a private conversation, and obviously a shitty reporter who got easily played by right-wing hacks. And his over-the-top emotional outbursts were completely incompatible with his pretensions of being a "journalists" -- a profession which demands impartiality.
But until now, he hadn't been a liar. Interesting that he didn't publish this part of our exchange:
Markos Moulitsas to Tommy
They were being harassed by the conservative anti-Weiner click who clearly already had their twitter account. So RE-publishing that information didn't make it public. That info was already circulating.
That's what's bizarre to me about your hysteria. The information was already a matter of the public record. The subsequent redactions haven't eliminated the trail, and nothing can. It's the internet. You can't scrub it. The person who was talking to Goatsred inserted herself into what would clearly be a very public battle. Sure, it was stupid, especially since it wasn't true. But no amount of scrubbing will erase every trail.
So the one girl was being harassed via Twitter. Twitter account deleted. Problem solved. Or was there OTHER forms of harassment? That would've been relevant information for me to know.
And how could Nikki or whatever her name was be getting threatened when there was nothing public about her except her first name (and a common one at that)? You kept talking about two girls being outed, but there was just a twitter handle and a first name. You never explained how those two bits of information would lead people to their front doors. None of this made any sense, and you never bothered to try and make it make sense [...]
Tommy Christopher to Markos
You're wrong. The only publicly available information before this was "Betty's" Twitter handle, and the only Google results for "Veronica's" real name are for your diarists, She mutually followed Goatsred, at which point he deleted the tweet he sent asking her for a mutual follow. Trail dead.
Then your diarist published a screenshot that had Veronica's first and last name, and "Betty's" first name. That was apparently enough of a clue to "Betty's" real name, as another of your diarists now has a blog up that has Betty's first AND last name listed in the tags. None of this info is in circulation anywhere but DailyKos, and crossposted at NewsVine.
This second diary makes the false claim that Veronica is 20 years old, and falsely asserts that a different woman with the same name is actually my source. This is provably false, but not without revealing the real Veronica's photo from that screenshot. They are not the same person [...]
Markos Moulitsas to Tommy
So the "Nikki Reid" in the tags has been edited out by the community already, apparently.
So you're saying that Nikki Reid is her real name? If not, then it's all a red herring in a good way -- further protecting your source. If so, that's quite the coincidence -- that there's another Nikki Reid and a Marianela Alicea who graduated from the same school in Arkansas. Not saying you're lying. Just saying it's quite the coincidence.
In fact, there were only FOUR Marianela Alicea's in the entire country. Just four. It's not a common name. I checked into it. And it so happened that this one Marienela in Arkansas, who was over 20 years old, had a friend named Nikki Reid. Truly, quite the coincidence! Too much of a coincidence.
But Tommy, intrepid reporter, was too gullible to connect the dots I had with three minutes of googling.
Tommy Christopher to Markos
Yes, that, and the name itself.
I contacted another Kos user who was able to edit Nikki Reid out of the tags. I have no idea how that guy got her whole name. It is a somewhat common name, but also a weird coincidence. It's obviously not the same girl, though, based just on the pictures. I will tell you, off the record, that I verified the identities of all of the principals six ways to Sunday. I inspected photo IDs via Skype, and saved scans of them as well.
Dumbass. He got played. That much is beyond is obvious. But the notion that "Moulitsas never expressed any doubt that these were two minor children" is simply a lie.
His accusations and claims never made any sense. My instincts were right. It was all bullshit.