Oba-Bull: Libel? In Kind Contributions?

Update: Gathering reacts: Ace - Rusty

Just received this below in email via Rusty at The Jawa Report. Isn't there something in the FEC about in kind contributions given this mopes business? And given that he now admits posting false information after it was known to be false, did he open himself up to a libel action from Palin? Not that I think the McCain camp would push it. My bet is Axelrod called and said, Hey Ethan, do you have a sword?

He must be a liberal he even managed to play the viktum card at the end.

Statement of Ethan Winner

The following is in response to questions I have received regarding the post on the Jawa Report website.

I produced and posted on the Internet the video entitled "Sarah Palin: A Heartbeat Away."

The idea for the video was mine. No one paid me to produce it. The only out-of-pocket cost will be the fee for the voice-over narrator, which I will pay personally when I receive an invoice. Contrary to the allegation in the Jawa Report, the voice-over artist has never done any work for the Obama campaign. I retained her through a talent agency based solely on the quality of her voice.

Neither the Obama campaign nor any independent political action committee has had a connection with the making and/or posting of this video. Just like the thousands of Americans who have posted videos on the Internet regarding the current Presidential campaign, I produced this video as an expression of my right to free speech, which is guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution.

I believe the American people have a right and a need to know information about candidates for political office and their views. I made this video because I think it is important for the public to be aware of the association between Sarah and Todd Palin and the Alaskan Independence Party. The New York Times has reported that the Alaskan Independence Party website describes the party as seeking, in the words of the party, "a range of solutions to the conflicts between federal and local authority," including "advocacy for state's rights, through a return to territorial status, all the way to complete independence and nationhood status for Alaska."

While a number of media outlets have said that reports that Sarah Palin was a member of the Alaskan Independence Party may have been erroneous, her attendance at the party's 1994 convention, her video speech to the 2008 convention and her husband's membership in the Alaskan Independence Party have not been called into question.

Some people have asked why I have pulled the video from the Internet. The reason is simple. Following the posting of personal information about me by the Jawa Report, my family began to receive threatening and abusive phone calls and emails.

Comments

[huh]

Really? He recieved threatening calls at home at that hour, that quick? I doubt it. I wonder if he reported those threatening calls to the police.

[mary]

BS is BS. The dummy got caught and he and his connections were traceable to the party and the candidate.

[WileECoyote]

Ethan Winner got caught with his hands in the cookie jar and did the only thing he could do: LIE and take all the credit/blame. Noone with half a brain believes he did this all on his own time and nickel. That ain't even Bullshit Ethan, that's Horseshit. Good job pinning him to the mat on this one.

Now how about the son of a democratic senator in Tennessee hacking into Palin's email. Just for fun eh, David Kernell? You just got you and your buddies a subpoena to appear before a Federal grand jury in Chattanooga. Nice set of felonies coming your way.

[mrkwong]

Oh, come on, Ethan. You're not worth our time. Threats? Give me a break. If you give us Axelrod on an FEC-size platter I'll personally buy you a day with a Spitzer-grade hooker. Two, even. I'm very serious about that.

[SacTownMan]

"The reason is simple."

Yea, You're a lying troll!!

[DavidL]

Ethan Winner admits to putting mu a video, which had been refuted before it was ever posted. Wnnner puts a video that is a lie, and now expects me to believe that now telling the truth as to why he took it down. Sure.

[Lissy]

Abusive phone calls and emails? Were they from David Axelrod? He must really be annoyed!

[LogicalUS]

Quick, someone ask little ole Ethan how's the weather under that bus with Rev. Wright, tell Ethan to ask the "preacher" about "chickens coming home to roost" !

[mary]

Who has the last name of "winner"? I feel like I am watching a bad soap opera with made up names and lives.

[mary]

LogicalUS, hey, if a guy will throw his own gram under the bus, well let's just say, probably before the election is over, it might get pretty crowded under that bus.

[SacTownMan]

This link is from a poster at Ace:

http://www.examiner.com/x-701-National-Defense-Examiner~y2008m9d22-PR-firm-behind-Palin-smears-has-history-with-Obama-media-chief-Axelrod

Nothing to see here, move along!

[George]

"Just like the thousands of Americans who have posted [professionally produced and narrated] videos [from firms doing work with the campaign] on the Internet regarding the current Presidential campaign..."

Waka, waka!

[eaglewingz08]

This ad has been up for weeks and this rich PR firm still hasn't paid the voice over announcer? She still hasn't sent an INVOICE? Somehow I believe, call me crazy, that the reason E Swiner hasn't paid the voice over announcer is because she was paid by someone closer to the Obama campaign.
I doubt the voice over announcer would grant interviews as to the questions raised in the blogs, cause it might cause dems to shy away from hiring her, and they would have to be her bread and butter. But that would be good if she had the courage to do so.

[Chris in Toronto]

I posted this at politico in response to their report on this:
I don't believe Winner's claim that he only had to pay the VO talent.
Who wrote this?
Who directed this?
Who "researched" this?
Who did the very high-grade production work on this?
Who did the post-production on this?
Who did the distro?
I don't believe him. Period.

[Chris in Toronto]

I posted this at politico in response to their report on this:
I don't believe Winner's claim that he only had to pay the VO talent.
Who wrote this?
Who directed this?
Who "researched" this?
Who did the very high-grade production work on this?
Who did the post-production on this?
Who did the distro?
I don't believe him. Period.

[mary]

What is it that they say, oh yeah, "it's never the crime, it's the cover up".