John H. Hinderaker - Vulgar Email

Vulgar Email

On February 20, 2005, Minnesota anonoblogger "minnpolitics" published a profanity-laced email John Hinderaker wrote in response to an email comment about Jeff Gannon:

You dumb shit, he didn't get access using a fake name, he used his real name. You lefties' concern for White House security is really touching, but you know what, you stupid asshole, I think the Secret Service has it covered. Go crawl back into your hole, you stupid left-wing shithead. And don't bother us anymore. You have to have an IQ over 50 to correspond with us. You don't qualify, you stupid shit.

Hinderaker offered an apology, explaining that after a flood of "inexpressibly vulgar and vile" emails and phone calls:

I read about ten in a row that were vulgar and abusive in varying degrees; most were unprintable. At that point I snapped and lost my temper. I sent irate and intemperate replies to the last couple of emails I read—unfortunately, not the most abusive ones, but the ones I read after losing my temper.

The next day, one of these emailers responded that he thought my reply was disproportionate to the offensiveness of his email; I agreed and apologized for having reacted inappropriately. I would have done the same with the "Minnesota Politics" guy if he had contacted me rather than posting my email—which obviously wasn't intended for publication—on his site.

City Pages gave Hinderaker a "Best Meltdown" Award for this in their 2005 "Best of the Twin Cities" Issue.