Submitted to a Candid World

As a former blogger with Cristina Cedeno at “Yes to Democracy,” I have a special place in my heart for Tommy Christopher, an AOL News blogger at “Politics Daily,” who frequently referenced and relied upon YtD’s scoops.

Make that “former” AOL News blogger. For whatever reason, Politics Daily has fired him. This comes on the heels of Christopher breaking a story about Playboy degrading all women – conservative or otherwise – in an abnormally sexist article targeting conservative women. Christopher’s piece, and the buzz it generated, resulted in Playboy pulling the piece (good for him, no?), but PoliticsDaily, in turn, pulled Christopher’s piece.

If Christopher was indeed fired for his Playboy piece, as seems likely, it’s an odd article to fire someone over. His coverage was tasteful and insightful, and the best kind of journalism – that which, through its coverage, corrects a societal evil. For his working at covering the fracas, and leading a Twitter campaign (of all things) to convince Playboy to pull the article, one would think he’d be promoted. No such luck.

A popular theory about Christopher’s termination is that AOL fired him because of some alleged corporate relationship between Playboy and either AOL, or parent company TimeWarner. No such luck. Neither AOL nor TimeWarner are the parents of, or substantial investors in, Playboy Enterprises, nor is there any substantial nexus between either giant and Playboy’s board of directors.

There is, however, the much more enticing theory that either AOL or TimeWarner are in merger negotiations with Playboy, a delicate relationship that Christopher’s holy war threatened to disrupt. There’s something to this theory, although not much. For one, Playboy is in trouble: it was even threatened with delisting from the NYSE – a.k.a., corporate death. Further, Playboy’s new CEO, Scott Flanders, has made no secret that one realistic remedy for Playboy’s dire financial straits is finding a purchaser to bail it out. TimeWarner could loom large in any field of prospective buyers. I stress that all of this is idle speculation; I have no insider information, nor any real knowledge of either company.

So we’re left with what might just be a garden variety termination, so common these days, or maybe just queasy stomachs at PoliticsDaily, who can’t bear to have Playboy mentioned in any capacity at all. Regardless of the motive, it remains disappointing, and we wish Tommy well.

Update: it’s a cold day in Hell when Michelle Malkin and I are on the same page, but here we are.