A potential challenger to Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) denied today that he had authored blog posts she blasted as sexist.
Marc Cenedella, a businessman poised to campaign for Gillibrand’s seat when she is up for re-election in November, runs a website where blog posts once ran with headlines such as “Sexy vs. Skanky” and “High Quality Dope,” The New York Times reported Sunday.
The posts can no longer be found on blog.theladders.com/rock, a blog associated with TheLadders.com. TheLadders.com is a job-search site Cenedella, 41, founded in 2003, and has reportedly helped make him a millionaire, allowing him to promise potential supporters that he would pay half the costs of a campaign himself, according to the Times.
But The Times reported Sunday that Cenedella’s photo was on the site with the title, “The personal blog of Marc Cenedella.” Sprinkled among articles about finessing resumes were posts about sex and drugs, the Times reported.
At a New York University event on Internet security yesterday, Gillibrand said the postings were “anti-women and very disrespectful and disregards women.”
“I think it’s a matter of judgment and a level of inappropriateness that’s not appropriate for anyone seeking any office,” she said.
Bill O’Reilly, Cenedella’s spokesman, said the posts were written between 2003 and 2008 by five or six different authors. Cenedella recalls the posts, but not whether he specifically wrote them, O’Reilly added.
For example, one post linked to an outside site, which suggested that March 14 should be a holiday, when women offer steak and oral sex to men. Posts like these, O’Reilly said, linked to text that was not written by Cenedella or his colleagues.
But O’Reilly said Cenedella is still assuming responsibility for the blog.
“It’s impossible to determine which author linked to it, but as the publisher, he takes full ownership of it,” he said.
“I think New Yorkers of all people understand the blog world and how it works. We don’t see this as a significant issue,” O’Reilly added. “Kirsten Gillibrand has once again shown today that she does not understand the Internet.”
He also accused Gillibrand’s office of spreading the material. “It seems pretty apparent that her opposition research team gave this to The New York Times,” he said.
Gillibrand’s spokesperson declined to respond to the allegation.
Some light reading?
The posts in question are no longer available, but the Times reported that these were among them:
“Sexy vs. Skanky”
“Dating Advice for Girly Girls”
“He Stole My Weed”
“High Quality Dope”
“A New Holiday for Men”
“Omarosa Jock Straps”
