These Days, McCarthyism is Big on the Web
08 April 2008 6:01 pm by Taylor Marsh
Are you or have you ever been a Hillary Clinton supporter?
If you are, beware. Mwaaahhaaaa. The screed merchants are going to get you. We’ll “discover” who you are and divulge everything about you! Regardless that it’s already been known for years. It’s the new McCarthyism. We’ll smear your name and reputation in hit posts, too. It’s enough to make you want to take a big nap.
The question above was posed by one commenter over at Democratic Undergound, amidst the vile that has become the “progressive” blogosphere during Hillary Clinton’s presidential candidacy. That’s the foundation on which some people have decided to come at me, on the premise of revealing something that has been in the public arena for years. That these people didn’t know these simple facts proves that clicking on “about” on my nav bar is just too much for some. That they stole copyrighted photos may come back to haunt them, however, because if the photographers find out their agents will indeed pounce. But that’s not my problem. What was the final tipping point that inspired this overblown blogging?
If I weren’t effective they wouldn’t be targeting me. By the way, thanks for it. There’s no such thing as bad publicity, especially when everything that’s being written I’ve said before. But being a Clinton supporter has certainly brought attention and vilification. I wear the insults as a badge of honor.
I published a book. Not exactly news. I did radio interviews in many places when the book was published. From my “about” page (that gets regularly updated):
Additionally, Taylor’s investigative work into the sex trade business, prostitution and phone sex spanned over 10 years and included interviews with real desperate housewives, single, married and divorced women, religious of all stripes, and lots and lots and lots of men (well over 1,500) and women (when she was relationship consultant and columnist for alt newsweekly LA Weekly). Taylor’s experience, research and expertise was excerpted in Net.SeXXX: Investigating Sex, Pornography, and the Internet by Dennis Waskul, a Utah professor who calls Taylor’s book “a great gutsy story about something that is normally written about from a distance.”
Working as managing editor to the first soft-core porn site, which consisted mainly of model’s pictures when I was there, and was the first to make real money on the web, run by women, was a wild ride, believe me. (To add, I worked for a company that began as one stipper’s way to make money off of her fan club, at the very start of the tech boom; an enterprising young lady who taught herself html in order to make some cash, but ended up making millions and lots of national news, long before the boys found out how to do it themselves.) I wasn’t undercover, but I was continuing to unearth the sex industry. The place I worked was featured on the front page of the Wall Street Journal, because of the financial angle, inside US News & World Report, and a picture of the owner and myself plastered inside USA Today. Not exactly evidence of a secret, except for the clueless and very uninformed. I came to the job from the LA Weekly, where I was “relationship consultant” and lovingly called “personal ad goddess.” Loyal listeners to my radio show remember this year’s Valentine’s Day show. Let’s just say I know a lot about relationships, sex, marriage and dating, and have likely done more first-hand research than Dr. Laura and Dr. Phil combined. These were great years. LA Weekly allowed me to become a better writer, but when I went to the soft-core industry, it was to become — now don’t you laugh — the female political Hugh Hefner (link added after TNR profile). I wanted to continue to break into political analysis through my editorial role at the site, which infuriated my female boss. But I was online when the Lewinsky imbloglio hit the fan. It was one of the most trafficked sites in 1997-98, so you can imagine what doing politics, a very tiny portion of the site that you had to work to find, was like. Fantastic. But in the end it ended very badly, as I thought it would. I walked out, but that’s another story.
I’ve done a lot of things in my life, but politics has always been my passion. I write about some of it here. But it was my big brother and sister who really got me started, when I spied them crying over John F. Kennedy’s death. That’s where my one-woman show began, which I performed in L.A. back in 2005.
As a performer from the time I was a kid, again, all these pictures are on the web, I fell in love with radio when I listened to Cardinal baseball games. Harry Caray and Jack Buck were it for me, though I never dreamed to have a chance to get on the air. That came after doing interviews across the country, but when I couldn’t land my own contract, my former boss at the LA Weekly and I staked a claim on a tiny station in Las Vegas, buying time to put me on the air. It didn’t last long. Sponsors were hard to come buy to keep me on the air. That didn’t stop me. I’m still looking for that radio contract that’s been so
elusive.
By the way, all of this I’ve written or talked about before. Even the part about being a Reagan Democrat, an article on the subject was even published in an alternative newsweekly in California when Reagan died, and is in my “featured column” section. Again, out in the open for anyone seriously looking.
People in politics start from different places. I started out as a performer, making it to Broadway, to L.A. to do a little acting, always playing activist when I could, loving every single minute of my life. I don’t regret a move, a day, a job or one minute. I’m proud of everything I’ve accomplished.
Don’t like my writing. Don’t read it.
Don’t agree with me. Fine.
Don’t like my show. You’re not alone. But I’m still going to try to get back on the air. If someone would pay for it, I’d do buy time in a New York minute. On the air is being on the air.
The expertise I’ve gained has come the hard way, because I’ve never had the money to do it any other way. I’ve lost everything more than once, which I’ve also talked about many times before. I’d stack my judgment against anyone else. My hard won political expertise up against any expert. Foreign policy research also is solid, though I’m clearly not an expert, though I’m smarter than most the people in charge today. I’ve taught myself journalism through working hard, hitting the ground running when I could afford it, taking jobs to research and hopefully write books, and when big publishers turned them down, did it myself.
I was born a Missourian.
Harry Truman became president after starting as a haberdasher. Simple beginnings can be the stuff of great things for hard working people. That’s my story and it’s nowhere near the end.
So, if you have any questions about where I come from or what you’ve heard on the web serve it up. I’m an open book for anyone who has an honest soul, which is in short supply in this primary season.
But if I’m the target, I must be doing something right.
This post has been edited, links corrected and added, graphic replaced.
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