Jane Hamsher

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Jane Hamsher (born July 25, 1959) is an American film producer, author, and liberal blogger. She produced Natural Born Killers and founded the popular progressive blog Firedoglake. She has also contributed to The Huffington Post.

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[edit] Education and film career

Hamsher, a native of Seattle, Washington, graduated from the USC School of Cinema-Television with a master's degree in film production. At USC, she became friends with Don Murphy, and the two were able to secure an option, with a loan from Hamsher's mother, on Natural Born Killers. Killers screenwriter Quentin Tarantino was still an unknown at the time. Hamsher had an uncredited cameo in the film as a female demon.

In 1997, Hamsher wrote Killer Instinct, a tell-all book about her experiences making the film. Killers director Oliver Stone, in the Los Angeles Times, called the book "hurtful and insulting" and advised Hamsher to "keep (her) mouth shut and eyes open."[citation needed] In the book, Hamsher details a fraud lawsuit against the filmmakers brought by a friend of Tarantino. The attorney who filed the fraud case, Thomas Ferlauto, unsuccessfully sued Hamsher for defamation.[1]

Hamsher and Murphy also produced Apt Pupil, Permanent Midnight, and From Hell.

[edit] Firedoglake

In December 2004, Hamsher started Firedoglake on Blogger.com's Blogspot service, and quickly gained a reputation for sharp commentary and unabashed partisanship. Firedoglake won a 2005 Koufax Award for Best Series for its detailed coverage of the Plame affair, while in close contention for Best New Blog and Best Group Blog.[2]

Hamsher graduated to her own hosting in late 2005, expanding into a group blog, with contributors ReddHedd Christy Hardin Smith, TRex, Pachacutec, and Siun. Hamsher and Smith have both made media appearances as a result of the blog. FDL is now published using WordPress and allows limited commenting capabilities, without the features found on more robust community sites such as Daily Kos. Volunteer moderators or an automatic spam filter may block comments. Almost all threads run to hundreds of comments.

The new format also allowed her to start the FDL Sunday Book Salon, which discusses recent books, usually non-fiction political books, with a standing invitation for the author. On September 4, 2006 the topic was Conservatives Without Conscience, attended by author John W. Dean as well as blogger Glenn Greenwald and Ambassador Joe Wilson.[3]

Hamsher expresses her own views strongly in her blog entries, raising comments in support and comments opposed to such "free speech." For example, infuriated by caricatures on the cover of Women Who Make the World Worse, in her entry of January 12, 2006, entitled "Why Kate O'Beirne Is a Dangerous Bitch," referring to the book's conservative author, Hamsher concludes: "The bitch is dead meat."[4] She also encouraged readers of Firedoglake to rate O'Beirne's book low at Amazon.com, wishing "that enough single star reviews are written to knock the overall rating down to an overall single star".[4] Some of her readers did attempt to post what they say are legitimate negative reviews of the book on Amazon.com and found that they were not able to get them included on that site, speculating on the possible "censorship" effect of the commercial interests of that online bookseller (See "Comments").[4]

[edit] FDL Books

On September 6, 2006, Firedoglake announced a book imprint called FDL Books (later to spawn Vaster Books, in collaboration with Markos Moulitsas Zúniga, founder of Daily Kos). The first release by Vaster Books is a volume by Daily Kos contributor Marcy Wheeler, entitled Anatomy of Deceit: How the Bush Administration Used the Media to Sell the Iraq War and Out a Spy.[5][6]

[edit] Libby trial coverage

Hamsher and others blogging for Firedoglake have been live-blogging the Scooter Libby trial, with Hamsher being given a press pass to be in the actual courtroom.[7] The New York Times reporter Scott Shane observes: "With no audio or video feed permitted, the Firedoglake 'live blog' has offered the fullest, fastest public report available. Many mainstream journalists use it to check on the trial," and noted that "for blogs, the Libby trial marks a courthouse coming of age."[8] Online donors paid for trial coverage costs, including travel expenses, and rent on a Washington apartment.[8]

[edit] Support for Ned Lamont

Hamsher has supported Connecticut Democrat Ned Lamont in his run for U.S. Senate against incumbent senator Joe Lieberman, whose support for the Iraq war and other Bush policies have drawn the ire of progressive Democrats. Although Hamsher is not on the campaign staff, she is among several bloggers who have traveled with Lamont's campaign, and who has promoted Lamont's candidacy and helped raise money for him through her blog.[9]

[edit] Photoshop controversy

Hamsher came under fire from the Lieberman campaign after she posted a photoshopped picture of a blackfaced Lieberman embracing Bill Clinton in her blog and her column on the Huffington Post. The Lieberman campaign believed that the photo was racist and offensive. In a statement, Joe Lieberman called the photo "one of the most disgusting and hurtful images that has been used in American history, it's deeply offensive to people of all colors, and it has absolutely no place in the political arena today." Lieberman further demanded that Lamont prohibit Hamsher from traveling with his campaign and to refuse any money that Hamsher may have raised for him.[9]

Questioned about the photo and his campaign's connections to Hamsher, Lamont responded "I don't know anything about the blogs. I'm not responsible for those. I have no comment on them." A spokesman for Lamont called the photo "offensive and inappropriate."[9] Lamont was also questioned about the photo in an interview with George Stephanopolous on ABC's This Week.

Hamsher took down the photo at the request of the Lamont campaign, and later issued an apology on her blog Firedoglake, but attacked Lieberman for using the graphic to score political points.[10]

[edit] Breast cancer diagnosis

Hamsher was diagnosed with breast cancer for the third time in December 2006 at the age of 47.[7] In January 2007 she successfully underwent surgery and then traveled from Santa Monica, California, to Washington, DC, to "live-blog" the Libby trial.[11]

[edit] Bibliography

[edit] Books

[edit] References

  1. ^ Lager, Marvin (1999-09-20). Ferlauto v. Hamsher (1999) 74 CA4th 1394. Superior Court of Los Angeles County. Retrieved on January 22, 2007.
  2. ^ Meredith, Dwight (2006-04-03). 2005 Koufax Awards --The Winners. Wampum. Retrieved on January 22, 2007.
  3. ^ Hamsher, Jane (2006-09-04). FDL Book Salon -- Conservatives Without Conscience, Week 2. Firedoglake. Retrieved on January 22, 2007.
  4. ^ a b c Hamsher, Jane (January 12, 2006). Why Kate O'Beirne Is a Dangerous Bitch. Firedoglake. Retrieved on September 5, 2006.
  5. ^ Berkeley: Vaster Books (Dist. by Publishers Group West), 2007. ISBN 0-979-17610-7 (10). ISBN 978-0979-17610-4 (13).
  6. ^ See Marcy Wheeler, who posts as "emptywheel," at Daily Kos and Firedoglake, on the Valerie Plame affair. To finance the publication of this book, she sought to raise $65,000 in donations from the internet; see Hamscher, "Announcing CIA Leak Investigation Book by Marcy Wheeler: We Need Your Help," at Firedoglake.
  7. ^ a b "Three Time Loser-Winner." Firedoglake January 16, 2007, accessed February 16, 2007.
  8. ^ a b Shane, Scott (February 15, 2007). For Liberal Bloggers, Libby Trial Is Fun and Fodder. New York Times.
  9. ^ a b c "Lieberman Assails Lamont Over Supporter's Blog Post," The Washington Post August 3, 2006: A9, accessed February 16, 2006.
  10. ^ Jane Hamsher, "About that graphic," Firedoglake August 2, 2006, accessed February 16, 2007.
  11. ^ Arianna Huffington, "Report from the ICU," The Huffington Post January 7, 2007, accessed February 16, 2007.

[edit] External links

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