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Wednesday, November 14, 2007

Blogger Lawsuit Threat of the Day

So apparently, XGH has joined the elite little club of bloggers being threatened with legal action. As the story goes, Webads placed an ad on his blog, among others, for a book written by Rabbi Eliyahu Safran on the topic of Tzniut (modesty). XGH, upon perusing the book's website, noticed that in his bio, Rabbi Safran mentioned his wife's profession as a purveyor of fine custom wigs . XGH, on further investigation, noticed that said wig company sells some wig styles that he apparently feels are not in keeping with the spirit of Tzniut, and expressed as much in a satirical post. Evidently Rabbi Safran did not appreciate the joke, and threatened both Webads and XGH with a lawsuit unless the offending post was removed. XGH refused, at which point he and Webads severed their business relationship. Should be end of the story, except that according to this comment, Rabbi Safran is apparently still threatening both Webads and GH with legal action unless the offending post is removed.

A few points:
A. What does Webads have to do with this anymore? It seems to me that Rabbi Safran should have no further beef with them now that their relationship with GH has been severed. And even when their relationship was intact, it isn't as if there is any understanding that Webads has any control whatsoever of the content that goes up on the blogs on which they sell ad space. They placed an ad on GH's site, he posted something Rabbi Safran did not like, Rabbi Safran informed Webads, they severed the business relationship. Sounds like the Webads chapter is closed, and that they did everything they could to deal with the issue properly. The Webads chapter of this saga should be closed. They seem to be an innocent victim in all this, and I would hate to see Rabbi Safran bully them over this when it is clear they have no further control over the situation.

B. This is the reality of the blogworld, for better or for worse. Blogs are a little bit like the Wild West of the Jewish community. Just about anything goes - certainly more than what goes in the mainstream Jewish media or press. When that goes well for an advertiser, they can get a tremendous boost from a viral marketing campaign on a popular blog, or from a positive review or plug from a revered blogger. But when an anonymous blogger chooses to criticize, such is life. It's a bit naive to expect take the good without accepting the possibility of getting criticized. When you put yourself out there in an ad, expect to get the attention you are seeking. The fact is, attention is not always positive. Such is life. Which brings me to...

C. Was GH's criticism fair game? Some might say it was over the line, as it isn't as if his criticism was based on the content of the book. That said, whether or not I would have chosen to poke fun at the situation as GH did does not mean that his post topic was not fair game. Rabbi Safran did choose to put the information about his wife in his bio, and it isn't as if he mentioned that she was a seminary teacher. She deals in headcoverings, and the book is about Tzniut. Sounds like a reasonable topic to discuss, regardless of whether one agrees with GH's tone. I myself admit to being curious whether the author of a highly touted book on Tzniut endorses the wearing of glamorous sheitels named after movie actresses. Does anyone know if Rabbi Safran takes a position in his book on the propriety of various types of head coverings? I'd be interested in knowing.

D. As often happens when people make a big deal of a little thing, things tend to get magnified. I highly doubt many people would have cared what Rabbi Safran's wife does for a living, and had this not become an issue, XGH's post would have been pushed down by his usual busy posting schedule, and probably quickly forgotten. Instead, this issue has been dredged up in numerous posts at XGH's, and I'm sure will be picked up by many other bloggers. Sometimes it's better to simply let well enough alone. Trust me. I know this from personal experience. I got more traffic as a result of the Greenbaum lawsuit than I had ever gotten, and all Ms. Greenbaum et al succeeded in gaining was a larger audience for my views - the very views they found so offensive and hurtful in the first place. Probably not what they were looking for.

Discuss.

46 Comments:

Blogger MoChassid said...

Totally agree. Making an issue out of a (bad taste) joke is a huge mistake. In general, everyone needs to lighten up.

5:23 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Ortho must have a lot of free time these days. Her post count is way up and she has time post on other blogs to boot!

6:00 PM  
Blogger and so it shall be... said...

What kind of idiot writes a book about modesty and then goes on to bring enormous attention to himself by filing spurious and indefensible lawsuits?

Unless .....

this is a cynical ploy to sell more books.

While it isn't so clear that it is not, in indeed Rabbi S is just pissed, or more likely, his wife is pissed and he has to be the big bad wolf for the sake of her bruised ego, this lawsuit seems like a violation of the most fundamental no-no in PR: if you don't want attention, don't bring it upon yourself.

Being that Rabbi S. is in charge of publicity for the OU kashrus division, it seems like something he would know a thing or two about.

6:20 PM  
Blogger and so it shall be... said...

.... by the way, isn't it a conflict of interest to write a book promoting modesty when you're married to someone who makes a living off of people's concerns about modesty?

6:23 PM  
Blogger and so it shall be... said...

by the way #2 ... now that i've actually read the offending posts and related comments I realize my pithy observations above have been more than covered ...


Neeeeeeeeeeevvvvvvvvvvveeeeeeeeeerrrrrrrrr mind.

6:35 PM  
Blogger orthomom said...

Anonymous said...

Ortho must have a lot of free time these days. Her post count is way up and she has time post on other blogs to boot!


Funny, I feel like my post count has been waaay down of late. Time was, I posted numerous times every day. Now I'm lucky if I get a post in a few times a week. I guess I actually used to have a lot more free time than I do lately.

6:39 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I have a feeling Rabbi Safran is going to regret ever making a federal case out of this. GH's post was too silly to even make a big deal out of. Now OM's on the case, the guy is toast.

7:02 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

big deal,anohter blog and book controversey covered by the blogs causedby the blogs.
in the end they can all make all the noise they want, everyone will blog about, generate a huge amount of publicity for the book and drive up sales.

7:54 PM  
Blogger Looking Forward said...

Personaly I'm doubtlfull that his tzniut book is worth much.

At least if it at all resemblembles general yeshivish oppinions about tzniut.

Most intown folk hardly know the meaning of the word.

:-(

(and I have not read it, so there)

8:51 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Rabbi Safran controls the OU's ad buys. Good luck to Webads at getting any of those now. We'll see how vindictive he really is.

8:24 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

What?! He's not suing Luke Ford!

11:43 AM  
Blogger Jack Steiner said...

Rabbi Safran controls the OU's ad buys. Good luck to Webads at getting any of those now.

It depends. Ad buyers follow the eyeballs. Get enough eyeballs together and you're hand might be forced.

12:49 PM  
Blogger -suitepotato- said...

I feel for Rabbi Safran, I really do. This puts him publicly in the tight spot so many are already in privately: espousing total belief in the whole package openly and applying the salad bar approach privately.

Publicly, he's an OU notable. You're in deep there. You have to maintain the public facade or be in deep trouble. Privately, his wife we must presume he loves greatly has a business not so in compliance with the OU public facade. Do YOU want to be in that position?

I'd walk the road to hell for my wife.

Is her business so at odds with the OU tznius position? Maybe, maybe not. Wigs are hardly a big subject for them every day. And since when do Orthodox women live under an umbrella of shame at their own gender and their gender's needs as unique to them as men's are to us? If my wife wants to be beautiful to me, she has only just to be there, that's my love for her.

However, I cannot make her feel that. She has to approach it in a way that within reason makes her comfortable. If that means a wig or doing her hair up at the dresser, either way, there's nothing immodest about it.

Then again, is Rabbi Safran needing to be the one who broaches this all publicly? No, not by a long shot. The OU has enough no doubt on their mind with the recent gauntlet throwdown vis a vis the young versus old Earth belief making you apikorus or not. Or whether their circle U mark is being misappropriated at the grocery store.

Whatever, everyone has something better to do than this.

I am not though so angry with XGH either. He wasn't trying to create a ruckus over something that privately the entire Orthodox world could really care less about. Sheitels aren't crotchless panties for goodness' sake!

It's just wrong thing, wrong place, wrong time, wrong venue.

Testament to the power of the blogging world I guess.

5:20 PM  
Blogger Charlie Hall said...

"I have a feeling Rabbi Safran is going to regret ever making a federal case out of this. "

Consider the following: I have seen, not infrequently, ads for "conversion to judaism" by non-orthodox rabbis on orthodox blogs. Of course, those rabbis get trashed. It may be the only thing that orthodox bloggers can agree upon. Can the non-orthodox rabbi sue the frum blog commenters?

11:13 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I hope they use the same slimy lawyer Adam Feder and Rodney. Lying birds of feather..... my daughter in law filed an ethics complaint on Feder. He's a liar, and a bad, bad person. Only Pam could find the worst lawyer around Brooklyn.

7:08 PM  
Blogger YMedad said...

Well, Rabbi Safran, or perhaps his Rebitzen, are lucky they don't live in certain areas of geula or Bnei Brak. Dealing in wigs there is tantamount to the greatest crimes a woman can commit. If they found out he was claiming to be an authority on modesty, woo-wee.

10:20 AM  
Blogger Batya said...

I have webads, and I was asked to post about the book. Maybe I should delete the post. I donate the payments to tzedaka, if you're wondering.

About tempermental authors... I posted a review of a book, which we actually bought, and I said it was a good book but it had a few minor factual errors which in no way took away from its value. After a nasty phone call, I just deleted the review.

11:27 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Orthomom,
I thought you are going to block this Wendrow slime. Freedom of speech only goes so far. There are other forums for this moron to waste space on. No one here wants him, so why are allowing him to come back? He is an insult to Christian and Jew alike.

1:35 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Wendrow,
Are you trying to prove Einstein's theory of Infinite Universe and Stupidity?

6:59 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Rabbi Safran- Just have your wife give a shout out to www.millineryshop.net and all will be well in the world again! shana tova to all!

3:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

This post in hindsight made me laugh. The Greenbaum lawsuit had exactly its intended effect: Orthomom, who does not participate in the Lawrence Public Schools, no longer posts misinformation about the Lawrence Public Schools. Her blog is a kinder, gentler place. Everyone wins.

9:23 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

or your wife can shout out www.CoverYourHair.com

8:35 PM  
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Yes, there should be some restriction for bloggers so that they wouldn't post irrelevant comments.

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