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Arts & Entertainment

KTLA's Sam Rubin Rips Gawker Writer

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KTLA's Sam Rubin ripped Gawker for kinda, sorta insinuating that maybe the racist tweet sent out from his Twitter account last week wasn't the work of a hacker.The tweet in question went out from Rubin's account to rapper-producer Yung Berg calling him a "fake ass nigga." A short while later (but an eternity in Twitter time), the tweet was taken down and Rubin tweeted out an apology claiming that his account had been hacked.

We had no reason to disbelieve his explanation but Gawker writer Louis Peitzman didn't seem 100% sure: "The offending tweet has been removed — although it stayed up for several hours before that — and Rubin is claiming he was hacked, but this story still doesn't make a lot of sense." He said the apology sounded just like "everyone's favorite excuse for bizarre or offensive Twitter behavior."

Rubin responded by slamming Gawker in a post on KTLA's website titled "How A Hack Hijacked My Being Hacked":


I don't know Louis Peitzman from the Man On The Moon, but the decidedly lazy scribe for Gawker.Com, must have been on a terribly tight deadline to post such a lightly researched and incredible inaccurate story about my own twitter account, and a tweet that was posted by a hacker on my account. Before going into the endless details, here is something that never seems to happen in the world of "insta-journalism," simply bothering to check with the subject of story. Basically, I am the easiest guy to find. Especially when one is writing about my own twitter account, couldn't someone send me a "direct message" and ask for a comment. But that would required a few extra keystrokes I supposed and perhaps Peitzman didn't want to risk the possibility of developing calluses on his fingertips.


(In Peitzman's defense, we will say that being on a "terribly tight deadline" is a great way to describe blogging.)Peitzman's uncertainty seemed to revolve around a vague tweet about the "biggest boo boo of the year." It seemed like it could have been about the hacked tweet but was actually a reference to a botched "The Dark Knight Rises" media screening, Rubin explained.

Gawker writer Louis Peitzman responded with an update: "In a blog post, Rubin explains that the "boo boo" tweet was in reference to a bungled Dark Knight Rises screening, and that I am a lazy hack and a 'pointless putz.' Fair."

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This isn't the first time that Rubin has ripped a blogger a new one. Rubin slammed Perez Hilton over a booking snafu on the air a few years back.

Related:
KTLA Reporter Blames Hacker For Tweeting 'Fake Ass Nigga' at Rapper From His Account

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