Glenn Beck Sex Tape Column Yanked

(CBS)  Updated 6:02 PM ET The Huffington Post has pulled a column written by a liberal blogger who offered $100,000 for a sex tape or other potentially damaging information about conservative commentator Glenn Beck.

In the piece posted earlier today, Beau Friedlander, the former editor-in-chief of Air America until it closed in 2010, put out a bounty on the Fox television personality.

"The new conservatives are true believers in the "One Right Way", and Democrats only rarely agree on the one best way to go. But we can all agree that Fox News is a bad influence on America. It is time to pop the tea baggers' favorite balloon (so what if it will be replaced by another?), and with that in mind I hereby offer to negotiate a $100,000 payday to the person who will come forward with a sex tape or phone records or anything else that succeeds in removing Glenn Beck from the public eye forever. I am not offering the cash myself, but I will broker the deal and/or raise the money for what you bring to the table. (And it better be good.)"

"If you have the goods, or if you want to contribute to a slush fund to buy more takedowns (probably not tax deductible), please contact me at: [e-mail]."

Although the column later disappeared from the site, a cached version of the column still exists. After the column got pulled, Friedlander apologized in subsequent post:

"I was actually trying to mimic what I saw as the way right wingers go about these matters, and by misapprehending the way they do things, I went too far. (I offered to broker a deal for anyone who had damaging media pertaining to Glenn Beck.) First, I owe Glenn Beck an apology. I crossed the line. On the off chance something comes in over the transom...scratch that; I'll delete the email account. Problem solved. I meant to tilt at a windmill in the post, and I planted my lance in the dirt."

The "Editor's Note" which replaced Friedlander's column said the piece had failed to meet the Huffington Post's editorial standards and that it had been published directly into the system by its author.

Mario Ruiz, a spokesman for the Huffington Post, said that Friedlander was a passworded blogger, who was allowed to post directly to the site. "After reviewing his post on Beck, we decided to remove it, adding the editor's note," Ruiz wrote in an email to CBSNews.com. "Going forward, his posts will be reviewed by an editor before being published."

[babooph]

Sex tape? Do they take off that Mormon underwear?

[endurorob_5]

This columnist is just following the axample set by the dem party. They cannot campaign on the issues so they left to find any kind of dirt on conservatives. And since the dems have decided that Glenn Beck represents all repubs then dirt on him is as good as dirt on repub politicians.

[taxchurches]

Oh, come on. "Conservatives" have no business pretending to moral outrage, ok? After what they've done to McCain, Cleland, and Kerry, not to mention this incessant crap about Obama's citizenship and birth certificate (which they positively KNOW is a red herring; if you say the same nonsense long enough, many people will start to wonder, and that's all they're trying to do), they have no fingers left to point.

gruven13777, you're a dork. "Barry Hussein" can draw any size crowd he wants, baby, don't kid yourself. Hell, he can even get elected president by a landslide. And when he leaves office, as the first black president of the United States I can guarantee you he'll pull down million-dollar speaking fees, easily. And no sane human has claimed the crowd was that big. You know full well that an independent firm that specializes in aerial photos says the number was less than a third of that. You'd rather take the word of a certifiable fruitcake and a woman whose last elected position, not to mention her other job as a mother of five, proved to be inconvenient in her quest for the limelight. Grow up.

[gruven13777]

The moonbats are just jealous that Beck and Palin can get a crowd of 300,000 willing participants to listen to them, and Barry Hussein can't.

[pragmatist1]

More desperate acts by some on the paranoid left. I applaud the Huffington Post for pulling this. I'm surprised that CBS is allowing the sophomoric references to the male appendage.

[talltimber41]

Fox News is not bad for America...what is bad for America is people who try to stifle debate. You may not agree, but conservative voices need to be heard. I did not agree with William Buckley, Jr. when I was first exposed to him on TV, but low and behold much of what he said made sense. Now, GB is no WB, Jr., but that does not make people who believe the same way he does bad.

[ToolMangler1]

Glenn Beck is trying to do the same thing to the Dems and Obama.. Why ist it not ok to do it to him???
Wikileaks can put anything they want on the Web (even if it might kill people) but Huffington post can't??
Oh!!!! I forgot, Beck is a Republican......

[Scimajor]

I have no respect for Beck but offering a bounty for a compromising video is beneath contempt.

[Wolf1944]

Somebody was able to imagine Glenn Beck having sex? That's an image we can all do without.

[mah1121]

Love how CBS titles the article "Glen Beck Sex Tape..." as if it were fact that there is such a tape. Pretty pathetic CBS.

[ToolMangler1]

Why not!! They have been doing it to Obama all year. It's time the the other party got the same treatment. When you treat 'everybody' the same its called being 'fair and balanced'.