CPAC Wrap-Up: John Fund Edition

When I strolled in on Saturday, early in the afternoon, the blogger corner was all abuzz about John Fund, who'd apparently just plopped himself down in front of a blogger's (briefly unattended) laptop and proceeded to check email for 20 minutes. When the owner returned, Fund reportedly informed him he'd "just be a minute" and kept right on pluggin'. Robert Cox has started a Fund fund drive to buy the reporter a Blackberry.

Some bloggers seem to think this is a tale of big media arrogance toward mere bloggers. I suspect it's just Fund's absent minded professor schtick. Folks who've known him a while report that he didn't find anything unusual about coming into the (collective) office on weekends to do laundry in the restroom sink. So I'd say chalk this one up, I think, neither to the ever-popular David & Goliath narrative of bloggers vs. MSM nor even, really, to rudeness so much as, well, let's call it an idiosyncratic sense of how people normally behave. I assume (well, hope) that it just didn't occur to him to ask whether it was a laptop set up for anyone to use—it's not clear that anyone actually told him.

Comments

Twba | February 20, 2005, 1:14pm | #

Is it okay if I walk around naked while my clothes dry? I mean no offense.

Ken Shultz | February 20, 2005, 1:32pm | #

So we're givin' Fund the ol' innocent until proven guilty? Nobody's suggestin' that he have his press credentials taken away.

...We just wanna do what every angry mob does--storm the castle and look at the furniture.

stinking hippie | February 20, 2005, 1:38pm | #

the guy sat in a chair and used a computer that was unattended in a large open room with many people. maybe if he was found in the stalls with it on his lap there would be reason for uproar.

crosswalk needs to cross the street more often.

joe | February 20, 2005, 2:50pm | #

Dude, WTF?

http://www.theagitator.com/archives/019005.php#019005

What an asshole.

Ken Shultz | February 20, 2005, 4:11pm | #

Now the first time, maybe, you could chalk it up to being oblivious, but once bitten and twice oblivious? I'm not buyin' it.

John,

Good to see you at CPAC. Recall that you were using my laptop while I
grabbed lunch.

I hit the BACK button to get back to where I was when you sat down and found your Outlook Inbox was displayed. You also left my computer logged into the WSJ mail server; anyone could have come by and sent e-mails from your account and possibly used your remote connection to access the Dow Jones servers.

You might want to be more careful when you jump on someone's PC.
--
Robert Cox
Managing Editor
http://www.TheNationalDebate.com
http://www.OlbermannWatch.com

Member
Media Bloggers Association
http://www.mediabloggers.org

http://www.crosswalk.com/news/weblogs/kmc/?adate=2/19/2005#1313761

I got this link via the link joe supplied above. Apparently, this is an e-mail that the alleged second victim of Fund's alleged laptop conversion fired off to Fund. If Fund really is so oblivious, I'm not sure he'll understand what the e-mail means.

...and I think Cox was much more considerate than I would have been. If I were in his position, I think I might have fired off an e-mail to Gigot telling him about what I thought of the editorial direction of the Journal as well as what I thought about his taste in clothing and women. Of course, I would explain at the end of the message that I wasn't really Fund.

...probably.

Ken Shultz | February 20, 2005, 4:17pm | #

I mean not only is the guy hovering over Fund like the Sun at noon, but wouldn't you notice people taking pictures of you from like three different angles?

Chuck | February 20, 2005, 6:04pm | #

I have been a profesor for over 15 years, and the "absent-minded professor" shtick infuriates me. It's just a lame excuse for boorish behavior, and one that professors somehow seem to be able to get away with. That somebody with a PhD can somehow be more prone to frequent spacing out than everyone else is second in absurdity only to the notion that somehow being a professor makes it OK.

If it had been my computer I would have called security after 30 seconds.

Justin Hauke | February 21, 2005, 12:51am | #

When I used to intern for Americans for Tax Reform, John Fund would come in every once in awhile to talk to Grover and to do some writing. He used to usurp people's computers all the time. I never found it offensive, but I sure as hell wasn't going to ask him to move.

Troubleshooter | February 21, 2005, 10:08am | #

I'd have deleted all of the mail and sold all of the stocks.

It's the price of doing stupid.

But then that's just me.

Joe Bonforte | February 21, 2005, 2:16pm | #

This is mostly between the owner of the laptop and John Fund, as far as I'm concerned. It appears the laptop owner was a good deal more understanding of Fund's boorish behavior than I would have been.

It has lowered my opinion of Fund. And that's just one more hit in a continuing series of disappointments in the Wall Street Journal, which I once held in extraordinarily high regard, but now consider just another hack MSM publication.