A Declaration of War Against Sex and the Ivy
Lena "I lowered my mouth over his cock and slid my lips over his shaft easily" Chen, the genius behind Sex and the Ivy, recently wrote us an indignant email, claiming that we "scooped" her without linking to her blog:
Saw that your full text of the Craigslist ad has the same omission "No Black, Asian, overweight, or unattractive women please" as my original blog entry (accidentally deleted "black" when I was editing). For future reference, I'd appreciate it if you linked to my blog when you use it as a source. Thanks!"
In fact, we received the tip in our inbox, probably because we're a real blog. Gawker used the same text.
This is the girl whose daily postings of utter banality include delicious "scoops" like these:
I just had a flashback. It wasn't until my mother delivered a lecture today on smoking, that I realized I watched "Thank You For Not Smoking" in its entirety last week while simultaneously getting high... In other news, I scored three packs of Turkish Golds for a cool $11.17. Hard to beat Cali bud or cigs when it comes to price (and definitely in terms of quality for the former).
Last night, I had those deliciously artery-clogging chili cheese fries I craved from a little greasy spoon in Westwood. Then my friends walked over to Diddy Riese for the $1.25 ice cream cookie sandwiches which I ate throughout last summer...
And on and on. We never knew boredom could induce nausea until we encountered Sex and the Ivy.
An Open Letter to Lena Chen: Next time we scoop you about how you were stoned last night, or didn't have sex, or did something else quite boring that we don't care about, or ate so much food that you became so fat you'd have even less sex to not write about, we'll definitely take care to post the link (www.sexandtheivy.com). No one gives a shit about your blog. We don't read it, much less steal items from it.
Bring it, Lena.
--JACOB SAVAGE, JIM NEWELL, AND HAL PARKER
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September 19th, 2007 at 2:53 am
OHHHH SHIT!!!
September 19th, 2007 at 2:54 am
…but if you “don’t read it,” did you have assistants cut and paste those quotes?
September 19th, 2007 at 3:00 am
wtf, guys? …seriously, wtf.
September 19th, 2007 at 3:14 am
eh, that was a little rude even for IvyGate. Seriously, take it easy. Not nice at all.
September 19th, 2007 at 3:25 am
You people need to do stuff like this more often, bitches.
September 19th, 2007 at 7:23 am
Guys that is no way to treat a lady, first steal from her blog and the cuss her out, an apology is in order!
September 19th, 2007 at 7:51 am
Yeah guys i like sex and the ivy, what the crap
September 19th, 2007 at 8:41 am
I don’t think they were being too harsh. Lena assumed that they copied it from her blog because of the omission of one word? It’s not like Lena broke the story, that ad is everywhere. I could understand her being upset if they copied something she had actually written and not referenced her blog, but it was someone else’s craigslist ad! And I completely agree that her blog has been taken a nose dive into yawn territory. I mean, who wants to read about what she would buy if she had $250 ? Her blog used to be interesting. Definitely not anymore
September 19th, 2007 at 8:48 am
*been taking
September 19th, 2007 at 8:53 am
Not too harsh. She’s had it coming for a long time. Her writing has become increasingly vacuous over time, now rivaling Idris Leppla for sheer stupidity and self-indulgent banality.
If she were a lady, she wouldn’t write 90% of what’s in her blog. The “lady” is a tramp.
September 19th, 2007 at 9:01 am
Not to mention that calling the movie “Thank You for NOT Smoking” (emphasis mine) sort of means that you didn’t really get it.
September 19th, 2007 at 9:08 am
there’s a lot she doesn’t get
September 19th, 2007 at 10:36 am
If there’s one thing I learned in middle school (and internships at banks) it’s that putting down others makes you cooler.
And bashing on a Harvard kid makes everyone happy.
Rock on, IvyGate.
September 19th, 2007 at 10:41 am
wow. first off, this was funny as hell. second, for all the pc babies up above, when you MAKE YOUR BORING LIFE PUBLIC, you then invite anyone and everyone to make fun of you in a PUBLIC forum. and ivygate has based itself around making fun of people. so if this made you sad, and you shed a little tear for poor Lena, go watch public television or something.
September 19th, 2007 at 11:23 am
Thanks guys, for handling this situation maturely. In the future, I will be sure to expect more ad hominem attacks in response to issues of journalistic etiquette.
September 19th, 2007 at 11:30 am
lame
September 19th, 2007 at 11:44 am
Lena, get over yourself. Many people, myself included, sent this tip to Ivygate hours before you mentioned the ad on your blog. Jeez, you really think everything has to be about you. You’re sad, Lena Chen.
September 19th, 2007 at 11:48 am
why is this so vicious? to make up for the sudden lack of style and substance that has afflicted this site?
September 19th, 2007 at 12:59 pm
Can you please declare war on that hobbit Jessica Gold Haralson next?
September 19th, 2007 at 1:28 pm
i feel sorry for her parents. what a disappointment.
September 19th, 2007 at 1:43 pm
Wow, that was just pretty mean. Could we get back to making fun of ivies?
September 19th, 2007 at 2:05 pm
way to keep it classy, ivygate.
P.S. - 11.17 is not a bargain for 3 packs of cigs, silly northerners
September 19th, 2007 at 2:17 pm
ivygate could have made fun of her in a much more subtle way. this was just a random angry attack. lame.
September 19th, 2007 at 2:32 pm
Sorry, still stuck on the “Thank You For Not Smoking” thing. Her point seemed to be how ironic it was that she got high during it, when in fact what is sort of sadly funny is that she seems to have missed entirely the ironic and satirical nature of the movie, while congratulating herself for being ironic by smoking during it. Is that ironic?
In related news: taking credit for a tip that was all over the internet and writing bitchy emails about it when you’re not “cited” seems less like a point of journalistic etiquette and more like a point of attention-seeking. Not that this is anything new for Ms. Chen from what I hear.
September 19th, 2007 at 2:33 pm
I don’t understand her. She wrote them an email because she believes they copied and pasted something on her blog that she copied and pasted from somewhere else? She should just consider herself lucky that people even read the worthless piece of crap her blog has become. Thank Ivygate for the publicity Lena, because soon enough it will die off and you can go back to writing about not having sex.
September 19th, 2007 at 2:47 pm
thank you for this post.
September 19th, 2007 at 3:34 pm
yawn…
September 19th, 2007 at 5:18 pm
jesus fucking christ. i cannot believe she transferred into our house. soon, everyone in currier will experience a burning sensation when they pee. thanks lena
September 19th, 2007 at 5:20 pm
Go, Ivygate!
September 19th, 2007 at 6:29 pm
Ahh, why are you so stupid, annoying and just bitchy, new editors? I don’t understand you at all - and why attack Lena, who can actually write?
I want Nick and Chris back.
September 19th, 2007 at 8:57 pm
but isn’t lena chen ivygate’s julia allison?
September 19th, 2007 at 9:26 pm
Oh please. G’bye Ivygate. Bet she gains even more readers than you lose over this!
September 19th, 2007 at 9:38 pm
@cornell oh ten: Lena’s blog used to be mildly interesting but more importantly somewhat insightful… then it just got boring. She can’t expect anything else when she tries to claim a pretty public story as her own.
September 19th, 2007 at 9:43 pm
Why my comment got deleted. Rejected by IvyGate, now I know how Lena must feel…
September 19th, 2007 at 10:28 pm
um, bashing her blog and her views on “journalistic etiquette” is one thing, but leaving up her phone number and other contact information seems wrong.
September 19th, 2007 at 11:14 pm
If you’re trying to be a “real” blog, how about starting with a bit of professionalism? Taking a private comment, blowing it out of proportion, posting it all in an inflammatory post on your site… just, wow. That’s junior high grade melodrama.
I would also LOVE to know how it is that you’re happy to guarantee anonymity to people who email you, and then turn around and pull text out of a private email to publicly denigrate that person?
You know what the appropriate behavior for this would have been: respond privately, and assuage the plagiarism concerns. Instead, this comes off as nothing more than a way to try and drive traffic.
September 20th, 2007 at 12:24 am
@Tiger’09: I understand what you say about “claims” and all, but to say that one cannot “expect” anything other than blatant and childish attacks of character? I mean, I know it’s just the interwebs, but it’s so tasteless. See Get a clue’s fabulous comment above. So what else did Lena Chen REALLY do wrong other than write about her life? She’s “boring”? Who isn’t sometimes? I enjoy reading her blog, and have checked it faithfully for a year now. This site? Bores me to tears. This is the first time I’ve been back in a long time, and I got here through (surprise!) Sex and the Ivy. And I’m checking out now.
Talk amongst yourselves about how cool you all are.
September 20th, 2007 at 1:28 am
I think it might be post-ironic. Perhaps even neo-post-ironic.
I am so. fucking. cool.
September 20th, 2007 at 2:22 am
Lena Chen, owned.
September 20th, 2007 at 10:22 am
@Cornell oh ten: go fall into a gorge. Anonymity is granted to tipsters, which Lena was not in this case. Also, why would anonymity be expected for a chick who describes how many gulps it takes her to swallow all of some guy’s semen? She must really value her privacy.
September 20th, 2007 at 10:31 am
@ “Get A Clue” — professionalism? in a “real blog”? what a mature thing of you to say. Tucker Max posts emails sent to him in private all the time, often railing these people and embarrassing them. Granted, he’s an asshole– but you can’t argue that he doesn’t have a “real blog”, so your point is pretty fucking dumb.
September 20th, 2007 at 1:01 pm
plenty of people still read lena’s blog. there was a time when the ring of ivy league bloggers actually worked together rather than attack each other. for shame, ivygate…for shame.
September 20th, 2007 at 2:27 pm
Now that was unnecessarily mean. Seriously, have some class.
September 20th, 2007 at 4:12 pm
In my opinion, its really difficult to take someone seriously who writes about how her small asian mouth struggles to fit around a cock. So when she brings up issues of journalistic morality, the first thought that comes to mind is “Lena Chen? Morality? Reeeeeeaaaallly?”
Besides the fact that her only “proof” is the omission of a single word, the story wasn’t, isn’t, and never will be hers. Even if ivygate copied it from her site, it was an email! It wasn’t a story that Lena had researched and spent time writing. She deleted some line breaks and then posted it. I think she was making a huge deal of it by emailing ivygate in the first place. She should save emails like that for when people actually steal things from her.
September 20th, 2007 at 5:39 pm
You guys are idiots, and your declaration of war against Lena reflects horribly on you. Just recognize that your post did in fact come from Lena and apologize like a normal person.
September 20th, 2007 at 9:28 pm
Yeah! Tell that bitch to shut the fuck up!
September 20th, 2007 at 10:55 pm
Finally, Lena Chen gets what she deserves. Lena, you and your blog are so 2006. Get over yourself and your pathetic the-world-revolves-around me, pseudo introspective, non sex having life. TEAM IVYGATE.
September 21st, 2007 at 2:55 pm
this is why you rule, ivygate. calling out self-centered, completely contradictory little ivy-ites makes me all warm and fuzzy inside. lena dear, if you expect the world to respect your *cough* journalistic “integrity”, perhaps you should spend less time detailing to the world the frequent visitors to your vajajay.
September 29th, 2007 at 9:32 pm
All of you need to leave Lena alone! If you dont like what she has to say then don’t read what she writes! As for you, IvyGate, you clearly care about her blog because you posted what she said there twice now! Her blog is better than yours and you could at least have some common decency and return the respect and politeness she gave you! You all need to grow up and stop acting like you are PMSing! Get a fucking clue!
September 30th, 2007 at 1:14 am
ugh:
hey, remember when lena posted this (http://sexandtheivy.com/2007/09/19/but-im-a-journalist) without asking us for comment? we got the e-mail after that was posted.
and if anyone can actually read, we didn’t call her fat or a slut. just discussed her frequent S.A.T.I. choices of topic, as quoted in our post. it’s very convenient for lena to bend the reality of what we said into ad hominem, sexist attacks.
holler to harvard OTR for posting first.
October 1st, 2007 at 8:47 pm
You guys are pathetic…
October 1st, 2007 at 9:25 pm
this attack is so small-minded and petty, and it’s not even funny. why not just apologize? and how does having sex and writing about it mean someone doesn’t have integrity?
February 20th, 2008 at 6:32 pm
Just stumbled across this via Lena’s blog. Gotta say to the editors here and “Jen” that as the owner of a large consulting and PR firm on the WEst Coast, I wouldn’t hire any of you if I knew in advance the way you handled this. You are supposed to be “professionals”. The correct response as noted by many here would be to acknoledge the mistake you made, give attribution to her as the source of the ad and move on. This “Declare war” stuff is inmature at best. You admonish Lena to “Get over herself”, yet it is you who seem intent on elevating yourselves to undeserved heights of status. You would do well to remember that your little sandbox here is viewed by many decision makers out in the real world that you may one day face across an interview desk. Is this truly the image you wish to portray? The business community is truly tiny and word travels fast…