My friend Jennifer Siebel has attracted some negative press over some comments, in the San Francisco media. To my colleagues in the media: give over. So, someone can’t express an opinion any more, just because she’s dating the mayor? Did she lie, based on what she knew? No. Is she doing the right thing by standing by her boyfriend? Yes. I know Jennifer Siebel to be a quality gal, and in the 21st century, even if the supposedly progressive San Francisco media is surprised by this, actresses are allowed to go on the internet, even blogs, and state what is on their minds.
   I don’t know the other parties to this, but for a spokesman on the other side to say that they were ‘mortified’ by Jen’s statements is just one of those bleeding-heart exaggerations that we non-Americans laugh at. If you were embroiled in an affair, then I doubt an opinion that you will have heard countless times, and have come to expect from the Mayor’s side, is even surprising.
   Sounds to me like Jen’s not the one wanting to score points here, just a publicist wanting to look like he is doing something worthwhile. Congratulations, you succeeded. What surprises me is how he has suckered some journos into covering this story for days, with all that ‘Woe is me’ language.
   Fortunately, Jennifer has friends in the media who can see through all of the BS. There’s no story here. Move on. It’s 2007. People blog and write comments. This was tame.

PS.: It may be worth appending my comment from one blog, where Jen had also written (and was attacked further).

I hope y’all will move on, especially now that Jennifer has issued an apology.
   There are two sides to every story and maybe now we have heard from Gavin’s camp in the clearest manner possible.
   But call me silly, I think folks are allowed to express an opinion, misguided or not. Bad judgement? Maybe. I, for one, don’t think it’s a huge surprise that she typed away one day, on this blog—do people seriously believe that actresses are not part of the blogosphere and do not express themselves like the rest of us who do not appear on celluloid? I thought that was the democratizing promise the ’net was meant to give us. You are no longer getting this filtered through the mainstream media. You got it straight from Jennifer.
   I thought that in 2007, we demand transparency. She operated from the heart. That is Jennifer Siebel. You may or may not agree with her, but you knew where she stands in relation to Gavin Newsom. Heck, wouldn’t it be great if Maria Shriver did the same thing about the Governor?
   The only person in this whole affair who has expressed herself without political and PR-machine double-talk here has been Jennifer Siebel. I hear all the time that folks are tired of the scripted comments and the political BS. From the sounds of it, we aren’t ready for the rawness of new media and people expressing exactly what they feel. We say we are: this page is evidence we are not. We want to be cosseted through the PR departments, dressing things to be politically correct so we don’t have to deal with reality.
   If Jen had made her comments on her own blog (if she had one), few would have batted an eyelid over the appropriateness. Yes, people will have attacked her in the comments’ section, but I think the issue here is the venue, not the statements themselves.
   I might have known Jen for only four years—a fraction of the time that LiveAndLetLive above has—but I vote for the knives to be put away. Those of us who are Jennifer’s friends know her to be genuine, heart-driven and decent. None of this changes our impression of her. Posted by Jack Yan, 10:54  permalink

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