FAULTING FRIENDSTER FOR FANEUIL'S FOIBLES: I'm not covering the Martha Stewart trial from day to day, just as I don't plan to for the upcoming trials of Michael Jackson, Kobe Bryant, Robert Blake, Scott Peterson, Phil Spector, Saddam Hussein, or Janet's breast. That's more Dan Abrams' beat, and since I don't have a rotating cast of ex-prosecutors and tangential OJ-case figures around me at all times like he does, I figured I'd take a pass, and only comment when a particular bit of news strikes my fancy.
One thing I do have interest in is the involvement of former Merrill Lynch junior broker Douglas Faneuil, who was a hallmate of one of my good friends at Vassar and is now the leading witness for the prosecution in the Stewart case. The Wall Street Journal ran a profile of Faneuil the other day, and the reporter apparently researched the piece by taking a look at Doug's Friendster profile (since withdrawn, it appears), and mentioned a testimonial by a friend of his stating that Faneuil is "the only person I know who can pull off being the sweetest guy in the world while also being the most wanted by the federal government." Apparently the fact that Faneuil is gay kept him from listing "open marriage" as his marital status, which roughly half the members of Friendster seem to have done.
This drew the ire of a letter writer to Romenesko, who believes that Friendster should be off-limits to reporters because much of the information is private, if not satirical or downright made-up. I'm not sure how I feel about this- on the one hand you really can't believe anything you see on there, but on the other you often learn things about people about which you had no idea- like Googling, only better. Then again, how does the reporter know it wasn't a fake Doug Faneuil on Friendster?
A footnote: The much-talked-about New York Sun profile that describes fascinatingly-named New York Times reporter Jennifer 8. Lee as the new doyenne of DC social life gives Friendster a photo credit for Lee's headshot.