Fred Baron, father of Rocketboom, clicks "stop"

Fred Baron, a Texas trial lawyer, died last Thursday of cancer. Fellow litigators remember him for the "toxic tort" lawsuits he filed; politicos know him as the man who relocated former presidential candidate John Edwards's mistress, Rielle Hunter, to Santa Barbara, in the hopes of keeping her away from the public eye. But the Internet-obsessed crowd will inevitably think of him as the man who inflicted chesty-news videoblog Rocketboom on them; first, by fathering videoblogger Andrew Baron, then giving his son the funding for his project. Oh, and then suing him over it. Despite that, Andrew sought to have his father given an experimental cancer treatment. Blood is thicker than blogs.

Internet user wants automatic updates on Andrew Baron's dying dad

Andrew Baron, the founder of videoblog Rocketboom, has reported that his dad, prominent trial lawyer Fred Baron, is dying of cancer. His one chance, an experimental lifesaving drug, was denied by its manufacturer, Biogen Idec. We won't mention how Fred paid to relocate Rielle Hunter, the mistress of former presidential candidate John Edwards, out of hte spotlight. Or how Baron père and fils fought over the funding of Rocketboom, which Fred supplied. No, we'll just point you to this grotesque demand from a commenter on FriendFeed, Peter Huesken: More »

Rocketboom son and dad profess ignorance about Edwards affair

John Edwards has admitted to his affair with "filmmaker" Rielle Hunter, even if he hasn't come totally clean about the shenanigans he and his inner circle of advisors went through to keep it a secret. Elizabeth Edwards has also admitted that she knew about the affair before her husband formally announced his candidacy. But the Baron family — deep-pocketed trial lawyer Fred Baron and son Andrew Baron, who funded his startup Rocketboom from the family coffers — continue to hand-wave about what, exactly, they knew. More »

Robin Wauters

Our featured commenter, Robin Wauters, has one question for you about the latest spat between Mahalo's Jason Calacanis and Rocketboom's Aaron Baron: More »

Andrew Baron and Jason Calacanis have beef

In this corner, Andrew Baron, cofounder of hot videoblog mess Rocketboom, challenging Mahalo founder and incumbent blowhard champeen Jason Calacanis. Baron lands the first blow, citing Mahalo's "flat" traffic. Calacanis counters with some trash talk and then a body blow to Baron's privileged upbringing. Baron complains to the ref that the "trust-fund baby" charges were below the belt. Meanwhile, Calacanis argues with the judges that Baron shouldn't get the point on the Mahalo traffic jab. After the jump, the action continues. More »

Rocketboom-Rielle Hunter links exposed

What do Rocketboom's Andrew Baron and John Edwards's fling Rielle Hunter have in common? They're both videobloggers who live off of trial lawyer Fred Baron's largesse. Financing from Fred, Andrew's dad, got Andrew's Rocketboom videoblog off the ground. Add to that his contributions to the Edwards campaign, including paying to move Hunter to a new home in Santa Barbara, away from the limelight. And most damningly, Baron Sr. may have arranged for Baron Jr. to do video work for the Edwards campaign — simultaneously boosting his favored candidate and his son's business. More »

Did Robert Scoble film Edwards mistress Rielle Hunter?

Rielle Hunter, the now-acknowledged mistress of former Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards, was paid $114,000 by his political action committee to film and produce four YouTube videos, making her the most overpaid videoblogger in the business. We called the second most overpaid videoblogger in the business, Robert Scoble of FastCompany.tv, for insights. You see, the Edwards campaign invited Scoble to blog the Edwards campaign back in 2006. More »

How daddy's money paid for Andrew Baron's Rocketboom

Here's a story far more interesting than anything you'll watch on YouTube: A prodigal scion of a wealthy family, pitted against his powerful father and an ambitious blonde. It's not a pilot for a new courtroom procedural — it's the tale of Andrew Baron's Rocketboom, an online-video startup held up, inexplicably, as an example of the potential of the medium. Sony's seven-figure deal to distribute Rocketboom is seen by some as evidence that the industry is growing up. But what it really tells us is that having access to a credit line backed by Daddy is as sure a recipe for success online as it was in the old Hollywood. The exciting plot twist: Baron's father was not always happy about the arrangement. We've only learned how daddy-dependent Rocketboom was because Fred Baron loaned his son's company a total of $810,300.40, and then took it to court in order to force repayment last year. If you think it's strange for a father to go after his own son's company in court, then you don't know the elder Baron. More »

Rocketboom, which still exists, signs distribution deal with Sony

Rocketboom founder Andrew Baron, who didn't invent the Internet, video, or Internet video, but did prove back in 2006 that its possible to become Internet famous with quick, quirky edits and a pretty girl's face, has announced a "seven-figure" distribution deal with Sony, TechCrunch reports, confirming a rumor we floated earlier this summer. Sony will distribute Baron's show over its PS3 videogame consoles, PlayStation Portables, and Bravia I-Link TVs.

Vanity Fair displays new media acumen with "Blogopticon"

In a wonderful piece of linkbait, Vanity Fair produced an illustration featuring a number of popular "blogs" arranged in a cartesian graph from "Scurrolous" to "Earnest" on one axis and "Opinion" to "News" on another. While we're trying to grasp how the 'Wag ended up on the earnest side of the scale, more confusing is the inclusion of Salon and Slate. Apparently, if you're not printed on paper, you're a "blog" — even though both publications predate the term. But where the chart really gets things wrong is in using the disembodied head of Amanda Congdon to illustrate online video program Rocketboom. If the authors or illustrator actually watched the show or read many of the listed blogs, they'd know that Joanne Colan took over as host after a very nasty and public departure from the show by Congdon. Keep trying, guys, you're bound to figure out this Internet thing eventually!

Andrew Baron bags a Rocketboom distribution deal

Lucky to attend the Founders' Club party, we bumped into Rocketboom creator Andrew Baron last night. Baron told us Rocketboom will sign a "fat" deal with a major content company as early as today. "Is that phat with a ph?" asked a bystander about the boast. "Fat in all meanings of the word," Baron said. "I just don't want to jinx it by saying who it is." He held up his hand and made a C with is thumb and forefinger to indicate, what, "a fat stack of cash?" I asked him. "Exactly." We asked if the deal was with Quincy Smith and CBS, because of Smith's deals for Wallstrip and Moblogic. "No, someone bigger than CBS," Baron said. Our second guess? Viacom. We haven't heard a no on that one yet. More »

Host Joanne Colan Leaves Rocketboom

According to a source at the Creative Artists Agency, host Joanne Colan is leaving Rocketboom, one of the Internet's first prominent news videoblogs. During her tenure, Colan never managed to transform the show (directed by creator Andrew Baron) from a quirky but inscrutable cult favorite into a mainstream online news source. (See for yourself below by watching today's weird episode.) Nor did she achieve the same web fame as her predecessor Amanda Congdon, who left a job with ABCNews.com last year. More »

Amanda Congdon returns to Web video with video on Web about Web video

Andrew Baron accelerates Twitter's descent into spam platform

Twitter has won kudos for being relatively resistant to spam. That may change. Rocketboom founder Andrew Baron, not pleased with the level of interaction his account has generated, has put it up for sale on eBay.

It would be silly to just delete this account I have here, especially if there is someone out there that had like interests and had something to say or wanted to get involved in some relevant conversations.

By "something to say," we assume Baron means "something to sell" — after all, why else would someone up the current bid of $1,525? In order to reach Baron's 1,635 followers with breakfast updates and cat photos? More »

Rickroll delivered via singing telegram

Game, set and match goes to Rocketboom producer Kenyatta Cheese: He paid to send a singing-telegram messenger to deliver Rick Astley's "Never Gonna Give You Up," live, to NextNewNetworks cofounder Timothy Shea. Rickrolling, a common online prank, normally involves tricking someone into following a link to the Astley video. Cheese's reward? A "/golfclap" — a petty form of nonpraise used online — also delivered live, from Shea. And what have these far-seeing pioneers of a brave new medium proved? That Internet video can be used to provoke real-world action that results in yet more Internet video.

Whatever happened to Amanda Congdon?

We are growing concerned. After her career as an ABC nonjournalist fizzled, the formerly famous, generously-racked host of Rocketboom has been absent from her own blog since November 27. An "under development "show with HBO has gone nowhere. On January 23, Congdon Twittered that she was "writing monster blog post reflecting on ABC and talking about what's next." Amanda, 28 days is more time than even Scoble puts into a post. Just press Publish, ok?

Rocketboom creator takes on Calacanis

Jason Calacanis's human-powered search engine Mahalo is "fundamentally flawed," says videoblogger Andrew Baron. Well, we could have told you that: It's basically Yahoo's directory, 12 years too late. But Baron, best known for creating Rocketboom, trashed Calacanis's service not for its lack of originality, but for its lack of critical applause. "Mahalo is not a worthwhile product," Baron wrote, "I have never seen a single positive review of the site." What's got the guy so worked up? More »

Amanda Congdon's ABC rocket goes boom!

ABC has finally realized that popular, busty, vacuous Internet anchorwomen do not translate into popular, busty, vacuous television anchors. The network is severing its one-year relationship with Amanda Congdon, who shot to Internet fame hosting the videoblog Rocketboom. So what now? More »

Amanda Congdon and Andrew Baron duke it out

SCOTT KIDDER — Have you been watching Amanda's Congdon's much-hyped A/C on ABC? In her second episode for old media powerhouse Disney, she posts the question: "I wonder if citizen journalists will ever be taken seriously?" More »

The nine most surprisingly great business moves of 2006

NICK DOUGLAS — Good deals are obvious. Great deals are not. News Corp's $580-million purchase of MySpace was "Murdoch's Folly" no more when Google paid $900 million to power MySpace search. In that spirit, here are the top nine business moves from 2006 that don't make sense — at first. Below, the video that started Deal #1. More »

The Vloggies: Kung-fu dubbing, Iraqi interviews, and a duck

By Megan McCarthy More »

ZeFrank Strikes Back!

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The Baron Responds

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ZeFrank Slaps Rocketboom

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Unboomed: Drew Baron on the loss of his Bunny

A marketing maven e-mails in from a Future of PR conference, where he's listening to Andrew Baron, the producer of online news show Rocketboom avoid mentioning his former host, the famously pretty Amanda Congdon, who quit this year, sparking an embarrassing public feud with Andrew. (The two have threatened each other with legal action over Amanda's disputed share of 49% of the show. Meanwhile, the chattering class has wondered which would suffer more from the breakup.) More »

Loose Wires: Industry of Cool

• Missed out on every significant Valleywag post since June? Forbes writer Erika Brown wraps up the creep of "cool" into Silicon Valley. By finishing with a quote from Almost Famous, she's won me over. [Forbes]
• In yet another how-to, a blogger names five things your new business shouldn't waste money on. [Instigator Blog]
• Ex-Facebook employee Noah Kagan reviews a book about the rise of PayPal. Recommendation: read it. [OK Dork]
• Hahahahahaexplosivebatteries. [Blaugh]
• Rocketboom's correspondent reports from the Wired Nextfest, where weird actually means cool. [Rocketboom]

Morning deals: Win a date with Netflix's money

• Is it that big a deal that Netflix offered a million-dollar bounty for anyone who improves its movie recommendation engine by 10%? Wait, how do you even measure the accuracy of movie recommendations? Who cares, the media's eating it up as if they get a finder's fee. (If you win this contest after reading it on Valleywag, you do owe us a finder's fee: a lifetime subscription to "Netflix: Porn Edition." [NY Times]
• Rocketboom video blog founder Andrew Baron (pictured) sells another week of ads for $80,000, says he sells $4,000 a month in t-shirts alone, then does some classic "If only we got a fraction..." math to justify a possible subscription model. A fine business model, but didn't Drew spend the last year decrying "Old Media?" Ads and pay-per-view are as old as Cable TV. [MarketWatch]
• Aw, nobody likes PayPerPost, a service so mercenary that even blog network exec Jason Calacanis called it "stupid and evil." BusinessWeek calls the company "unrepentant" when it announces that the company (which pays bloggers to write about products and services) just took a $3 million venture capital investment. The bright side: There's no way this company will earn enough to satisfy its investors, so at least it'll get as screwed as the bloggers whose reputations it ruins. [BusinessWeek]

Loose Wires: Oh, we can out Mr. Dead 2.0

• NY Times Tech Headline: "H.P. Investigators Sought Meeting With Top Leaders." We knew all along at H.P. Chairwoman Patricia Dunn was apart of some government conspiracy gone wrong. Is it really that far-fetched that the UN might be involved in the leaks as well? [NY Times]
• The blog Techcrush brands itself as the antidote to popular blog TechCrunch. Round 1 in the race for the common cure-all goes to Techcrush, pending lawsuits and all. TechCrunch sending a vitrolic cease and desist to Techcrush is such bad form, not to mention tacky. (Update: Yeah, that'd be wrong, says TechCrunch's founder. Another blogger wonders if TechCrunch is even trademarked.) [Techcrush]
• Silicon Valley MILFs have sex too. It's hot. [Silicon Valley Moms Blog]
• Social networking site for hippiesTribe loses their red logo. Donut freak out, the getting-back-to-their-roots revamp includes fading red to orange. Someone get founder Mark Pincus a Feng Shui for Web Dummies pronto. We'll comp. [Hell Online]
• With Yahoo's imminent buy-out of the social networking site for yuppies, Facebook, founder Mark Zuckerberg's plan to ruin his site with his bogus changes has now been officially foiled. [VentureBeat
• Newly acquired Rocketboom host/import Joanna Colan is auctioning off the titanium necklace that she wore in her debut. Current bid is $127. It was placed by blogger Robert Scoble, who mistakenly thought he was bidding on Amanda Congdon. [Ebay]
• First politician Joe Lieberman weighed on an "ethical" crusade against belligerent/unruly bloggers he claimed help him to lose the nomination and now blogger Michael Arrington is ranting about the anonymous scribe of Dead 2.0, who was recently nearly outed. We may as well fuel this little fire, so we'll reveal who this cynical Web 2.0 blogger is — as soon as we're good and ready. [CrunchNotes]

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Loose Wires: Current Thong

• Phone fraud offender Hewlett-Packard takes another giant leap towards becoming even more of the class bully, this time with news that they actually conducted feasibility studies to figure out how to plant spies in news bureaus. To be continued tomorrow. Don't worry, by then we'll find out the government was involved in the conspiracy. [NY Times]
• Ex-Rocketboomer Amanda Congdon finds a new gig touring America. This time around the vlogger is honing her chops on the road to L.A. We just hope blogger Robert Scoble stops propositioning her. [Scobleizer]
• The Baltimore Sun got tired of writing about the ethics involved in snitching and gang violence so now they just interview bloggers like Sean Bonner of the Metroblogging network. We know how they feel. [Baltimore Sun]
• Google Co-Founder Larry Page and I have something in common. Unfortunately for me it isn't making wads of cash or being business-minded, but an affiliation with the University of Michigan, where Google just opened up a new AdWords office. [Michigan Daily]
• Al Gore's pet project Current TV finally launches their own public portal with Yahoo. That's an inconvenient truth for Google, which has Gore on its board and plays content-maker to Google Current, a semi-hourly show based on Google searches like thong girl. [Current TV]

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Divorce Court: Rocketboom stars to go at it

Rocketboom founder Andrew Baron hasn't given up the fight with recently fired-or-quit news anchor Amanda Congdon over the 49% stake she claims to still hold in the popular video blog (earlier coverage here). In fact, a week ago (I know, we are so late to this), Drew said he's taking her to court. In his blog, Drew says: More »

Job wagging: Fetch Andy Baron's coffee

There's a big world of work out in the Valley. We skimmed the cream off the top — and then threw it out so we could feed you these job listings. More »

Sing-along: Don't you vlog me baby

The star has gone, the glamour's worn thin, and Rocketboom's former vlog host is already fading from memory after her public fight with her producer Andrew Baron (scroll through this page for background). In celebration of Amanda Congdon's rapidly ticking 14th minute of her 15 minutes of fame, Valleywag presents "Don't You Vlog Me, Baby." More »

Midyear predictions: Rocketboom hooks up, Ballmer holes up, Wozniak shapes up

Just like Christmas in July, New Year predictions deserve a mid-year refresher — especially since Valleywag wasn't here for New Year's. Valleywag predicts that by the end of 2006: More »

Rocketboom's headed for a legal battle

Everyone's acting like Rocketboom's producer and ex-host have gone their separate ways, as if the fight is over. But it's just about to begin. More »

Who's better at Rocketboom, Amanda or Joanne?

It is unfair to pit a former host and current host of a show against one another in some kind of popularity contest, especially when the current host has nothing to do with the fight that ended with the former host's exit. More »

Holy media bubble! Amanda Congdon hits TIME Magazine, CNET, and MSNBC in one night

Sure, the former Rocketboom host is only interviewed in TIME's online version, not its print edition. But bloggers will forget that and make a big deal about this. And it is a big deal, since this was the third interview with Amanda Congdon published last night. More »

Remainders: Will Wired hire Amanda Congdon to play banjo?

• Om Malik, who believes companies don't do anything once, polls his readers: Who will Wired buy next? [GigaOM]
• Hey look, it's Six Apart co-founder Mena Trott playing the banjo and swearing! Ha! Ha! We Valley types sure know how to have fun! [Abazab]
• Reporting Time Warner's falling stock is always tougher when that stock is your retirement fund. [CNN Money]
• Mysterious social network company Socializer says it's been around since 2002 — and invites you to join its private beta. [Socializer]
• the front page at Ookles.com, which used to say "coming soon," is now an empty page. The site isn't stillborn, it's just prepping for public release, says the founder. [Ookles]
• The exec producer of VH1's "Best Week Ever" tells Rocketboom's ex-host, "Get to work - the clock is ticking and 90 days from now, it's going to be 'what the fuck happened to Amanda Congdon?'" [BuzzMachine]

UnBoomed: Amanda says Andy can't be her friend

Rocketboom's former host is still telling her side of the story to the media. It's all starting to look a little mean, since her former partner Andrew Baron offered an olive branch this morning on Rocketboom. More »

Rocketboom wants Amanda Congdon back

The nation's hottest video blog is back, and it's snappy. Rocketboom interim host Joanne Colan (pictured here holding a symbol for triumph) displays the polish and ease that many viewers felt long-time host Amanda Congdon lacked. More »