1234 We Smell A Blog War
We’ve found there’s nothing quite as combustible as mixing politics, high-speed Internet access and a gaggle of itching inferiority complexes. Stir in a little repressed sexual frustration and a shot at geek infamy (to say nothing of negligible financial gain) and it’s no surprise that sparks on the blogosphere fly faster than clichéd slogan suggestions at a high school prom committee meeting.
“Time of Our Lives?” No way! That’s awesome! We could even play that Green Day song!
Anyway, such is yin and yang of daily blog warfare in South Carolina, a state where political discussion already tends to devolve around a denominator much lower than the “lowest common,” and where a few people actually do have high-speed Internet access, believe it or not.
Anyway, this week’s “big” blogosphere battle is between Palmetto Scoop editor Adam Fogle and … well, everybody else in the second tier of South Carolina’s blog hierarchy.
It all started over the weekend when one of the Scoop’s lower-rung competitors wrote a story alleging that Fogle got drunk at some college bar in downtown Columbia, S.C. and ran over some guy’s foot with his motorized wheelchair, which, let’s face it … is pretty damn funny.
Well, yesterday Fogle fired back by publishing a “Most Wanted List” of anonymous bloggers (including the guy who dropped the dime on his drunk driving) that have apparently wronged him or the company he works for in some form or fashion.
“I’m going to find them and I’m going let everyone know who they are,” Fogle wrote. “It’s hardball, and they stepped up to the plate to play, so … batter up.”
Whoa … if we were Chinese right now we would be snapping pictures of Fogle and telling everybody “Rook, rook, Crint Eastwood! Crint Eastwood!”
Anyway, having outed an anonymous blogger or two in the past, it’s always fun to pull the mask off of somebody you don’t like and have a good “whoop-ti-do la-ti-da” moment at their expense. Hell, it’s even more fun to bury them completely.
And we’d be lying, of course, if we said we weren’t just a little bit interested in what the Scoop’s jihad manages to uncover, although we’ve honestly never heard of the majority of the websites on his little “hit list.”
But there’s something about Fogle’s motivation for going after these anonymous blogs that concerns us.
When we outed two professional journalists posing as bloggers recently, it was because they got caught leveling some libelous allegations at a statewide official, not because they caught us getting drunk and making asses of ourselves at a bar (although we certainly did plenty of that back in our glory days).
Our point is that every media outlet has a policy these days when it comes to outing bloggers.
At liberal La Socialista (a.k.a. The State newspaper), that policy is apparently to expose conservative bloggers every chance they get while religiously protecting the anonymity of liberal bloggers.
And that’s fine … it’s their newspaper, last time we checked, and besides their stock is (literally and figuratively) dropping like a rock lately.
At the end of the day, we operate in a marketplace of ideas, people. And the beauty of that marketplace is that if your sources are bunk (and your product is junk) then people are going to stop reading it, no matter who you are.
Oh, and if you do decide to “out” somebody as part of your coverage, people will probably take your reasons for doing so into consideration.
Anyway, not to get too Carrie Bradshaw (a.k.a. rhetorical overload) here, but we’re interested in your thoughts … what should our policy be here at FITS regarding anonymous bloggers?
With so many new blogs popping up every day - most of them anonymous - are these secret scribes fair game or off limits? And if there are good reasons for “outing” an anonymous blog, what are they?
Obviously, we’ll continue doing whatever the hell we please, but that doesn’t mean we’re not listening … [poll id="21"]
Comments
By My Annual Two Cents on October 22nd, 2008 at 1:20 am
“Fogle got drunk at some college bar in downtown Columbia, S.C. and ran over some guy’s foot with his motorized wheelchair, which, let’s face it … is pretty damn funny.”
Those lines and your picture for this post are ‘pretty damn funny.’ This kid needs to wake up, get RQA to give him some dollar bills, and he needs to roll on over to Platinum for a night (unless he can actually get himself laid). However, I’m sure he is as cool as the next College Republican, all striving to be the next Lee Atwater, minus Lee’s love for girls and a good time… and well, any other Atwater attribute.
Oh, if this is “Hardball” as McLovin so eloquently put it, I don’t want to see a piss pants response from him or the PC police. Anyone who shovels as much bullshit around as McLovin does for the Quinn’s, deserves to have himself (and his Rascal) criticized every once in a while.
FYI: McMaster, Graham, and McCain all suck… by the way
By Chris on October 22nd, 2008 at 12:12 pm
Outing the anonymous is a slippery slope. Some hide behind the handle for illegal or malicious reasons, but the majority conceal their identity simply because they have a need or desire to protect their identity. Some of us have direct knowledge from inside various organizations that we feel needs to be exposed - but doing so would mean an inability to continue to pay our mortgage. The anonymous opportunities affording by blogs represent a pressure release valve. Comment approver and reader beware - there is a significant difference between proper (referenced checked, facts verified) mainstream media and a blog. There is no requirement to represent the truth and therefore there will always be those that take advantage of it. A blog is a collection of opinions - and should be viewed as just that. If the owner presents something as factual he/she may want to be fairly confident in the source.
By TK on October 22nd, 2008 at 1:57 pm
I say leave the anonymous alone - most have legitimate reasons to keep their blogging private. As for Fogle, I’ve also considered TPS a pale imitation of FITS without the healthy dose of softcore porn that keeps me coming back.
But seriously, dude, this has to be one of the all time great lines you’ve written: “We’ve found there’s nothing quite as combustible as mixing politics, high-speed Internet access and a gaggle of itching inferiority complexes.”
Rock on.
By Froreigglully on November 7th, 2008 at 11:03 pm
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