As most of you know by now, former Washington Post editor Tom Grubisch published a cranky column today lambasting pseudonyms on the internets. Even if you grant Grubisch his central thesis – that pseudonymity lets people behave like absolute jackasses without worrying about real-life consequences – it is not that big a deal. Believe it or not we bloggers have dealt with the jackass problem since Usenet. They’re called trolls. When someone shows up at a site that you pay to host (say, washingtonpost.com) acting like a complete heel and violating to forum standards, ban them. I doubt I have as much tech savvy as whoever the Post has running their web operations and yet the principle never gave me much trouble. The only reason I can fathom for letting trolls run free is if you really need to illustrate the ravening online hordes and nobody else is that masochistic.
Maybe Mr. Grubisch hates it when bloggers engage in (gasp) media criticism from behind the mask of pseudonymity. As speaketh Atrios, Publius called and asked me tell Mr. Grubisch to go Cheney himself.
This and other media hand-wringing about nasty mean bloggers comes into sharper focus when you recall the revealing incident when Daniel Okrent, writing as the ombudsman for the NY Times, published a private citizen’s name and hometown without his permission. The power gulf could not have been more stark between Okrent, standing on the world’s largest soapbox, and an ordinary guy who wrote an email. While I don’t mean to suggest that most journalists would behave as abysmally as Okrent did, the vast power that exists between a journalist and an ordinary, named critic must feel reassuring. Even if you never would, you could. But then the power disparity stays frustratingly out of reach when the critic refuses to expose himself being named and shamed. As bloggers increase their audience, wouldn’t you know it, the soapbox gap isn’t that big anymore. If I was a cranky reporter who hated criticism that situation would freak me out as well.
Other excellent commentary Ezra Klein and Kagro X. If nothing else read this by Hilzoy, whose feelings about pseudonymity jibe pretty well with my own.
More Journalists Who Misunderstand The InternetsPost + Comments (31)