Thin Skin

So in my discussions on internet ethics eventually someone will ask, "why so thin skinned?"

Well, by God, here's why.

Feb. 19, 2007: AJC Editor tells us all her paper is going to show us how it should be done in the online world.

March 18, 2007: Creative Loafing's Murray Grievous states collaboration between new and traditional media may never be possible.

June 7, 2007: GPB's Susanne Capaluto at an APC event calls bloggers "entertainers".

June 17, 2007: Athens Banner Herald editor Jim Thompson uses a commentor as an example of why the mainstream media's use of real names gives it credibility.

Dec. 17, 2007: UGA journalism professor David Hazinski says "citizen journalisism" has the strong probability of fraud and abuse.

Dec. 21, 2007: Athens Banner-Herald writer Blake Aued tells bloggers "When y’all start doing your own reporting, rather than rely on rumors, press releases and the dreaded MSM, then you can call yourselves journalists".

July 29, 2008: Macon Telegraph's Travis Fain snidely referring to BloggerGuy09.

July 30, 2008: Creative Loafing Editor Ken Edelstein wondering how we can trust any anonymous blogger.

So the next time you think something written about bloggers is clever or original, it probably isn't. And the next time you ask us why our skin is so thin, we may respond, "why because of all the gentle pats on the back you've given us!"

Spitting Tacks

I'm not sure which pisses me off more.

Andre's not-so-contrite disclosure.

Or Creative Loafing Ken Edelstein's clinging to the "anonymous=less credibility" canard - with an anonymous commenter defending Ken just to complete the irony.

Actually I do know what causes my spleen to lurch with the most violence. Exactly as I feared Andre's shenanigans have given opportunity for those in the traditional media to shout "told you so!" His half ass explanations and not so apologetic apologies are only making matters worse.

And it would have been so simple. Come out with some mea culpa. For God's sake, most of us gave him a pass on his half-ass retraction of the false GAE-DPG story. But not this time. This time, we receive nothing but unrepenant sneering, So at least on this blog, it will be met with no mercy. None at all.

UPDATE: JESUS GOD! How many times do I have to explain my view of anonymity and the internet? For those who still don't get it please read HERE.

My Morning Wooten

It's gonna be short today because my spleen is venting in a different direction.

Jim trying to argue that an increase in enforcement is the cause for the drop in illegal immigration:

The population of illegals has declined 11 percent in the past year, from 12.5 million to 11.2 million...The economy certainly has something to do with it.

No kidding.

Into The Ethical Woods

I'm not going to pile on. Really I'm not. Although given the past arrogance of Georgia Politics Unfiltered owner Andre Walker (eagerly chastising his fellow bloggers, not crediting those who get a story first, not so humbly bragging about his traffic in comparison to others and perhaps tellingly not supporting his fellow bloggers unless they are associates), it would be easy to do. Wait, maybe I just parenthetically did.

But there is a bigger issue at play here.

Atlanta Progressive News outing of Andre as a stooge for the David Scott campaign exposes every person who writes about politics through the veil of a blog to criticisms we've all heard too often. Only this time, the nabobs can roll out an actual incident as proof. The already steep hill which we travel just had a Sisyphus stone added.

Ken Edelstein, Editor of Creative Loafing:

For that matter, how can the average reader even tell who bloggers actually are when they use pen names like Rogue109 (another Peach Pundit poster) and decaturguy? It’s a principle of the blogosphere that people get to be anonymous. That may be an unavoidable part of the nature of the medium. But if influential bloggers are anonymous, how can you where there bread is buttered?

I've already covered anonymity. It is a fact of life of online existence and it would behoove us all to understand it. To not and continue using it as a rhetorical baseball bat instead of scalpel would be as fair as me using the term journalists so generally as to cover both Seymour Hersh and Jayson Blair. It is neither fair nor accurate. Terms I'm sure Edelstein and his fellow print jockeys treasure.

But it is fair game. And due to Andre's sin, all the careful work of the past years trying to bridge this gap of understanding may unravel. Andre credits few but now his actions have tarred many.

And of course the act of one stray in the herd leads others to the trough of self-loathing.

Juliana Illiari of Blog For Democracy:

"I don't think anyone who blogs believes there are standards and practices right now. You'd have a hard time finding anyone who could agree. It's basically, use at your own risk this information, by virtue of its very nature. Anyone can get them, they're free. You read it and you have to consider what the opinion is"

Love ya, Jules, but that isn't quite right. True, the blogosphere is the free market of ideas gone wild and you will never see me shy away from telling people to obey caveat emptor. However, there are some rules that anyone who dares use the word "publish" with their work should follow. They are plain common sense and we all know them.

Two words for all bloggers: Source and disclose.

Sourcing is the murkiest of waters for bloggers. By the very open nature of the online world, bloggers receive information as clear as press releases and as opaque as anonymous tips. It is up to each blog to determine its standards for publication. However, the further one goes down the dark hall of anonymity, the greater the risk becomes. Andre experienced this less than deadly sin earlier this year by publishing a story based purely on anonymous sources. The poorly sourced house of cards quickly fell apart and Andre issued to my knowledge the first open retraction in the history of the Georgia blogosphere.

Disclosure is much easier. If you wear a sock puppet don't pretend your arm magically turned into a talking creature. If you take money tell your readers. Sock puppetry is one of the deadly sins of the online world. Few recover crossing this hard line.

Given his rather public penance, Andre may have survived the first sin, but given the severity of the second, his credibility may never recover.

And thanks to his latest "contribution" to the our little world, we will all be required to work a little harder.

My own disclosure: I've never taken one penny of money from a campaign or anyone else. The closest money has ever come to my little world was a brief period where I consulted for Insider Advantage on strategies to approach bloggers. Something which I fully disclosed at the time.

Beer

Wait a second? They have a beer podcast!

Tony, Thomas, Garrett, Seth, Rusty and I dive into the difference between Bud Light and Miller Light.

Yes, children. There is a difference.

Listen to the Sub-Optimal Beer Episode Here.

There has to be an absolute Zima.

Taped at the recent star of Diner, Drive-Ins and Dives. The Highlander.

Senate Debate Live Blogging

In case you haven't heard (and you probably haven't) there's a debate tonight between Democratic Senate candidates Vernon Jones and Jim Martin.

Fellow traveler in the weird underbelly of Atlanta, Thomas Wheatley will live blog it for the Loaf.

Scribe from the hinterlands and occasional foil, Blake Aued will live blog it for the Athens Banner Herald.

As for me? I can no longer stand the grunts of those seeking access to the trough. I'll be drinking cheap beer and listening to Toby Keith.

More Hate

Reason number 10,256 why liberals lose.

Huffington Post's Max Blumenthal's screed on Toby Keith's song "Beer For My Horses":

While Keith belted out "Beer For My Horses," Colbert's studio audience clapped to the beat, blithely unaware that they were swaying to a racially tinged, explicitly pro-lynching anthem that calls for the vigilante-style hanging...

Anyone who has listened to the song in THE PAST SIX YEARS understands that Keith's rather campy ode owes more to Clint Eastwood than Leo Frank.

But for liberal's just now discovering this literary treatise, it is confirmation of the long held suspicion that country music is filled with subtexts of hate and violence.

And they wonder why the NASCAR crowd generally hates them.

P.S. Note to HuffPo people. You might want to soliticit the opinion of that famous dope smoking right winger Willie Nelson who appeared in the video. Of course its understandable why you didn't know old cousin Willie was hanging out with the horrible Toby. I mean who would want to soil their precious hands by ever changing the channel to CMT?

My Morning Wooten

Lord help me, Jim is actually making sense this morning. His description of the Atlanta pension mess and how similar missteps is the bane of local government is spot on. He even deflects some of the usual Atlanta hate by noting other systems including the infamous state of Georgia "golden parachute" system cause all politicians headaches. So instead, I'm going to focus on one sentence to focus on a very different point.

AJC reporter Cameron McWhirter captured the essence of it in noting that Mayor Shirley Franklin and City Council “made key decisions to sweeten pensions for city workers that have put Atlanta in a budgetary bind that will take years to escape.”

From on, Jim, before you roll out your favorite canard about the liberal media (including your own employer) always providing cover for liberal politicians, you are required to repeat the above sentence five times. Truth hurts. Both for politicians and pundits.

Selah.

More Media Navel Gazing

It's becoming a tradition for those in the traditional media to confess, self-analyze and sometimes self-immolate.

Travis Fain of the Macon Telegraph and the blog Lucid Idiocy is the latest to dip into the murky waters of the apparent downward spiral of print journalism.

I will grant Travis one thing. Even though he can't resist a poke (Bloggerguy09?Really?), he also asks some hard questions of his own industry and their disappearing readers.

Check it out and give him thoughts.

Powell Hearing Scheduled

Creative Loafing has the details.

Jim Powell’s appeal has been scheduled for Monday, Aug. 4 at 3 p.m. in Fulton County Superior Court.

No word if the hearing will be open. If memory serves they are but usually no one shows up because no one cares. This time might be a little different.

For background on the PSC story check here, here and here.

My Morning Wooten

The isn't-ironic-I-work-in-the-very-medium-in-which-I-scourge edition.

For the next month or so, try this experiment with television or radio newscasts: Tune in at random at any time of the day for a minute or an hour. What public figure is being discussed? And is the coverage favorable? On what scale: Fawning, adoring, determined to convince you that he’s best qualified to be president, or simply reflecting what the reporter or commentator believes to be the common view?

I encourage you to try my experiment as well. Read media reports on a certain shift in foreign policy that occured in the beginning of 2002 and apply Jim's standards. I wonder what you will find.

Senate Debate On Kudzu

Sparks fly when Democratic Senate candidates Vernon Jones and Jim Martin appear on the Democratic talk show Kudzu Vine.

Listen here.

You Put Your Weed In It

Just watch

My Morning Wooten

We're gonna have some fun this morning!

Nobody will let me have my first choice as vice president on the John McCain ticket. That’d be former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush.

The Bush obsession continues. Keep typing, Jim. Maybe one day you will succeed in convincing history to view the last eight years as ponies and rainbows.

Little-noticed changes that matter a great deal build the Sonny Perdue legacy. A prime example is the Georgia Technology Authority’s plan to contract with private-sector vendors to operate computer systems for 11 agencies. About 500 state workers will move to the private sector and about 200 jobs will be eliminated. Technology changes too quickly for government procurement. And, too, why hire the excess help needed for emergencies when the private sector can provide three or 300 when needed? Great move.

It's a fantastic move! A legacy builder for any Governor! In fact it's such a fantabulous policy move, the transition towards privatization including the creation of the GTA out of the Department of Administrative Services and its first major act of privatizing the massive state telecom infrastructure began under Governor Roy Barnes.

Don’t retire the odd-even watering police just yet. China deals with its Olympics-related traffic problems by ordering odd-even driving days. Why add road capacity when you can simply order drivers off the road?

We don't have the Russkies anymore so I guess we'll have to settle with the Chi-Coms. Anyone else notice how we seem to hear that old 50's term more and more these days? And everyone knows the alternate transportation hippies are only a thin sliver from full bore, Little Red Book Maoists. Unlike our good God fearing, "free market", pavement-solves-all-woes road builders.

When a public official, tasked with responsibility to reduce payroll by 2.5 percent, announces that 53 police and 27 fire vacancies won’t be filled, as Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin did, you gotta believe it’s a game.

On the other hand, when a Republican tasked with difficult budget choices makes difficult cuts, it is fiscal restraint in hard times.

A nation cannot be safe from terrorism if its people think asking them a security-related question is an outrage, or worse, a reason to sue. This is what passes for a major revelation in today’s politically correct, touchy-feely world: From The Associated Press, this first paragraph: “The Justice Department’s former top criminal prosecutor says the government’s terror watch list has caused thousands of innocent Americans to be questioned, searched or otherwise hassled.” Goodness gracious. Can this nation survive in a world where people really are trying to kill us?

"The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."

It's a wonder we ever survived the first 200 years following that politically correct, touchy-feely thing called the Constitution.

We really are becoming a nation where the elite in academia and the media are guerrillas determined to destroy corporations they don’t like —- tobacco, insurance, “predatory” lenders and oil, for example. An example is a report from Harvard researchers purporting to show that tobacco companies have “manipulated” menthol levels in cigarettes to keep customers. Imagine the crime of that.

Given that the CEO's of every major cigarette manufacturer testified there is no manipulation in their product we don't have to imagine far. It's called fraud.

Blaming Southern foods and “metro Atlanta’s car-crazy culture” for obesity is the same as blaming guns for crime. The CDC finds the South to be the nation’s fattest region. People make choices. They are responsible. Not the fried chicken, gravy, fried pies or biscuits. How long will it be before some do-gooder suggests shutting down all-you-can-eat buffets?

I'm betting the day some "do-gooder" actually succeeds in a loony idea like shutting down the feed troughs will be the same day certain dailies start requiring certain editorial writers fact check their pieces before publication.

Selah.

What Is Goin' On: Griftdrift On The Primary

Wilson and I have some fun talking about the primaries and the presidential election. Wilson's been cynical lately so I try to give him some hope. Note this took place before I found my hate home again. Good thing for certain "so-called conservatives" the interview was yesterday and not today.

Listen here.

More Hate

Habitat for Humanity is trying something new.

The Atlanta-based nonprofit, which builds homes for people in need, is expected to announce Thursday the launch of a microloan program in partnership with the Maryland-based Calvert Foundation. It will allowindividuals to invest in — rather than simply donate to — Habitat's philanthropic mission.

We have a private foundation which aids the working poor without government assistance and it is now trying an innovation which has been so successful in other countries it won a guy the Nobel Peace Prize.

It is so dead in the black of libertarian philosophy it makes one weep.

You would think "so called conservatives" would also praise such success with private rather than government intervention. And surely some do.

But not all.

Wonderful. Here’s more on the plan. This program really does a good job keeping people living in economically un-viable areas. Just the ticket for feel good liberals.

Remember the rules chickens: Government trying to help anyone is doomed to failure because it is incompetent and evil. Non-governmental agencies trying help someone is still doomed because it will be run by lie-bur-als and they are inherently idiots.

Fear and Loathing In Griftdriftville

People keep wanting to call me a Democrat. It's true I mostly hang with the Ds because unlike the Rs, they actually invite me to their reindeer games - where I start talking about guns, the NEA or dissolving the Department of Education to see the look on their faces.

Fine.

I'm a democrat. A South Park democrat. I hate liberals but I really f*cking hate conservatives.

To be the hate one most know the hate. To know the hate one must examine the hate.

Let's take a look at what I consider the two of the harshest comments on the Georgia blogs in the last few days.

First from the left - a commenter at Blog For Democracy speaking of Senate candidate Vernon Jones:

you can get far, even if you are an ultraright douchebag running in a supposedly Democratic primary like vernon jones.

A touch juvenile with just a hint of screaming mimi. But it is the internet. What exactly do you expect?

Now let's look to the right and the state's paragon of righteous rightness Erick Erickson.

Why? Because the media has become the self-appointed propaganda master for Barack Obama’s campaign. The media has become Leni Riefenstahl.

If Mr. Godwin isn't in the house, he's peeking through the door.

This is the latest metastization of the Republican equation which states if the media doesn't report things the way I like them (in other words in a way that fits my agenda alone) it must be biased. Erickson simply adds an additional factor to the math. But comparing the network news to a nazi propagandist partially responsible for the rise of Hitler is a leap of herculean proportions.

And yet, many on the right will stare straight into your face with cherubic eyes and claim they don't understand why people hate them.

So for now, mark me down with a small d. For today at least, I don't want to be anywhere near the big R scum scrapers.

Mistaken Headlines

Martin impresses as United see off Orlando Pirates

For a second I thought a Georgia candidate had declared war on Florida. Given the water situation...

Dinosaur Hunting

Local gonzologer John Sugg writes of the demise of print journalism in the Columbia Journalism Review. His analysis of the local bird cage liner is scathing.

I live in Atlanta, where the Journal-Constitution has turned itself into a joke. As with most major dailies, it has become timid—afraid even to hire a metro columnist over anxiety that that person would have an independent base. Its coverage of the Bush administration and the Iraq war has been pathetic. It has withheld news that might offend Georgia’s white racists (as chronicled in the recent book Buried in Bitter Waters, by, incredibly, a Cox Washington reporter, Elliott Jaspin), and it gives many incompetent and corrupt black politicians a free pass because it’s afraid it will be called racist.

I tend to vacillate between hope and despair for print journalism . A deep dark secret is I like newspapers and I mean real, honest-to-god, slabs of dead tree dailies. I'm one of those guys who picks up the paper every day - actually refuses to get a subscription because I like the feel of plopping down a couple of quarters on the newstand and talking to the clerk about the headline.

But after reading John's piece, pondering the recent AJC layoffs and remembering how a CNN Online editor once explained how he could run his entire operation (news only, not IT) with five staff, the downhill slide into the fossilizing tar pits seems inevitable.

The Third Way

Sometimes, I think Jmac and I might have been separated at birth.

Now, listen to me carefully here, I'm not the kind of guy who's going to sit here and tell you that we shouldn't be drilling up in Alaska so we can save ar[c]tic animals or off our coasts because we'll pollute our oceans. While those issues do factor in my mind, it's also quite clear we have technology that can enable us to explore for oil in targeted areas in an environmentally responsible way...The problem, though, isn't totally over environmental or aesthetic concerns, but feasibility ones. There is sparse evidence to suggest there is ample supplies buried beneath the continental shelf to make an impact, and what is there would provide minimal, if any, immediate impact on $4-plus gallon gas ...

I'm a little more open to off-shore drilling if it would affect the speculator market but otherwise this is exactly my point of view.