A Modest Proposal: The "No Death Threat" Litmus Test For Bloggers
by Chris Bowers, Mon Apr 17, 2006 at 10:22:02 PM EDT
Since I know that the WaPo is hot in search of a new conservative blogger in order to balance out original commentary and / or reporting with plagiarism, I would like to propose a simple "no death threat" litmus test for them as they conduct their search. For starters, don't hire any blogger who posts private phone numbers of college students. Perhaps more importantly, don't hire any blogger whose readers call said phone numbers and issue death threats to said college students. I would take this a step further, and suggest that the Post doesn't hire anyone who blogrolls the death threat issuing blog, but that would exclude around 90% of the conservative blogosphere from consideration. Malkin, is the second most blogrolled conservative blog in the country, with 4,947 conservative blogs giving her a permanent link.
I, for one, can proudly say that the MyDD community has never posted private phone numbers and then had our readers call those numbers and issue death threats via said phone numbers. I plan to continue our no death threat policy, even though I realize that we now live in an era when issuing death threats to legal protesters has become commonplace. I know that there is debate about this in some circles, but I believe that issuing death threats to private citizens is, generally speaking, opposed to the principles of democratic discourse. I know that some say death threats help create balance in our contemporary political discourse, in order to counter those commentators who do not issue death threats. After all, how else can we make certain that those people who issue death threats are properly represented in our non-death threat issuing liberal media?
However, I just think that death threats cross a line. Sometimes, we members of the media need to editorialize and drop the "fair and balanced" veneer. So, here is my editorial. Death threats have no place in our national political discourse. Call me a bleeding heart if you must, but that is my opinion. I hope that the Washington Post agrees with me.
I, for one, can proudly say that the MyDD community has never posted private phone numbers and then had our readers call those numbers and issue death threats via said phone numbers. I plan to continue our no death threat policy, even though I realize that we now live in an era when issuing death threats to legal protesters has become commonplace. I know that there is debate about this in some circles, but I believe that issuing death threats to private citizens is, generally speaking, opposed to the principles of democratic discourse. I know that some say death threats help create balance in our contemporary political discourse, in order to counter those commentators who do not issue death threats. After all, how else can we make certain that those people who issue death threats are properly represented in our non-death threat issuing liberal media?
However, I just think that death threats cross a line. Sometimes, we members of the media need to editorialize and drop the "fair and balanced" veneer. So, here is my editorial. Death threats have no place in our national political discourse. Call me a bleeding heart if you must, but that is my opinion. I hope that the Washington Post agrees with me.
Tags: Blogosphere, Media (all tags)
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