Congratulations to the overseer of this prosperous blog plantation on the fine profile in the San Diego Union-Tribune.
A quote from my fellow FR blogger Dan Schnur, caught my eye:
Republican strategist Dan Schnur, a regular contributor to FlashReport, said attribution is the fundamental threshold of whether something in the blogosphere deserves to be taken seriously.
“Someone who posts to a blog anonymously is essentially a high-tech graffiti artist,” Schnur said. “If there is a user’s guide to blogs, rule No. 1 is if the blogger isn’t sharing his name, his opinions aren’t worth your attention.”
Gee, Dan — that’s a pretty severe indictment, don’t you think?
Let’s take Dan’s assessment and time-travel back to the late 1780s when citizens of the newly independent United States debated the merits of the proposed Constitution. Let’s imagine a quote from an analogous story in the New-York Packet on the influential series of pro-Constitution essays being published in that paper anonymously by "Publius":
Anti-Federalist strategist Dan Schnur, a regular contributor to New York and Philadelphia journals, said attribution is the fundamental threshold of whether something in the broadsheets deserves to be taken seriously.
“Someone who writes a political tract anonymously is essentially a quill-and-inkwell graffiti artist,” Schnur said. “If there is a user’s guide to articles of opinion, rule No. 1 is if the author isn’t sharing his name, his opinions aren’t worth your attention.”
April 6th, 2006 at 12:00 am
Matt…Good post. I’m not very scholarly as you know, so I can’t comment intellectually on your assertions. But. Although Dan and I have not spoken about our thoughts on the issue of anonymous blogging…Many of my posts say one of the strengths of Flashreport is that our blogs are not anonymous. That no matter how strange I wish to be (yes Virginia it is an act), I have to live with my words. I have posted maybe 3 times on one of the other sites becuase the issue mattered to me…and I put my name to them…and got pissed on by anonymous posters who said negative things behind their electronic ski mask (similar to dan’s graffitti comment)..but I had no issue with it…because I don’t take sites like that and their posters seriously. How can I? I’m confident none of the main stream media take my posts as serious commentary…they are not…but they do take guys like Dan’s…because…well..he’s Dan. But. And here’s the rub. Before each of us pushes one button on our posts…we know that what we right…we have to live with…be it silly, weird, or serious as heck…I think having the guts to put your name next to your words puts this plantation above all others…beside the fact Jon looked like a complete geek in his tie at 5:45am….that was embarrasssing
April 6th, 2006 at 12:00 am
My biggest issue with anonymous blogs are the comments that get posted. OC Blog has anonymous posters, but they usually keep to the issues and have good things to write about, whereas a lot of times the comments seem to sink into a morass of personal attacks. That’s just my observation.
April 7th, 2006 at 12:00 am
Here’s to Samuel Adams, oftentimes the anonymous propagandist for the revolution. Without guys like him, we’d have no blogs, and without Al Gore, we’d have no blogosphere.
April 7th, 2006 at 12:00 am
Joe…Thanks for the compliment.
I don’t agree that attributed blogging is inherently more virtuous that anonymous blogging. It’s a conceit for any of us on the arrtibuted side of the fence to claim as much.
It’s a free blogosphere and Jon chose to make this blog attributed, as is his prerogative. FR has become an oustanding blog because primarily because of the content, not because the names attached to the posts (at least in my opinion).
There are some great anonymous blogs out there: OC Blog and SD Politics to name two. There are some anonymous blogs, like Hack N Flack, that have manifested the worst aspect of anonymous blogging.
Some of the greatest figures in the founding of this nation — James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, Benjamin Franklin — made extensive use of pseudonyms. Sometimes for fear of repercussions, other times to keep the focus on what was being said, not on who was saying it.
And finally, let’s not kid ourselves — most of what we post here on FR Blog doesn’t take guts. We post a lot of good information that otherwise would never make it into a newspaper, but Jon’s probably the only one who really ever sticks his neck out.
April 7th, 2006 at 12:00 am
Matt..it must be my midwest up bringing, but to be able to hide behind some moniker simply seems weak. I’m going to post on the 50th CD after Tuesday…and I think putting my name to it will give it more credibility as I won’t be able to bs anyone. Posting anonymously allows the blooger to be sloppy with the truth. If my names on it, I can get called on it.
just my thoughts.