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-Lurid Crime Tales- |
The wages of sock-puppetry |
2007-12-04 |
James Taranto, "Best of the Web" @ The Wall Street Journal The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel brings us one from the Turnabout Is Fair Play Dept.: As readers of a conservative blog debated the subject of teacher salaries, a writer using the pseudonym "Observer" weighed in. The Journal-Sentinel story includes an odd correction: "Because of an editing error, an article . . . incorrectly stated that police said he was 'apparently posing as a teacher-hater.' That statement was not made by police." We guess that means it was made by Owen Robinson, who runs the blog on which Buss allegedly made the comment. Robinson "said Friday that it seemed that 'Observer' was 'posing as a conservative, right-wing whack job to discredit' the Web site's discussion of teachers' salaries. Robinson also criticized Buss' arrest as an overreaction." We have to agree, although we'll admit that at some level it pleases us to see a teacher rather than a child on the receiving end of such excess. The really interesting question is whether the school district will try to fire Buss--and, if so, whether the union will defend him. On his blog, Robinson reports that he gave the police the commenter's IP address, through which they were able to trace him. Blogress "Mary" of Freedom Eden has some pertinent observations on the disinhibiting influence of online communication: When will people learn that posting anonymously on the Internet is not the same as being anonymous? . . . |
Posted by:Mike |