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This is an issue that does not leave me cold, however I have already commented elsewhere on two different blogs, and that is more than what I think that I have time for right now. Still, here goes the third comment: I like what you write, and indeed one must take a cool calm head and look at the facts. I do not like the lynching-mob attitude that I have found elesewhere in the blogoshpere. And given what I know, I basically know nothing other than this is serious.
Thanks for your balanced and carefully thought-out post.
Well said . I'd never heard of this lady till today but I posted a comment to say I was sorry to have heard of her in this was and to sympathise.
I think you are right, in this instant news era we are all quick to judge.
By the way,like the pink hair.Please add me on Twitter- it's ok I'm not a stalker
This is the single best parsing/summmation/weighing of this affair thus far. Logic and rationality are at the fore. Genuine kudos!
Immediately phoning a literary agent is advisable--this one of those perfect flash=point moments that make book deals--think My Tiny Life.
Three thoughts that (hopefully) have not been restated 10 times over:
(1) Whoa! 15 hours from event to counter-reaction--the news cycle of the Net is beginning to rival the lifespan of May Fly.
(2) This sad, roiling matter is why "citizen journalist" remains an oxymoron, no matter how loudly the pans are clapped together defending its legitimacy. Maybe not always--but certainly right now. Not only should the facts be gotten straighht, but skin also needs to thickened--a point that's been missed due to the distasteful nature of the story. As a professional writer, I've literally had my nose broken over something I reported on: But I continued to write--the very next day in fact--and I kept my appointments. Moreover--though I'm not certain if this a happy or sad thing--none of my fellow writers promised to blow off their deadlines to demonstrate solidarity. Which, to me, gives a sense of playing to balcony on the part of everyone--bullies, defenders and, yes,victim. Grandstanding is too harsh a word, but all parties possess carefully considered and groomed righteousness. Think intellectual equivalent of a photo-op.
(3)Ironically, since he's a founding father of Gonzo journalism, Hunter Thompson perhaps should be heeded with this still-resonant Old Media advice:
"It is always bad business to try to explain yourself on paper--or at least not all at once-but when you work as journalist and sign your name in black ink on white paper above everything you write, that is the business you're in . . . Buy the ticket, take the ride."
I've always seen his observation as the mostly overlooked preamble to "You Own Your Words." My gently expressed addenda to your masterful summation is to suggest that anyone who seeks recognition by publicly slinging words, especially if the main driver is a business model of any kind, is unavoidably entering a wider world of potentially grim realities--bullying being one of them. In terms of the Casablanca-eaque "Shocked--I'm Shocked!" crowd, the wonderment shouldn't be "How could this happen?" Rather, the real question is "How could this not occur?" How could it be otherwise? Conceptually, journalism really is Bad Business--or at least has a inherent proclivity to be so. Ask my nose . . .
Again, you've done a superb job of contextualizing this sorry affair. I've added your blog to my daily reads.
Kevin Sheridan
Nice to see a rational contribution to this ridiculous outbreak of mass hysteria. When even the BBC presents a summary of a, to be frank, far from fully substantiated blog post as fact,
which itself then gets recycled as "proof" of it's source, any remaining sane person on this planet must at least pause to think.
I'm very surprised that the Police Dept involoved has not commented. They're not usually so publicity shy.
I'm completely outside of your circle, and don't even know any of these people or read their blogs. I heard about all this from someone who does.
But I'm someone who in the world of Second Life and its blogsphere is villified by a minority of anonymous griefers, and routinely gets the most grisly of emails, death threats, ugly pictures, my RL picture defaced within SL in all kinds of horrific ways, a picture of my RL door sent to me, etc. I'd never stop speaking or blogging due to this kind of anonymous embodiment of the Internet Fuckwad Theory, nor would I'd expect anyone else to do so in solidarity. I believe in fighting this tide of harassment with the firmest possible pushback -- exposure, naming names, condemnation.
What I don't like is the backlash-backlash I'm seeing now. People posted nasty stuff and ugly horrid pictures. That stands. It can be seen. It's wrong. You condemn it. You condemn not only those who did it, but you also condemn those who enable it with their silence and refusal to condemn it because they think, oh, we don't have the facts yet. Maybe there's more to see here. And that person may have provoked the griefers somehow...But...aren't there posts? Can't you just see what the ugly picture is, the nasty things said, and say "That's wrong, and I won't stand for that on my blog?" I'm completely out of your blog loop, and yet I can see the posts are awful. Anyone can. So you condemn it.
This is one of those "all that is needed for evil to triumph is for good men to remain silent" sort of situations.
I went through a similar thing to this on Terra Nova, where there was a ghastly thread whipped up against me with hundreds of lurid and horrid posts, merely because I stood up, and criticized the original poster for being too pontifical and blase about griefing and merely studying it as "emergent behaviour". None of the august professors running that blog stood up and say, hey, this is wrong.
It's my firm conviction that indeed women are attacked more. New social media's dark side is that it's been mainly male geeks in this field sounding off and weblogging from the get-go, and as more and more female voices become prominent there's a decided vocal minority (let's hope) that hates and fears that. Male geeks definitely don't want to hear this kind of "feminist" critique of what's going on here in social media and think they "evolved out of all that". They didn't.
I also think the larger story here across all kinds of platforms is that the tide of group conformity being fostered by the new social media in the name of "wisdom of the crowd" (bleh) is in fact making people who seek individuality and a unique voice to have to amplify their voice and their persona in response to the effort to smother them. That starts up a round of hateful and vindictive posting against them as the crowd circles the wagons. There's an overwhelming push to get the person to "come around" and join the tribe or undergo a shunning. I've been through it all, believe me. It's almost impossible to get and keep a plurality of voices in this situation as the urge to create a final comformity is very strong and maintained usually by a few authoritarian core group voices.
What's needed is not for the fence-sitters and the blog owners who believe they're doing free speech a service to censor this vulgar and vicious commentary; what's needed is for them to condemn it and the anonymous posters and organized griefer groups who do it. Some say that makes the ugly posting get worst; it may for a time. But it's hugely important to show public solidarity with people being victimized in this way, and to say "not in my name". It's the only way to push back the overwhelming tide of authoritarianism and tribalism encouraged by social media in Web 2.0.
Selon PointBlog, Robert Scoble fait une pause.
Perso, je n'ai pas eu le temps de lire l'entier de tes billets sur le sujet. Une petite réflexion en français serait peut-être la bienvenue sur ton blog, vu ton positionnement dans la blogosphère romande/éducative. Sur ce sujet spécifiquement, à mon avis, tes résumés en français ne sont pas assez explicites.
"This is the single best parsing/summmation/weighing of this affair thus far. Logic and rationality are at the fore. Genuine kudos!"
Seconded.