"Anonymous" chickens
Rather than write about goats, perhaps I should write about "chickens."
I refer, of course, to those "anonymous" bloggers who claim that I have somehow lost my credibility.
If you want to take potshots at me, that's OK. I'm criticized pretty much daily. It comes with being the editor. And we all know how easy -- and cowardly -- it is to anonymously criticize people.
But if "anonymous" bloggers really want to impress fellow readers, they ought to take part in the discussion about government waste. Think of it this way: If you come up with a good way to trim government, then you'll REALLY look morally superior!
And put your name to your ideas. You'll look courageous and more credible all at the same time.
Cheers,
Pat
posted by Patrick Rice @ 10:10 AM
5 Comments
5 Comments:
Well, I'll be the first to respond here and say that because of my job in this community it is best for me not to sign my real name to this blog. However, I do love this opportunity to be able to respond here to healthy debates. And I thank you Pat for the option to sign as anonymous.
I too thank you. But if you wish to be taken seriously then you have to stop talking in platitudes like "government is bloated" and politically naive ideas like we should stop "playing politics" with our troops. Do you call on Bush and the neo-cons not to play politics with our troops? Perhaps I missed it. Does it concern you that another war built on flimsy evidence is being ginned up? Have you used your influence as an editor to reveal the waste and fraud of Haliburton, Bechtel etc. Have you spent your career — as most mainstream journalists do — looking for that next job, that slightly better pay and a tad more prestige, flogging some nonstory like Anna Nicole rather than doing the hard often thankless work of identifying wrong and questioning the powerful and the popular? Forgive me if you have. I don't want to make assumptions. But papers like yours have been all to comfortable with the status quo and seriously accomodating to the powerful. I wish you well in your quest for serious dialogue. And good luck in ferreting out that government waste. Maybe you can get somebody to discontinue a program to feed homeless drug addicts.
Mr. Rice,
Recently you defended the anonymous nature of your "Spout Off" section. You contended that its popularity with readers validated tactics.
Now, you don't like it when you are the target. I think this is a good moment of clarity for us all. Lets make people put names next to their "spout off" comments, and I'll put my name next to the critique of your posts. The marketplace of ideas was not meant to be open only in the dark.
P.S. - Other than this brief moment of hypocrisy, I think you are a fine editor. Very insightful.
Just so I'm clear, only those who oppose you and sign themselves "anonymous" are labeled "chicken"? Unless I'm mistaken there were several responders who came to your defense over the past few days who also signed off as "anonymous". Let's not hold bloggers to a double standard based on their views, Mr. Rice. I do not use my full name as my last name would be easily recognized in this community. Unfortunately, there are those who are incapable of accepting someone else's opinion with some measure of civility should it be opposed to their own. You're losing your objectivity, Mr. Rice.
Speaking of "chickens," I wonder how much more courage you'll have to muster to actually address the citizenship status of the three "Hispanics" arrested for the Crestview murder.
Pat...are they ILLEGAL? If so, why are you avoiding the issue?
Over 90 percent of Las Angeles' open murder warrants name illegal Hispanics as the perps.
But, they're just here to do the jobs that Americans won't do. Apparently that "job" is increasing violent crime, because that's the biggest difference I'm seeing with the nearly 20 million illegals in the US.
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