[Vision2020] Should the Legislature Police Online Commentary?

[Tom Hansen]

This one's for you, "No Weatherman", "Glenn Schwaller", "Princess 
Sushitushi", and so many others.

>From the Idaho Statesman at:

http://tinyurl.com/TruthInPosting
 
--------------------------------------------------------

Should the Legislature police online commentary?
Submitted by Kevin Richert on Fri, 12/12/2008 - 9:09am. 
This one's for you, "udapimp."

And "brt929" and "jono," "foreignoregonian" and "Meridian." And every 
other anonymous commenter who shows up at this blog to tell me I don't 
know what I'm talking about. Ever.

I'd love to know your names — partly because I'm curious, but mostly 
because I'm interested in where you're coming from. If I know who you are, 
and I know your professional and personal stake in politics, I can better 
put your criticism into perspective.

But I don't want the state of Idaho to force you to cough up your name.

Rep. Stephen Hartgen, R-Twin Falls, is drafting a bill to require bloggers 
to post under their real name, and require online commenters to do 
likewise. In essence, Hartgen wants online commentary to more closely 
resemble newspaper opinion pages, where letter writers are generally 
required to identify themselves.

Hartgen knows plenty about opinion pages; he's the former publisher of The 
Times-News in Twin Falls. (Full disclosure: I worked as The Times-News' 
city editor from 1996 to 2001. Hartgen gave me a great opportunity to 
advance my career and I learned a lot, and I'll always have respect for 
him).

I don't agree with him about this bill.

The free and often free-wheeling speech exercised at blogs and media Web 
sites such as IdahoStatesman.com gets pretty coarse. Having been on the 
receiving end a time or two, I know that well. But this doesn't rise 
to "there-oughta-be-a-law" status.

Far from it. In fact, it just isn't the Legislature's business. 
Considering the many challenges facing the newspaper industry, you can 
certainly debate the business wisdom of giving unnamed trolls free rein to 
call the local paper a typo-ridden rag with an error-prone and agenda-
driven staff. Not exactly a glowing testimonial. But opening the doors to 
harsh criticism is a business decision — and one in keeping with the First 
Amendment.

No particular episode prompted Hartgen's bill, and he isn't sure he's ever 
been the target of criticism in the blogosphere. "Unless you read blogs 
all the time, you don't know for sure." Of course, once word got out of 
Hartgen's bill, he got a blast from, symbolically enough, an anonymous 
blog, the unequivocal notion. "This basically smacks of censorship of the 
internet, something that we don't do to the 'tubes here in America. I 
frankly don't understand why Hartgen is looking towards Cuba, Iran or 
China for guidance on how to manage the the Internet in Idaho."

At the root of it, Hartgen has a legitimate concern. He believes the 
anonymity of the Web cheapens the debate by allowing people to hurl 
insults that he describes, in one of his favorite quips, as "untouched by 
human brain." Hartgen never was a publisher afraid of a fight, so I think 
he is genuinely concerned about the coarsening of the dialogue.

So am I, and some of my Statesman colleagues are deeply troubled by 
anonymous commenters. They believe that in the chase for immediate 
feedback and site hits, we've traded away more than we've received. Again, 
that's a business decision.

Ultimately, I believe the marketplace of free expression will correct any 
problems. Call me an optimist, but I believe readers will grow to attach 
more credibility to writers who say who they are and make their points in 
a civil manner.

Let's allow the blogosphere to mature before we start trying to police it.

--------------------------------------------------------

Seeya round town, Moscow.

Tom "I am" Hansen
Moscow, Idaho
 
"Sins can be committed in ignorance and the fact that they were committed 
in ignorance doesn't cause the sin to just disappear."

- Princess Sushitushi (September 10, 2006)


---------------------------------------------
This message was sent by First Step Internet.
           http://www.fsr.com/