I don't even know who this Garance person is...get it?

But I can hardly get too excited about screen names. Does anybody really "know" who Aristotle was...Plato...even gotdamn Kafka. No, and it doesn't matter.

All that matters is your ability to write, to reason, to construct an argument.

Something this person seems to have missed.

Of course, in the blogosphere like the rest of life she's not alone in that.

Can we get back to driving the Republican Party into the sea please.

She would have freaked out to learn that Publius was actually 3 different people. No linky linky for The Federalist Papers, at least not from Garance.

I happen to agree that bloggers should use a real name if they are writing professionally.  MyDD does a good job with that, and I think it adds to the credibility of the blog.  Targeting this site in the article though seems unnecessary, because like you said, Google provides permanent records of everything you guys write, which provides complete transparency.

Some with pseudonyms are citizens with jobs to keep.

In the end, if your writing is good and your information holds up, that seems to be what matters.

This is ridiculous.  Blogs, for the most part, offer opinion pieces -- opinions! -- not straight reporting; therefore, as with any opinion piece, one can easily dismiss it as just that, an opinion.  Moreover, blog readers are smart enough to know that the content political and clearly partisan blogs is, well, skewed to say the least, and that no one here is going for some BS standard of so-called journalistic objectivity.

And then, of course, there's the important fact that most people posting on blogs do not make a living from writing on blogs, and that sometimes anonymity is important for employment and other reasons.  I think blogs would loose a lot if somehow they had to abide by the so-called journalistic standards that have, I would say, undermined that profession -- specially the broadcasting media (am only half joking, of course).

Speak for yourself, Neal<u>B</u>

In all fairness to Garance, Matt personally attacked her, and I thought she responded in kind, and very eloquently.

Okay, that's the extent of my fairness to Ms. Franke-Ruta. As far as I'm concerned, she can take her opinions and shove 'em. I don't like her position on linking to pseudonymous authors or her stance on blog regulation, and the fact that's she taking potshots at some of my favorite Daily Kos writers really isn't endearing.

So Garance's "jewish twenty-something" comment was very weird.  But the list-serv zinger I thought was hilarious.  

Garance seems about to enter the transporter to another publication, further to the right than her current professional home.  She has been what appears to be diliberately provocative to bloggers and other 'non-journalists'.  Beam her up, Scotty.

In addition to her possible 'elitist regulation fetish' on blog regulation, she exhibits a strong tendency to a related 'elitist journalism view' about who is worthy of being linked to or quoted.  

There is nothing wrong and everything right about sticking up for your views, but when challenged, for instance, on why that there should be a 'line' between journalism and blogging, she can't or won't explain any reasons.  I guess she can have opinions without being able to explicate the basis for them, but that doesn't seem journalism to me.

It's time to convene another panel on blogger ethics. May I suggest Deborah "still no correction" Howell, Ben "you all really don't need to learn how to use Google" Domenech, Judy "I was @&^*%$# right" Miller, and Bob "book sales come first" Woodward? Hmmm. This seems a little heavy on Pravda on the Hudson and Izvestia on the Potomac. Who was that guy that got into to White House press briefings? He worked for some right wingnut front organization. There was some sort of scandal. Yeah, he'd fit right in.

http://www.dailyhowler.com/dh022305.shtm l

"...No, this debate isn't about Franke-Ruta. But could anyone make our case any better? Could anyone show you any more clearly that your interests as liberals, progressive and centrists often lie in the hands of flyweight press elites? Why do we keep losing the nation's endless Spin Wars? Because the other side has capable, well-financed, serious operatives running highly capable "think tanks"--think tanks which have spent the last forty years churning out convincing spin. And our response? All too often, it lies in the hands of fly-weights like this--people who stage hysterical campaigns about peripheral issues, then run to hide behind their own skirts when someone dares to critique them."

There's this critical moment in life when your parents tell you that Santa does not exist.

All that yo ho ho and stockings and red coat and white beard: just feelgood fantasy feeding that naivety that the grown-ups find so charming in kids your age.

And you never quite believe anything they tell you ever again. Or, at least, you shouldn't.

I'm not sure that all lefty bloggers have been told about Santa yet.

Otherwise, why the furore over the pseudonymous Michael in Chicago?

I assume that that the folks here, whether amateurs or pros, are biased and often speak out of ignorance. Are human, in other words.

Their stuff is often interesting, sometimes fascinating. But I trust none of them further than I could throw them.

That way lies Mary Mapes, Dan Rather and the Killian memos.

I don't care who Georgia10 is, if she's it's white, black, green, male, female, androgynous, from  Georgia USA, Georgia Russia or the Georgia Nebula.

Facts, constistency, ability to admit mistakes (hint to Garance), common sense opinions, links to reliable sourcse (no, not that Relible Sources) are what matters. Then all of us are well-equiped to decide if Georgia10 is worthy of her front-page status on Kos.

She is.

A name does not make a blog entry valid. Good investigative and writing skills do.

If someone wants to blog anonymously, so be it!

I have been attacked for blogging anonymously, but hey, that's why I started doing it in the first place.

Maybe I don't want my employer to know my political leanings; also remember, government employees are not allowed to campaign and publicly endorsing someone during a race could be construed as "campaigning."

Most bloggers link to previously printed stories and then analyze the news. People have the choice to either accept what a person says or not.

So who gives a frying enchilida whether I graduated from George Mason with a sociology degree or from Harvard, or even if I went to college!?!

Are we starting to stratify to the point of being no different than mainstream media?!?

I say, let the person who garners the most clicks go on to blog glory; and for those holier-than-thou bloggers who might be scared of the new younger, older, less schooled, anonymous bloggers, kiss my grits.

Uh... Atrios (Duncan Black)hasn't been anonyomous for a very long time.

This is about gatekeeping.  Most professions practice it, either formally or informally.  If the concern were genuinely disclosure and conflict of interests, she wouldn't have attacked Jerome's work for Warner despite his decision (well-publicized in the lefty blogosphere) to stop blogging except for occasional posts to promote CTG.  (A decision that, like many others, I see as an unfortunate overreaction to exactly this kind of criticism.)

Gatekeeping.  It's not worth getting too worked up over what folks like this say, because most likely no amount of compliance with the standards they try to set will cause the criticism to stop.

That bloggers are fundamentally dishonest?  

Certainly not from the "debate" over campaign finance reform, as forwarded on MyDD and elsewhere.

I mean, the Gingrich-speak that MyDD increasingly relies upon here and elsewhere, that's a sign of honesty and respect, isn't it?

to the tune of "gary, indiana" from "the music man"...

garance franke ruta
garance franke ruta
garance franke ruta
pseudononymous is out

garance franke ruta
garance franke ruta
garance franke ruta
that is what she's all about

if you'd like to have a logical explanation
why she favors blogs with government regulation
we could hide behind unknown identification
she might think it crass
she can kiss our ass

garance franke ruta
garance franke ruta
not bill shakespeare, goethe, menken,  stein, twain, or camus

but garance franke ruta
garance franke ruta
garance franke ruta
we say ...who???