“Don’t be afraid to say what you think, say what you believe, and make sure your name is attached to what you have to say.”
Thus spoke Lincoln-Sudbury (Massachusetts) School Superintendent John Ritchie. I agree that anonymous comments, though often harmless and sometimes necessary for defensive reasons, also provide a bulwark from behind which cowards and trolls can throw malice. Anonymous comments, like those on Digg and YouTube (the established cess-pools of Internet community) are something I wouldn’t mind eradicating, for the most part. So I agree, stand behind what you have to say, and keep it civil.
For a little background, an example of the blogs he mentions, from the “Wickedlocal.com” sites attached to the local newspaper, connected to similar pages in my city of Newton, MA. The subject, by the way, was a hotly contested property tax-cap override.
However, to admit you never even read the blogs is admitting your ignorance and undercutting your message. To refer to blogs as a “gimmick from a dying industry” betrays a misunderstanding of the provenance of blogs. The “WickedLocal” blogs in particular are giving new life to a troubled medium (the local print newspaper), and taking advantage of a rabid (sometimes it seems like that should be taken literal)
Forgetting the fact that Ritchie used a graduation ceremony to show his ire at the personal attacks on the blogs (memo: it’s not about you), rather than sticking with the importance of transparency and honesty in online communication, he attacks blogs as a concept. Bad move.
Why attack blogs? Is it ok then that the same letters are printed in the local paper, that the same discussions take place on playgrounds, over backyard fences and at local events and demonstrations? Should you denounce those too?
In a year where Senator John McCain similarly dismisses blogs, apparently through ignorance, it seems there is more “education” to be done with the people in charge of our children’s’ education. If there is any place that blogs have taken a mainstream foothold, it is at the local level.
When be-bop jazz developed in the 1940’s old-guard musicians who dismissed the music (which now forms the basis of most popular jazz) were called “moldy figs.”
Mr. Ritchie: You, sir, are doing a disservice to your school system’s graduates by exposing your ignorance and intolerance of the new hyper-local modes of communication. You, sir, are a “moldy fig.”
And yes, I am attaching my name to this message.
Doug Haslam
Hat tip: Dan Kennedy of “Media Nation”
Technorati Tags: blogs, lincolnsudbury, johnritchie, education, johnmccain, trolls, wickedlocal
Write on! I totally agree – be prepared to stand for what you say and write, but also be prepared to change your point of view on things you don’t understand when someone offers compelling information, via newspaper, blog, gossip, commercial, video, whatever.
I didn’t know that reanimated fossils could actually speak. That’s so cool!