September 19, 2005
Wanted: Government blogger
We’re looking for a new blogger to write about government communications.
Our last blogger, who wrote under the name “Deep Background,” has been deep-sixed.
Not by us, mind you, but by himself. As you may have noticed, our anonymous government blogger bowed out after a flurry of e-mails that questioned both his credibility and his right to blog under a pseudonym.
From our perch, all that attention was simply fabulous. You just can’t buy advertising like that, we told Deep Background. After all, what’s the point of blogging if no one’s paying attention?
But Deep Background tired of the fight over his identity; in fact, he grew increasingly worried that someone would eventually unmask him just for the kick of doing so. And when that happened, he would no longer be able to write impartially and critically about government communications without the very real fear of losing his day job.
Which, after all, was the point of calling him Deep Background in the first place.
For us, the arguments over whether our blogger could be anonymous came down to this:
If we don’t know who he is, how can we trust what he’s telling us?
To which we reply: How exactly do we know who’s who out there in cyberspace, bloggers or otherwise? These days, any fool can make a pretty Web site. Does this mean that if Deep Background wrote under the name “Bob Johnson,” everyone would have felt fine? Men and women have been writing anonymously, or under a pen name, for as long as anyone’s had anything to say. And they’ve had their reasons, most of them good.
Ultimately, people have to make up their own minds about the credibility of a commentator. We had hoped that Ragan’s reputation for producing quality speakers and writers would lend some instant credibility to Deep Background, and that his words would take care of the rest.
But there’s a more important principle at work here. The whole idea of blogging is that anyone, anywhere, can start up a blog and spout opinions and observations. A blog is the ultimate demonstration of free speech; it’s the high-tech soapbox in the middle of Bughouse Square. You can choose to listen, heckle or debate, or just walk away shaking your head.
For anyone to suggest that bloggers have to follow certain rules would seem to violate the very notion of this particular art form. It’s like those people who say you’re being unpatriotic if you criticize the government. Kind of misses the whole point, doesn’t it?
Our colleague Shel Holtz, who took particular offense to Deep Background’s anonymity, knows more about blogs than most. But he’s on the wrong side of this debate. Of course, that doesn’t mean he shouldn’t have the right to speak his mind. He is, after all, a blogger.
So now we’re looking for a new government blogger, anonymous or otherwise. Government communication is tough and presents its own special problems. We want someone who will write, without fear or favor, about those challenges. It’s not a blog about politics; it’s about the very interesting politics of government communication.
If you’re interested, or know someone who might want to give it a go, drop me a line at jimy@ragan.com.
Finally, we’d like to clear up one rumor about the identity of our short-lived blogger. From his picture on the blog, many of you said that Deep Background looked a lot like Harry Anderson, the star of the sitcom Night Court.
So now it can be told.
It was Harry Anderson. The Department of _______ is lucky to have him.
Jim Ylisela
Group Publisher
Ragan Communications
Posted by dbauthor at 10:45 AM | Comments (223)