| Slack lets the world go 'round
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Micah eloquently makes the case for cutting ourselves some slack. At issue is a blog trying to make a stink over some previous posts by Amanda Marcotte in her Pandagon blog now that she's been hired by the John Edwards campaign. Says Micah, political operatives and journalists
seem to now want to play "gotcha" over whether something someone said in the past when they were a free citizen of America exercising their free speech and under the employ of no campaign is now the equivalent of an endorsement of that specific speech by a presidential candidate.
If we adopt this standard, then the internet is just going to be a tool for an even tighter straight-jacketing of politics, where no one who ever imagines they might go into politics some time in their life will be willing to ever take a position on anything controversial for fear of damaging their political viability. Yuck! Who wants to live in that world?
Right on.
(Disclosure: I've done a little volunteer work for the Edwards campaign.) [Tags: politics forgiveness john_edwards media micah_sifry ]
Posted
by D. Weinberger at February 5, 2007 05:31 PM
Comments
Yeah, gosh forbid we hold people accountable for what they've said or written.
Posted by: James Robertson | February 5, 2007 08:18 PM
I have no problem holding Marcotte responsible for what she's written in the past, James. I do have a problem with the crazy storm surrounding the Edwards campaign. Should they have hired her? I don't know. But the noise being made over the hiring of a campaign staffer who wrote something that is widely considered to be, at a minimum, very stupid is crazy.
I agree that if everything I say or do, or more importantly, everything I have ever said or done will wind up as potential grist of political mills, I'm less likely to get involved in the process. But maybe that's what the corporate overlords want.
Posted by: Aaron | February 6, 2007 08:26 AM
First, it's not about holding Marcotte responsible. It's about holding the Edwards campaign responsible for what Marcotte blogged once.
Second, I want to be free to say stupid things in my blog. If I have to think that in a year or twenty years, someone may pull it out and cost me a job or hurt a political candidate I'm supporting, it will chill the informality, hastiness, and fun of blogging. People say stupid things sometimes. We all do. We have to be willing to overlook some stuff.
That doesn't mean we get to speak without ever being held responsible. Jump in and call me on my BS, but please try to do it within living memory and in a forum (like these comments) where I and others can respond. But this notion of strict accountability as if everything we say may be held against us will kill the freedom of expression now flowering on the Net now.
Posted by: David Weinberger | February 6, 2007 01:31 PM