Just Like a Newspaper

One more thing on the Rep. Steve Hartgen’s (R-Twin Falls) blogosphere bill after Right Mind highlighted this part of Kevin Richert’s commentary.

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.

Letter writers are required to identify themselves, but what about editorial writers, the newspaper’s equivalent of bloggers? At the Idaho Statesman, we don’t know who exactly wrote a given opinion. We do know that it represents the opinion of the editorial board, which some people are vaguely aware of. If an editorial board tells us we need to pass a bill and the bill is the opposite of what they describe, we have no clue as to who really is responsible for that error or which members agree and which dissent.

Plus, if Hartgen wants to require us bloggers to be like newspapers, I really can’t go along with it, because I can’t afford to file for bankruptcy or face other extreme financial pressures.

One other thing, I appreciate that Kevin is trying to be gracious and magnanimous here, but I have to take exception to the last line of his piece:

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

The heck you say? Imagine if I said, “Let’s allow the Statesman to mature before we start trying to police it.” Ultimately, the blogosphere is Free Speech and in many cases, I’d argue, it’s the Free Press.

The idea that Richert magnanimously thinks the state shouldn’t regulate blogs (for now) is not particularly comforting.

Is there a time when it’s acceptable to regulate blogs other than according to existing criminal and civil statutes such as libel, slander, invasions of privacy, stalking? I think not.

I’d also suggest that if one is to begin policing online efforts, Richert could start with his own Statesman which last Summer featured nearly a dozen comments calling for the violent execution of Brandi Swindell in the streets of Beijing, fighting words that would never be allowed in a letter to the editor. The paper didn’t delete these comments as far as I know until they switched to a new commenting system which removed all the old comments (Ah, yes. technical glitch takes care of what common sense editorial oversight should have.) There has never been any apology for allowing these fighting words against a private citizen to appear in the comments.

If Richert is concerned about civility in our discourse, let me say, “Physician, heal thyself.”