Kathy Sierra's blogging travails

Posted by gwfrink3

Reading of Kathy Sierra's travails, I was reminded that occasional death threats, anonymous and face-to-face harassment were small parts of putting out a daily newspaper editorial page during the decades before the dawn of the Web.

Guided at the outset by the late Charlie Clay, who brought me into the world of opinion journalism, I was never taken offline by one of those intrusions.

Nor was Charlie ever quite alone in this. Among Charlie's mentors was the late Jonathan Daniels, whose luminary example was part of the larger corporate and professional culture which helped support us all.

Newsrooms are themselves not embattled corporate islands. Clear-headed publishers like Ramon Yarborough, who held sway at the Fayetteville Observer when Charlie brought me on board, knew how to push back when threats, intimidation and sometimes physical attacks intruded on our journalistic efforts.

When I was writing software intended to support what came to be called blogs, it occurred to me that successful bloggers would face almost alone, and only rarely with benefit of legal counsel, the kind of pressure borne with grace by newsroom journalists.

I reasoned that they would adapt -- a process my reading of Darwin said would often be "red in tooth and claw."

It is no criticism of Kathy Sierra to suggest that she might have benefitted from similar support. Some is available, to be sure. Discussion of the issues is vigorous.

For my part, while using tools like Technorati to track the flux of issues on which I consult, I took note of the abuse she was encountering.

She is not a friend, acquaintance or someone with whom I have corresponded professionally.

Even so, I pondered whether and how to raise objection. To prevail, evil only requires that the good remain silent. My own struggles with PTSD have underlined the value unanticipated support can have. Absent facts enough to meet old-fashioned newsroom standards, however, I held my peace.

My consideration of her plight is nonetheless a part of the culture from which she has, at least for the moment, chosen to remove herself. I say "for the moment" because I hope she will return. Some call her a victim of the tall poppy syndrome. Need of lack thereof for corrections and/or clarifications notwithstanding, I would celebrate her refusal to be chopped down.

Of course it is because I came to the Web from pre-Internet daily newspaper journalism that I hear nothing new in the abusive voices raised in the blogosphere. They have the intellectual signature of those anonymous phone calls and letters we fielded while working on a daily newspaper editorial page.

They are a part of American culture which was in full, ugly flower before any of us were born.

Unless we are willing to see that weed take the field, we must till the soil against it.

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technorati tags: clay daniels harassment kathy_sierra newsrooms stand_your_ground threats yarborough