How bloggers make some people see red
Via the Blog Herald, comes this story of an American town Mayor losing his rag with a local blogger for requesting some information about the placement of a playground in a park.
Mayor James D Kalb of Portsmouth, Ohio (population 20,909) gave blogger Robert Forrey what he wanted in terms of info, but also included the following in his email:
“….I think that you’re a worthless piece of sh*t and I wouldn’t p**s on you if you were on my fire (my opinion). You’re a poor, lonely, jealous, old man with aspirations of being a writer.
“You write your lies and uneducated opinions on people and issues from behind the safety of your slobber stained keyboard with the hope that somebody will read them (they are now!) that doesn’t know you and believe that you’re more than the pitiful, broke-down, lizard looking thing that you are, in my opinion.
“Get a life old man. On second thought, don’t bother………………”
Wow…I’m sure Mayor James D Kalb is quite a character. However, I’m not sure he’d respond like this to anyone he considers a ‘real’ journalist and so this little episode of a blog freak-out really points to three themes:
1 – A lot of people deep down wish the social sphere online would just vanish. My own most memorable experience of this was from a marketer (not one of my clients I hasten to add!) who started yelling in a meeting that people who are on Twitter are sad and should venture out into the fresh air a bit more (I thought it best not to talk about the iPhone…)
It was quite an astounding outburst but on reflection what prompted it was that I’d hit a raw nerve – she’d been doing her job a certain way for many years after all.
2 – Local bloggers are increasingly doing the job of local journalists, especially with local media rapidly vanishing. The placement of a playground is quite a mundane local issue, and it’s a local blogger who is looking into it
3 – Linking back to David Armano’s seminal influence ripples diagram (one I pull out again and again to make this point), even small-time bloggers have potentially a lot of influence. Their posts are permanent thanks to search, and case in point, what they publish has the potential to create far bigger waves.
Image – Tambako the Jaguar
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I keep seeing this theme of people upset with bloggers ("You're not an expert" etc.). It's funny that the democratization of creating content gets people in such knots.
Last night I ran across http://www.xtranormal.com, a new web-based movie animation tool that lets users drag-and-drop to create films. You simply type in a script. I posted it on Twitter and an art-type, whom I won't name, responded that he thought, great, yet another tool to let unskilled unwashed masses create junk. I found that retort sad.
It's very cool that people are expressing themselves and that the power of content has shifted from ivory towers to the masses. As with any power shift, this is very threatening … to journalists, ad agencies, and politicians who once held the keys of control. They may complain that the masses are not as skilled. They may be right. But at least the masses are using their talents in new ways, and a lot of good will come from that.
To the poor blogger who ticked off the mayor, all I can say is, when someone accuses you of not being an expert — you've succeeded in striking a nerve.