I Speak of Dreams

When Is It Permissible To Publish A Private Person's Email? What's the Most Efficient Way to Fight Smears?

Tim Russo (Blogger Interrupted) and I disagree on whether a private individual's email should be posted, without the individual's consent, on a blog. 

Russo twice interviewed a woman who previously appeared in a brief television film clip about Ohioans' views on Obama, and subsequently published her email.  I expressed reservations, which prompted a subsequent post from Russo, in which he wrote: 

Such hatemongers, like Joy, thrive in an environment where they get to spread their lies without fear of being exposed as liars.  That’s why she talked to Channel 19.  She, like most Americans, is used to media being a one way conversation, in which you can spout your crap with complete certainty that it won’t come back at you... .

Not anymore.

And then Russo repeats the woman's email address and encourages his readers to "write to Joy and continue to correct her lies".  He further plans to publish all recipients of the chain emails.  And thus I have two problems with his position on publishing email addresses.

To recap:

1. Russo's publishing a woman's email, which she gave him in the course of an interview, and encouraging his readers to write her.  My problem with that?  She didn't email him, but repeated her thoughts on a video interview that he sought out.
2. Russo, and his colleague Eric Vessels of Plunderbund, are publishing not only the senders of smear emails, but the recipients, too. My problem with that?  Russo and Vessels are painting all the recipients as equally complicit in spreading the smears.  If I had a dollar for all the loony emails I've received (on autism, on political issues far and wide, on dodgy urban myths) -- well, I'd be rich.  But I can't think of one I've agreed with.

What do you think?  When is it ethically correct to broadcast a person's private information?  Is it different when someone is circulating untruths and lies? 

The whole story came about as a way of fighting smears.  So my question is, what's the best way to fight smears? 

Below the fold, the back story.

Bloggers: Boycott The Associated Press? -- Updated

The Associated Press (AP) is setting "clear standards" for how bloggers can use content developed and published by AP--a one-sided effort to redefine "fair use".  Michael Arrington's Techcrunch reply: he is banning AP stories.  Cory Doctorow explains how bad it is at BoingBoing  At Making Light, Patrick Nielsen Hayden says, " Welcome to a world in which you won’t be able to effectively criticize the press" and "it is worse than merely foolish".  Mike Masnick at Techdirt has a response from AP.  Jeff Jarvis at BuzzMachine has a counter-proposal for AP: the link ethic.

Helen Popkin says....wait for developments.  On Thursday.

I'll have to think about this one.

Update: Making Light--AP to Negotiate With the sham "Media Bloggers Association"

Update #2 -- It is Thursday.  Cory Doctorow at Boing Boing writes: Who are the "Media Bloggers Association" and what gives them to right to negotiate copyright with the Associated Press? and Media Bloggers Association -- who they are (and they aren't "representing blogs" to the Associated Press).  On the other hand, Liza at Culture Kitchen gives a timeline of the dispute, and writes, "We need to keep the focus on Rogers Cadenhead" (the publisher of the Drudge Retort) and fair use, not dumping on the  MBA

Question: Did the Media Bloggers Association do anything to help Kathleen Seidel? No, despite the stated mission of Protecting members by defending the rights of bloggers and citizen journalists generally, providing first-line legal advice to members.

There's a hitch, though: you have be be a member, and according to John L.,

I like how the MBA site's "Membership" link tells you that sure, we've got members, but we're currently not taking any new ones (haven't, in fact, for nearly a year now) while trying to automate the approval process.

What a load of tripe; there are thousands of blogs that you can subscribe to electronically, and this guy's saying it's taking him a YEAR to figure out how to do it?

For that matter, where's the list of members? Could it be the list is so pitifully small that he's embarrassed to show it? Zero is a pitifully small number too...

 

Registered for BlogHer 08; One Session Not to Miss

I registered for BlogHer 08 in San Francisco, July 18-20, but I still don't know if I can attend....it usually has conflicted with Jumper Girl's events in Pebble Beach.  Maybe I'll be able to make one day.  Here's a partial list of attendees.

The session not to miss:

Saturday afternoon, from 1:45 to 3:00 pm Special Needs Mommyblogging, with my friends Squid Rosenberg and Kristina Chew, and bloggers I read (Vicki Forman) and bloggers new to me (Jennifer Graf Groneberg and Susan Etlinger)

Full agenda here.

 

Introducing Epi-Wonk -- Impressive New Blogger

Here is how Epi Wonk introduces...him/her self.

Epi Wonk ... has a Ph.D. in epidemiology from an Ivy League university. .... I worked for more than 30 years as an epidemiology professor in medical academia and schools of public health, and in the senior biomedical research service at the Centers for Disease for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). During my career I have been the editor of two epidemiology journals and one more general biomedical journal. I am now retired.

Epi Wonk’s blogs will concentrate more than anything else on reporting medical news, especially epidemiological studies, in a clear manner. Epi Wonk will show that mainstream news reporting of epidemiological studies is often misleading.

Epi Wonk's been blogging for a whole month, and doesn't pull punches.  Here's a link to Epi Wonk's posts on autism.

Here are direct links to some recent articles: 

• THERE IS NO AUTISM EPIDEMIC: It is an Artifact
• Autism and Diagnostic Substitution
• New Study on Thimerosal and Neurodevelopmental Disorders: I. Scientific Fraud or Just Playing with Data?
• New Study on Thimerosal and Neurodevelopmental Disorders: II. What Happened to Control for Confounding?

Elderblogger Survey Results are Up

Start with Part 1

The Elderblogger Survey - Part 2
The Elderblogger Survey - Part 3
The Elderblogger Survey - Part 4
The Elderblogger Survey - Part 5

All are of course at  Ronni Bennett's Time Goes By

I Hate Yahoo. I Hate the Former SBC Global. Customer Service Sucks.

I've been trying to get back to where I was on April 28--when my capacity to send email was just fine, thank you-- all day.  Lies.  Phone trees that go nowhere. 

Hey, I've been an SBC Global/AT&T customer since 1999, when I moved in here.  I didn't change anything because...well, it was working well enough, and I could blow off a couple of bucks a month.  Plus I pay for two AT&T cell phones.

For that, I'm hosed.

I know what my hourly consultant rate is.  So far, AT&T owes me a couple of months' worth of cell/landline service.

It is the circular stair of torture.

And I can tell you one thing -- AT& T isn't getting my internet business when I move to the new house.  Not that it will mean anything to them.

45 minutes ago I was "number 25 in the cue".  I gather from the folks at Nationwide that AT&T is having some kind of server problem.   The first fella at Nationwide wanted to know why I didn't just access my email on the web. Well, d'oh that requires a connection, now dunnit?  Back in the dark ages, four years ago, I spent a bunch of time with my laptop, without a connection.  I'd save up my on-harddrive email correspondence for then, because I could read, think, and compose answers.

Are You Over 50? Do You Blog? Do You Read Blogs? Take the Survey!

I am over 50, and I blog!  Elderbloggers are defined as those of at least 50 years of age.  Ronni Bennett at Time Goes By is asking:

The goal is to find out what elderbloggers are like, how we may be similar and how we are different, how we relate to technology, how we came to be bloggers or blog readers, how we feel about it and what our demographics are.

There are 57 questions, many of which are required so that there is the largest possible population from which to draw conclusions. They are straightforward questions, mostly multiple-choice, and it shouldn’t take longer than about 15 minutes to complete.

NOTA BENE: This survey is for elderbloggers and elder blog readers who do not keep blogs. Readers and commenters are as important as bloggers to the elderblogging community and help equally to make it as lively and compelling as it is.

Click this link to take the survey.

Please help publicize this survey by posting about it.
 

Since All The Cool Kids Are Doing It: Dawkins Raps, and the Cussometer

We are scientists and much, much smarter than you, or Dickie D raps.  With backup by PZ and moves from Big Chuck D.

I try to keep the language clean around here.  I guess I'm doing OK:

Created by OnePlusYou - Free Online Dating

Most of the cussing is in the comments, I think.

Orac made me do it.

Lunch at a Happy House

You know how when you walk into somebody's house, you can sometimes feel happiness and contentment, or conversely, stress and strife?

I drove over to the East Bay Thursday afternoon to visit with Kristina Chew of Autism Vox, normally of the East Coast, but here with Charlie & husband Jim to visit with her family.  Kristina & I have been blog pals for...[checking for data, but not easily available]--more that a couple of years, anyway, but have never met in the flesh before.   You wouldn't have known it by the way we talked.

That's a happy house -- Charlie is a well-loved boy. 

Kristina's mom had roasted vegetables, which were delicious, and I shared a piece of gluten-free bread with Charlie. 

Kristina & I talked briefly about the Autism and Advocacy: Witness and Hope conference that Jim organized at Fordham. I wonder if it is time for a West Coast version, and something that my new University might be interested in?  Too soon to tell, but something for me to keep in my mind.

Peace to You and Yours

Peace with me, Peace before me, Peace behind me,

Peace in me, Peace beneath me, Peace above me,

Peace on my right, Peace on my left,

Peace when I lie down, Peace when I sit down, Peace when I arise,

Peace in the heart of every person who thinks of me,

Peace in the mouth of everyone who speaks of me,

Peace in every eye that sees me,

Peace in every ear that hears me.

Peace with you, Peace before you, Peace behind you,

Peace in you, Peace beneath you, Peace above you,

Peace on your right, Peace on your left,

Peace when you lie down, Peace when you sit down, Peace when you arise,

Peace in the heart of every person who thinks of you,

Peace in the mouth of everyone who speaks of you,

Peace in every eye that sees you,

Peace in every ear that hears you.

Readers familiar with Christian writing will recognize this as an adaptation of  the prayer and hymn known as St. Patrick's Breastplate.  However, in my youth, I read a great deal of North American ethnography and these sentiments have been also expressed there.  I imagine it is a fairly universal expression.