Blogher's Lisa Stone has a strong post that both supports Kathy--and comes out against hate speech--and shares her discussions with Jeanean Sessums, whom Kathy calls out--but who says she did not write abusive or threatening posts.
Lisa writes: "For the record, I deeply disagree with the premise of sites like meankids.org and others, and am surprised by the women and men who recommended and linked them from the beginning. To me, these sites are the FuckedCompany.com of the blogosphere, a place where bitter cowards who don't have the courage to own their snark hide and spit."
Susan sez: Lisa's post is both spot on and diplomatic in articulating firm beliefs and qualifying Jeaneane's postion, but I have to say I find it hard to condone hate speech and hateful behavior in any form.
IMHO, the bloggers I know who got involved in posting on these sites were about as mean-spirited and low as the Valleywag writer who went looking in Craig's list for personals posts from a local tech developer, found them, and *outed* the guy.
As Liz Lawley writes: "Why does it not surprise me that a site set up specifically to foster online bullying would eventually lead to this kind of awful result?"
People, there's an easy gut check on your own behavior:
- Would you want someone to repeated the same behaviors and focus them on you?
- If the answer is no, and you're not an asshole, why go there?
This is blogging's own Stanford Prison Experiment and and it's both humbling--and it sucks.
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