It's not what you DO it's what you say that counts
by Miki SaxonA minor political drama being played out in Yakima (where I don’t live), Washington is being covered in the state news section of my newspaper. My reaction as a person is ‘ho hum, business as usual’, while my reaction as a blogger is pure disgust.
In short, here’s what’s happened
The Republican Party endorsed the candidate who won election to the nonpartisan Yakima city council.
An anonymous blogger throughout the campaign repeatedly criticized Bonlender on an Internet site. The blogger also referred to “rumors” that Bonlender had been arrested several times for investigation of drunken driving and that the arrest reports had been covered up by the police, city manager and local newspaper.
The blogger offered no evidence and a review of state records by the Yakima Herald-Republic found nothing to back up the claims.
After the election, the winning candidate admitted that his wife was the anonymous blogger
Now, local Republican Party chairman Jim Keightley says Ensey’s tacit support for his wife’s anonymous blog exposed character flaws that violate precepts valued by Republicans.
“Mr. Ensey’s campaign failed to abide by the values and principles we hold dear; values of honesty, openness, and integrity,” Keightley wrote in a guest commentary that appeared on the Yakima Herald-Republic’s opinion page Tuesday. “We extend a sincere and heartfelt apology to those individuals who, because of our endorsement, voted for Mr. Ensey.”
The losing candidate has sued Ensey’s wife for defamation and the mayor has asked Ensey to resign (he refuses).
Hopefully the blogger will be found guilty. I say this because blogging is a powerful tool that gets stronger by the day and that kind of power needs to be used responsibly.
And what about the stance of the Republican party ‘leadership’? They “continue to endorse Ensey’s conservative rhetoric and regret only that he did not run an “above-board” campaign.”
See folks, rhetoric trumps ethics any day.
November 29th, 2007 at 3:42 pm
Beautiful post Miki. And it highlights the distinction between Anonymous and Private. Our communications may be anonymous but they are not private.
And we should all be wary of taking anything we read in the comments section of a blog too seriously.
I say as I comment somewhat anonymously.
Not to bring too high a tone to this discussion, but there is a line in a wonderful poem by Adrienne Rich entitled North American Time:
Everything we write
will be used against us
or against those we love.
These are the terms,
take them or leave them.
and then further on in the poem:
It doesn’t matter what you think.
Words are found responsible
all you can do is choose them
or choose
to remain silent. Or, you never had a choice,
which is why the words that do stand
are responsible
and this is verbal privilege
It’s a beautiful poem. And it addresses issues we are coming up against rapidly in the world of instant and anonymous but never private communication.
November 29th, 2007 at 5:33 pm
What you say is true, but the wife’s blog was never meant to be private, it was a campaign tool.
What got to me was that although the tactics were deplored, Ensey himself is acceptable to the GOP in Yakima because his ideology is correct, even thought he obviously doesn’t practice it.
To me that says the end justifies any means available.