I haven’t said much about the Don Imus situation because, frankly, I saw the market working as it should. Imus made a stupid comment and paid for it by losing his job.
The Washington Post had an article yesterday about what’s going on with women in the blogsphere. I’ve been peripherally aware of some of this stuff, mainly because Alice at GOTV has been all over it.
So what do those two situations have in common? Thoughtful Miami Herald columnist Leonard Pitts laid it out in an article that was reprinted in today’s Virginian Pilot.
You might want to take notes, because I’m about to explain The Rules.
[…]
You ready? You got your notepad? OK, here are The Rules. Well, actually, there’s just the one: Don’t be a bully.
That’s it. That’s all there is to it.
I’ve been around the internet for a long time. For whatever reason, folks feel powerful when they sit down – anonymously, usually – behind a computer keyboard. They say things that they would never say to someone face-to-face. The crowd mentality kicks in and pretty soon you have some serious bashing going on. The fact that this spills over into the MSM – witness Imus and shock jocks JV and Elvis mentioned in the Pitts article – is not unexpected. A steady diet of behavior generally unacceptable in public results in folks becoming desensitized to it, much the same as being desensitized to violence. And we all know how that’s playing out.
In truth, the real Golden Rule is always applicable. Just do unto others as you would have them do unto you.
It doesn’t get any easier than that.
VIVIAN J. PAIGE | All Politics is Local 
Amen!
Judging by the discussion at RK, I might just as well not have bothered.
I would say that in addition to not being a bully, don’t tolerate them on your blog.
Alice – yes it matters enormously that you bothered. And thank you.
I saw the discussion to which you are referring (I think), and decided that participating was an utter waste of time.
It makes no sense to me – the same folks who defend their preferred candidates from the most trivial slight – behaving like they are fragile flowers or something – think women should toughen up in the face of sexually twisted death threats. It’s sickening really. But not surprising.