Tucson Citizen reports today that heated commentary on the political blog Protein Wisdom has lead to the resignation of a University of Arizona professor. Deborah Frisch, 44-year-old adjunct instructor of four years at UA made questionable comments on the blog by Colorado resident Jeff Goldstein that many believe were out of context and disturbing. The storm of response and reaction did not end with her resignation. See citizen journalism and open thought in action, as readers, including Goldstein, comment on the story right on the TC’s web site.
In a world where main stream/traditional media and blogging are mixing together more and more, we want to ask the bloggers out there, when can a poster/commenter go too far? And, should a blogger be accountable for comments made on his/her site?
On some level I think that this is a very bad precedent. I mean, in the larger context of the event, this professor is being punished for trangressions that do not exactly pertain to her job, though from the comment on that article from the owner of Protein Wisdom, her transgressions were far worse than they are being made out to be.
But I also note that the article stated: “UA has on-campus restrictions on blogging but “does not control any speech of its employees that occur as a private citizen,”
I’ve been down in that trench before on some political blog, and it does get really ugly and mean and things escalate in the heat of the moment, and you do say a few things that in the cold light of day, you would have never said in your normal correspondences. Of course, if someone is really making themselves unwelcome at your blog, you do have the right to shut that person out, because it isn’t a First Amendment issue so much as it is your intellectual home and you do reserve the right to boot someone to the curb if they are wiping their dirty feet on your rugs.
I just don’t like the idea of someone losing their job because of something stupid but not illegal, that they said on a blog.
I always welcome comments on my blog, but I am not a big fan of “Anonymous.” He…she…umm…It is really annoying because Anonymous is hard to find and hold accountable. However, other commenters like “Abner,” “Sue,” “Ari,” and “Cleopatra” are great since I have some idea of who they are.
Basically, a comment from someone who identifies themselves can be a lot more nasty than an anonymous commenter because the person with a name can take responsibility for what they have written.