Secrets and lies: LOL attacked by anonymous blogger
April 27, 2008 | Filed Under Opinion and Commentary, Uh-oh | 3 Comments
Wow. I just found a really nasty slam against Livingston Out Loud in general and me personally. The slam, which appeared on February 24 in an anonymous post on the Livingston blog youworkforus, would be considered libel if the blogosphere were not so loose on these matters, or if I had half the inclination to litigate that the likely writer of this slam does. Although I hesitate to give this sort of blog attention, I find its combination of libel and secrecy to be newsworthy.
Here is the post from youworkforus:
Cyberterrorism in “Livingston (Lying) Out Loud”
“This is how the world ends, not with a bang, but with a whimper.” When members of a community can no longer, even in jest, talk honestly with each other without being censored on line by what can only be called a blatant form of intimidation and there is no refutation of falsehoods, then they face their collective loss of Constitutional rights. The battle for freedom is mostly fought, ironically not in the streets of Bagdad, but at the local level and here the kind, honest and fair-minded Livingston residents must not yield to the machinations of a twisted mind like the author of “Livingston Out Loud.” Her ramblings do not represent our community and it is an outrage that she uses our name in her tirades. There may be a reason that author could have been given a golden corporate parachute, lost any local businesses attempted, was on local boards for a very, very short time before finally being rejected, and generally is shunned in the community in spite of her personal endorsement by the local paper and her good friend Vicki Blakeman. Local people call the blog site “Livingston Lying Out Loud” because the blog site contains more half truths than a month of Bill O’Reilley comments on Fox News and the author of those also half lies, apparently has no conscience and certainly no sense of human decency. Generally speaking, Livingston community members have stopped looking at the blog site mostly because of its malicious nature, but apparently the author, lost in what seems to be her narcissistic belief that she runs this community with a poison pen, and lost in intellectual self-message, continues her path of attempting to harm the lives of others with no accountability—thus far. But the people she supports most and from whom she gets the greatest part of her encouragement in her efforts at cyberterrorism, Vicki Blakeman, Steve Caldwell, and Mary Beebe, may well be also harmed by the authors tenor in her writing in the long run. One can only hope that during a George Bush administration, with its Patriot act, its attempt to take away first amendment rights, and its attack on innocent people, that the trickle down effect of his policies to the local level can be reversed by the good intentions of those Montanans who would stand up for basic human rights on either side of the political spectrum.
Who are these people ranting about Livingston Out Loud and making things up about me?
The youworkforus blog carries infrequent and somewhat rambling angry posts about the old East Side School flap with the City Commission. But its author, or authors, are in the closet. The youworkforus “VIEW MY COMPLETE PROFILE” link offers no profile, no author names, and no blog owner: 
I can’t think of s single blog that is written in secret or without some kind of “about” information. Regardless of what you think about the East School issue (I’m neutral because that issue doesn’t interest me), reasonable people would think that this blogger is “attempting to harm the lives of others with no accountability.” However, that February 24 post does suggest that youworkforus is the work of someone well known in Livingston for such attacks and libelous remarks about people who disagree with her. It bears the same hallmarks as those attacks and letters to the editor: half-baked assertions and misrepresentations of fact, the same “enemies list,” similar language (the meaningless expression “intellectual self-message,” critics are “terrorists”), the nonsensical and paranoid reference to newspaper endorsements of private citizens, the misspellings and strange syntax, and the invocation of general human rights and decency in a text full of indecent violations of the rights of others.
The claim that “she [me, the LOL editor] uses our name in her tirades” is more than a bit of a giveaway, too. I cannot have referred to authors whose names I do not know, and I have never used the name of the youworkforus blog itself until today. That must mean that the writer of the February 24 blog post has been mentioned at some time on this blog. I can think of only one person whose name appeared in a post on this blog, and whose style of attack matches that of the February 24 diatribe, who has an interest in the East Side School blog content, and who has attacked me and LOL before.
My guess about the identity of the secret youworkforus blogger is more than plausible, but given that the blog remains unsigned and covert, it will have to remain a guess–”thus far.”
On one thing, my secretive youworkforus blog critic and I do agree, even if LOL practices it and youworkforus does not. People in the blogosphere ought to be accountable. I might be flip, or politically incorrect because I dare to talk about local politics with occasional irreverence. But I have always been accountable, by checking facts, making it clear that I am asserting my opinions or offering satire, identifying myself on LOL’s “About” page, and expressing a willingness to take contributions and comments on the blog.
Nobody enjoys being lied about, even if it comes from people whose writing reflects instability. Rant about me if you will, but keep to the facts, and keep it sane, please.
The facts
In “the Hollow Men,” what T.S, Eliot wrote was, “This is the way the world ends/Not with a bang but a whimper.” The poem bears no relation to the content of the youworkforus post, of course, but the babble in that post suggests that a better epigram from the same poem would have been: “Here we go round the prickly pear/At five o’clock in the morning.”
Cyberterrorism? For heaven’s sake. The definition of cyberterrorism “is the leveraging of a target’s computers and information technology, particularly via the Internet, to cause physical, real-world harm or severe disruption of infrastructure.” I wouldn’t know how to do that even if I wanted to. Terrorism is a much-abused word these days, and applying it to a satire and commentary blog is a perfect example of its misuse. Telling the truth could only seem like terrorism to people who can’t bear to hear the truth in questions or criticism.
False : “the people . . . from whom she [me, the LOL editor] gets the greatest part of her encouragement” are actually total strangers as well as familiar people around town, not elected officials. LOL has never been supported or encouraged by anyone on the “enemies list.” I doubt that those people are even visiting my blog. And I certainly don’t need anyone’s encouragement. I have never required the backing of supporters or a cheerleading section or flag-waving to speak up and speak out when I see an injustice, maliciousness, or bullying, or an audience when I have something funny to say, which is mostly what LOL has been about. No one will be harmed in the long run, the short run, or any other kind of run, by what gets said on LOL. I feel pretty confident that LOL will not contribute to the end of the world.
False (but an interesting clue) : “it is an outrage that she uses our name in her tirades”: Satire, humor, commentary, yes; tirades, no. And no secret blogger names! Do the youworkforus people think that LOL has outed them? Again, if the youworkforus blog authors are unnamed, how can I have used their names or otherwise outed them? Unless, of course, my theory about one of the authors whose name appeared on LOL in a completely different context is correct. Or maybe “our name” is the royal “our” and the secret blogger is singular and The Queen.
False : “There may be a reason that author could have been given a golden corporate parachute, lost any local businesses attempted, was on local boards for a very, very short time before finally being rejected, and generally is shunned in the community”: Here is the most clearly and explicitly libelous material because all of it can be verifiably and absolutely proven false. 1) I voluntarily resigned from Sun Microsystems in November 2003 without a parachute of any kind. 2) I had a retail business in town in 2005 at the same time I was doing some of the design and writing work that I do now. I did not lose my retail business, whatever that means. How does one “lose” a business that carries only paid-for and consignment inventory, rents space, owns its fixtures and furnishings outright, and has no debts? I closed the retail store to work on my more profitable design and writing business, much to the chagrin of the shop’s loyal customers. This business was in demand then and is even more in demand today (just ask the folks on my waiting list) thanks to word of mouth, referrals, and repeat clients. 3) I served on the Yellowstone Gateway Museum Board and the former Alliance Development Corporation Board, and I voluntarily resigned from each to devote more time to my own projects and other volunteer efforts. Ask members or former members of these boards about the value and integrity of my service, my voluntary resignation, or the fact that both boards asked me to reconsider my resignation. I have been invited to be on at least three boards since that time. 4) Without meaning to be boastful, I have to say that I’ve never been shunned anywhere at any time in this community. With the single exception of the youworkforus blogger, I’m regarded with warmth and respect. I’m regularly and routinely asked to take part in community-based activities of all kinds, and I met the rigorous standards and application process of our Big Brothers Big Sisters organization to become a Big Sister. I even get invited to dinner and parties!
False, but almost funny : “Local people call the blog site ‘Livingston Lying Out Loud’”: Oh, neener, neener, neener on you, LOL! I’ve never heard anything remotely like this said about LOL, and I am sure that such a silly reference would have made its way to me if it were as general as the use of “local people” is meant to suggest. I think that the youworkforus blog just didn’t want to say “the secret group of the youworkforus blog’s author(s) call LOL by this silly name.”
False : “Generally speaking, Livingston community members have stopped looking at the blog site “: I measure traffic to the site using the SiteMeter blog counter, and I display the number of visitors on every page. Sitemeter also tracks where visitors are coming from (town/state/country). Visits have maintained a steady average with no decline among hits coming from Livingston. (In contrast, youworkforus does not avail itself of the numerous free blog counters to display the number of their visitors.) Translate “generally speaking” as “in the youworkforus blogger’s extremely distorted view of things.”
False : “apparently the author, lost in what seems to be her narcissistic belief that she runs this community with a poison pen, and lost in intellectual self-message, continues her path of attempting to harm the lives of others with no accountability—thus far”: This is funnier than any post I might write in the Satire category. Except the veiled threat part–”thus far.” All bloggers who sign their posts experience accountability. The secret author of the tirade against me and LOL misunderstands the Web in general, and the blogosphere in particular. Readers have a million choices for getting and verifying information, and the LOL blog allows anyone to comment (unlike youworkforus, which requires a Blogger membership) and does not censor comments except for those obviously generated by spamming software. On another of my blogs, artsmontana.com, I even published a completely inaccurate comment that reads very much like the youworkforus post, even though it was more than a tad wacky and not at all germane to the site. Readers enforce accountability. Putting your name on your posts, or at least somewhere on the blog itself, enforces accountability. Oh, and then there is my own silly penchant for the facts. I might wax satirical, but I always check facts whether I use them as a starting point for satire or use them in opinion/commentary. How different LOL is from the youworkforus blog in this regard. Finally, I have always made it clear when an item is satire or opinion/commentary.
And that bit about running the community with a poison pen all the while being lost in intellectual self-message? Well, that’s just plain funny.
The youworkforus blog is at http://youworkforus.blogspot.com/. Since its inception in August 2007, the youworkforus blog has only 9 posts: 8 in August 2007, and one in February (described above). It’s wicked strange that youworkforus would decide to devote their only post in nearly seven months to a diatribe against a blog that has never offered an opinion about youworkforus or the East Side School.Although Blogger identifies the blog as youworkforus.com on the otherwise empty profile (illustrated above), youworkforus.com appears to be a parked domain that is owned (but not used) by someone in Holliston, Massachusetts. Blogger is a blog hosting platform and hosting service provider. By contrast, LOL is a registered domain, hosted on my own purchased server space, and the blogging platform is WordPress. People can use Blogger without registering a domain name if they don’t mind having blogspot.com in their URLs. In other words, youworkforus.com does not appear to be related to youworkforus.blogspot.com.
I have no idea who “mediamogul” is, but he or she left a comment on youworkforus since I wrote this post. He she/offered his/her take on the secret blogger. Unfortunately, mediamogul is also anonymous, has no profile, and a link to what is a private blog. He/she remains a mystery, too.